The Judengasse

The newly established street was located outside the first city wall (Staufen Wall) in the east of the city, where the Jewish cemetery had already been located since the 13th century, and ran in an arc from the Konstablerwache almost to the river Main. It was about 330 meters long, three to four meters wide and had three city gates. At night and on all Christian holidays, including Sunday, these gates remained closed, with only few exceptions. While at the beginning, only about 15 to 20 families lived here, in the 18th century there were already more than 3,000 people. This made Frankfurt’s Judengasse one of the most densely populated places in Europe. Numerous visitors remarked on the overcrowded conditions and the poverty that prevailed there. Nevertheless, from the 16th century onwards, Frankfurt’s Judengasse was home to the largest and most important Jewish community in the German-speaking world. It was also the only remaining community in a major German city for a long time.

The Frankfurt Judengasse was a city within the city. While the religious texts were read in Hebrew, people spoke Yiddish among themselves. The administration, which was run by the so-called builders and coffer masters, was oligarchic, following the example of the council system of the city of Frankfurt. Internal Jewish affairs were the sole responsibility of the Jewish community. They were responsible for the lower courts and the execution of judgements. They were also allowed to impose fines or even to expel members of the community who were not from Frankfurt.

Religious life in the ghetto was dominated by the three synagogues and nine yeshivot. Important rabbis lived and taught here. However, the chief rabbi of the city of Frankfurt always had to be recruited from outside the city. This was to ensure that he could face the community impartially and that none of the prominent families gained too much power by occupying this high office.

During the day, when the gates were open, there was a constant coming and going in the Judengasse. Christian craftsmen worked here and many residents of Frankfurt’s Judengasse maintained small stores on the ground floor of their houses, attracting both Jewish and Christian customers. At the same time, Jewish merchants were out and about in the city, hawking their wares or, for instance, even playing cards in a Christian tavern.

The Frankfurt city council always refused to expand the ghetto (except for a warehouse built outside the southern end in 1735) and also repeatedly interfered with construction activity within the street. After it had burned down completely in 1711 and again partially in 1721, reconstruction was pushed forward with great pressure in each case, as Jews should not be suffered not to lodge in other parts of the city any longer than absolutely necessary. In the course of the wars triggered by the French Revolution, Frankfurt was besieged and occupied by French troops. The shelling of the city also hit the northern part of the ghetto. The Judengasse had thus been destroyed from the outside and the inhabitants were now allowed to settle in the Christian part of the city as well. An attempt by the city administration to reimpose the ghetto restrictions after the defeat of Napoleon and the end of the French occupation was unsuccessful and the restrictions finally fell.

Subsequently, the former Judengasse became visibly impoverished and was demolished in two phases at the end of the 19th century. Most of the remaining population now moved to nearby houses in the Ostend. At the southern end of the former ghetto, which was named Börneplatz in 1885, a new synagogue was inaugurated in 1882. After 1945, the area remained unattended. It was used as a parking lot, a gas station and a wholesale flower market until the municipal utility company wanted to build its new administrative headquarters there in the 1980s. When construction work unearthed archaeological evidence of both the Börneplatz synagogue, destroyed by the Nazis, and the older Judengasse, a nationwide dispute began over what to do with these significant finds. Of the original 195 houses, five foundations remained. These are the houses Warmes Bad, Steinernes Haus, Weißer Widder, Roter Widder and Sperber. The foundations can be visited today. In the Museum Judengasse one can thus learn about everyday life, living situation and religious customs of the Jewish population.