Medieval Synagogue of Nuremberg

The Jewish community

Jews are first mentioned in Nuremberg in 1182, and a report of 1146 says Jewish families fleeing the Rhineland found refuge there. The Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte dates continuous settlement to the first half of the thirteenth century and places the Jewish quarter near today's Hauptmarkt from 1288. The Jews lived as imperial chamber serfs under the protection of the king. The community's Memorbuch, begun in 1296 by Isaac ben Samuel, recorded its dead and was later edited by Siegmund Salfeld. Nuremberg was a centre of learning: the Jewish Encyclopedia lists among its rabbis before 1349 Jehiel ben Menahem ha-Kohen, Abraham ha-Kohen of Frankfurt and Mordechai ben Hillel, all killed in 1298, Meir ben Uri, who died in 1345, and Süssmann and Gershom at the time of the Black Death. The Rintfleisch massacre of 1298 is given 628, 698 or 728 victims depending on the source. In 1347 Charles IV imposed a special tax on the community, and in the struggle over the throne the Jews were said to have sided with the patricians against Charles's rival Günther of Schwarzburg.

Architecture and design

Almost nothing is known of the building's appearance. The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 describes the complex torn down for the Marienkirche as two one-storey buildings surrounded by a wall, one of which served as the rabbi's dwelling. The Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte notes that the name of the master builder is not recorded; the Memorbuch says only that he died shortly after the synagogue was finished. The only archaeological evidence is a pier foundation of the synagogue found during an excavation inside the Frauenkirche in 1986, which shows that the hall had at least one internal pier and that it lay under the present church. No plan, measurement or contemporary picture survives. An engraving published in 1755 that claims to show the synagogue is described by the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte as historically incorrect, and it is not used here. Style, size, seating capacity and the arrangement of the interior are unknown.

Life inside the synagogue

The synagogue was consecrated on 15 November 1296, and the community's Memorbuch was begun in the same year by Isaac ben Samuel. Memorbücher of this kind were read aloud in the synagogue, so the names of those killed in 1298 and 1349 were recited here and in the later synagogue. The Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte names a woman prayer leader, Richenza, who led the women in prayer and was killed in 1298, together with the poet Abraham ben Joseph. Mordechai ben Hillel, whose legal compendium known as the Mordechai is still widely cited, taught in the community until his death in 1298. The building also served a scholarly community whose rabbis are listed in the Jewish Encyclopedia, among them Meir ben Uri, who died in 1345. Beyond this, nothing specific is recorded about services, the ark, the women's section or the communal institutions housed in or beside the building, apart from the rabbi's dwelling within the walled compound.

Destruction

The destruction was planned before the killing. In 1349 Charles IV, who had reinstated the city council that a craftsmen's revolt had deposed, issued a market charter that gave the council full control of the Jewish quarter. The Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte quotes its order that 'daz man aus der judenschul sol machen eine kirche mit Sant marien ere', that the synagogue be made into a church in honour of Saint Mary. Charles IV promised the Jews' property to the burgrave of Nuremberg and the bishop of Bamberg, and afterwards exonerated the council. With the plague and the well-poisoning accusation as pretext, the community was first expropriated by its protectors and then massacred between 5 and 7 December 1349. The Memorbuch speaks of martyrs who were struck down and burned in Nuremberg and lists 562 names; other accounts give about 560 or about 570. A walking-tour source says the quarter was burned by the citizens of Nuremberg with the emperor's permission. The synagogue was then demolished, and the Frauenkirche was built on the site from 1352.

The community’s fate

Those Jews who were not killed in December 1349 fled or were expelled. The exile was short. On 2 May 1352 Vischlein, Semelin and Jacob asked to be received again as citizens, and on 26 May 1352 an imperial edict allowed Jews to settle in the city; a contract of that year confined them to a new quarter at the present Judengasse, and their claims on Christian debtors were cancelled. A second synagogue was built at the Salzmarkt, at today's Wunderburggasse, at some date between 1350 and 1381. By 1382 a tax list counted more than 500 Jews, and the community again produced noted scholars, among them Jacob Weil and Jacob Pollack. In 1498 Maximilian I allowed the city to expel its Jews; they left in 1499, the houses and synagogue were handed to the council on 20 February 1499 and bought by the city, and the cemetery was destroyed, its stones reused in building. Jews did not live in Nuremberg again until the nineteenth century.

The site today

The site is occupied by the Frauenkirche, the Gothic church on the east side of Nuremberg's Hauptmarkt, built from 1352 and consecrated in 1358 on the order of Charles IV; its architect is often said to be Peter Parler, which cannot be proved. The church was damaged by bombing in the Second World War and has since been restored. Nothing of the synagogue is visible. A pier foundation found under the church floor in 1986 is the only known remain. The market squares laid out over the demolished Jewish quarter, the Hauptmarkt and the Obstmarkt, are still the city's main open spaces and hold the Christkindlesmarkt. A Star of David with the date 1349 in the choir floor recalls the synagogue.

Notable names