House Weißer Schwan and Riese

Width at front: c. 6.3 metres

The Weißer Schwan und Riese originally consisted of two buildings. Around 1500 the Schwan was built first as a narrow house. In 1525 the Weißer Riese was then built on the site as housing for butchers. In 1549 the Schwan was extended to make a larger house and in 1565 it was merged with the Riese to form a house with the double name Weißer Schwan und Riese. The first occupants of the house were members of the Wohl family, an old Lower Rhine family which migrated to Frankfurt in 1499, and of the Schwarzschild family. Both families followed the butcher's trade. One of the first occupants of the Schwan, Avraham from Schwabach, seems to have lost his reason shortly before his death in 1564, as the Frankfurt historian Fritz Ettlinger notes. Later occupants included a schoolmaster and a family operating a moneylending and moneychanging business. After the fire in the Judengasse in 1711 the house was rebuilt in 1714 along with a summerhouse by Michael Hertz Stern as one of the largest and most beautiful houses in the Judengasse. This was later the site of the foundation named after Löb Elias Reiß, who died in 1778, and of a synagogue. In 1883 the city took over the house for demolition (E001).