--- title: "Jewish Frankfurt" url: "https://www.visitfrankfurt.travel/en/experience/discover/jewish-frankfurt" language: "en" breadcrumb: "Root > Home > Experience > Discover > Jewish Frankfurt" --- Jewish Frankfurt ================ The Jewish community - - - - - - Jewish Culture Museums, educational institutions and more Frankfurt is a centrepiece of Jewish life in Germany. Since the Middle Ages, the presence and influence of Jewish communities in Frankfurt has been palpable. From historical sites such as the Old Jewish Cemetery and the West End Synagogue to the modern Jewish Museum, the city tells stories of challenges, achievements and the deep roots of Jewish traditions. Today's Jewish Frankfurt pulsates with life and diversity. Cultural events, educational programmes and festivals invite visitors to discover the vibrant local Jewish culture. These encounters not only offer insights into a rich history, but also promote dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions. An exploration of Jewish Frankfurt promises to be an enriching journey into a world full of tradition, resilience and creativity. Be inspired by the past and present of Jewish life in Frankfurt and discover the many facets of this unique culture. > "When someone builds a home, it means they want to stay." Salomon Korn Frankfurt Jews A selection of well-known personalities - Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812)The progenitor of the Rothschild family was born in Frankfurt's Judengasse. His five sons ensured the family's financial rise. In the 19th century, they established branches of their bank in the world's most important metropolises. Mayer Amschel (1773-1855) was elevated to the nobility by Franz I of Austria. The last head of the Frankfurt house was Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild, who died in 1901. Frankfurt owes numerous foundations to the family, such as the Clementine Children's Hospital and the Carolinum. - Ludwig Börne (1786-1837)Ludwig Börne was another important Frankfurt Jew. Born Löb Baruch in Frankfurt on 24 May 1786, he grew up under the most adverse circumstances in the Frankfurt ghetto. Thanks to the emancipation of Jews, however, he was allowed to study, became a civil servant and later a journalist and freelance writer. In 1830, he moved to Paris, where he became a pioneer and spokesman for the "petty-bourgeois revolutionary democrats". - Leopold Sonnemann (1831-1909)Leopold Sonnemann was a merchant, banker, publisher and politician. He soon converted his father's textile business into a bank. The founder of the later "Frankfurter Zeitung" was a member of the labour movement and the Frankfurt city parliament for 28 years. The name of the co-founder of Frankfurter Volksbank is also associated with modern city services, from water to electricity supply, as well as with the founding of Frankfurt Zoo. The newspaper existed until 1943 and was soon thereafter continued as the Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ). - Georg Speyer (1835–1902)Georg Speyer was the son of the Frankfurt banker, Layard Speyer. Initially destined for a commercial career after his training at the Philanthropin, he was soon at home in the banking world of Europe. In addition to his professional activities, Speyer was involved in many of Frankfurt's social, artistic and scientific endeavours. Together with his wife, Franziska, he supported the “Studienstiftung” (Student Foundation), which later formed the basis for Frankfurt's university. Without the Speyers' financial commitment, Paul Ehrlich's work here would not have been possible. Other parts of his fortune went to various funds, but also to the Senckenberg Research Society. The university foundation named after the Speyers still exists today. - Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915)From 1899, Paul Ehrlich was head of the Royal Institute for Experimental Therapy in Frankfurt, where he made a significant contribution to chemotherapy. He developed the first effective treatment for syphilis and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine together with Prof Metchnikoff in 1908. The Paul Ehrlich Prize, which is awarded annually in Frankfurt, honours this deserving scientist. - Bertha von Pappenheim (1859-1936)Bertha von Pappenheim was born in Vienna as the third daughter of a Jewish Orthodox grain merchant. As there was no Jewish girls' school in Vienna, she attended a private Catholic school. As a result, she was influenced by different religious and bourgeois values. In 1888, she moved to Frankfurt, the hometown of her mother, who came from the long-established Frankfurt Goldschmidt family. She became known in Freud's studies on hysteria, as she suffered from a mental illness. She was one of the most important players in the women's movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was a member of the Jewish Women's Association and campaigned for women's rights in the Jewish community. She was also committed to the welfare of Jewish orphans. As an author, she wrote and published children's stories, novellas, short stories, plays and poems. For further information on her life and work, visit: - Rabbi von Stolin (1869-1921)Rabbi von Stolin was born Israel Perlow and was the rabbi of a small town in Russia. His grave is located in the cemetery of the Israeli religious community in the Old Jewish Cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße. It has become a place of pilgrimage for pious Jews from all over the world. They wear kaftans and have the rarely seen pajes, the temple curls. These strictly orthodox Jews are called "Hasidim", the pious. Hasidism, the youngest and most popular religious-mystical movement, originated in the Ukraine in the middle of the 18th century. According to Hasidic belief, the "Wunterrabbi" was one of the 36 chosen ones who were especially honoured because of their wisdom. - Erich Fromm (1900 – 1980)Erich Fromm was the son of an orthodox Jewish Frankfurt wine merchant. He was co-founder of the South German Institute for Psychoanalysis in Frankfurt (1929) and emigrated to the USA in 1934. His most important works are "The Art of Loving" (1956), "Analytical Social Psychology and Social Theory" (1970), "Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" (1973), "To Have or to Be" (1976), and "Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalysis, Greatness and Limits" (1980). - Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-1969)Theodor Adorno was one of the world's most famous Frankfurt Jews. The philosopher, sociologist and musicologist had a major influence on the student movement of the 1970s. Born in Frankfurt, he took up a teaching post in Oxford after emigrating, returned to Frankfurt in 1949 and became director of the Institute for Social Research together with Max Horkheimer. - Anne Frank (1929-1945)Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt to Jewish parents. The family emigrated to the Netherlands in 1933. In July 1942, she had to go into hiding and lived in a secret annexe of a house in Amsterdam. It was here that Anne Frank's diary entries, which were later translated and published in 60 different languages, were written. In 1944, the family was betrayed and deported. Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Her father was the only survivor of the family. Old Jewish Cemetery Battonnstraße and Rat-Beil-Straße The two historic Jewish cemeteries in Frankfurt offer an impressive insight into over 700 years of Jewish history. The Old Jewish Cemetery on Battonnstraße is one of the oldest preserved Jewish cemeteries north of the Alps. Here you will find gravestones from the Middle Ages and traces of a centuries-old Jewish community – a quiet place of remembrance in the middle of the city center, close to the Judengasse Museum and the Neuer Börneplatz memorial site. With the growth of the city in the 19th century, the Old Jewish Cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße was established, which served as the central burial site until 1928. The park-like grounds with historic trees and numerous gravesites of important Frankfurt personalities are now a protected cultural monument and a special place to pause and reflect. Both cemeteries are open to visitors under certain conditions – please note the respective visiting regulations. New Jewish Cemetery The New Jewish Cemetery on Eckenheimer Landstraße was opened in the late 1920s and remains the central burial site for Frankfurt's Jewish community to this day. It borders the Main Cemetery and continues to be actively used. As you stroll through the extensive grounds, you can feel the connection between past and present: historic graves, modern burial grounds, and memorial sites lie side by side here. The cemetery wall also commemorates the city's destroyed synagogues, making the site an important testimony to Jewish history and remembrance culture. The cemetery is open to visitors, subject to religious rules. - - - - Jewish memorials Monuments, memorials, memorial steles, stumbling blocks Throughout the city, you will find places of remembrance that bring Frankfurt's Jewish history to life and tell the stories of people who shaped this city. Memorials, monuments, stumbling stones, and commemorative signs invite you to pause, reflect, and discover the past in today's cityscape. They commemorate the diversity of Jewish life and outstanding personalities – but also the persecution, expulsion, and destruction of Jewish communities under National Socialism. Frankfurt is thus sending a visible signal for a culture of remembrance, dialogue, and responsibility. Judaism in Frankfurt today Experience the Jewish community Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt under a bright blue sky. Westend Synagogue The synagogue on Freiherr-vom-Stein-Straße, which was built between 1908 and 1910, is a cultural and historical speciality. The mighty dome is striking and visible from afar. The pediment on the entrance side shows a medallion with a lion holding a shield with a Star of David under its paw. The interior of the is decorated with rich ornamentation in the colours of blue and yellow gold. The room for the church service offers space for 1,000 worshippers. It is adjoined by various administration rooms, flats, a prayer room and a prayer parlour, which is also used as a teaching hall. The synagogue is one of the few places of worship to survive after the war, even though it was largely burnt down. It was rebuilt in 1950 and restored in 1994. It is therefore not only a religious centre, but also a memorial. Community centres Frankfurt's Jewish community was re-established in July 1945. It was made up of many Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe. Today, the in Frankfurt has more than 7,000 members and is the second-largest in Germany after Berlin. The Jewish Museum Frankfurt, the Fritz Bauer Institute for research into the effects of the Holocaust, the important Judaica collection in the City and University Library and the Jewish Community of Frankfurt am Main are all important parts of Jewish life and culture in the city. Today's Jewish community is based in the West End. The was opened in 1986. It includes kindergartens, the Isaak Emil Lichtigfeld School including a youth centre, social services, a senior citizens' club and a kosher restaurant, called “Sohar”. A centre for the elderly is located in the Bornheim district. The Frankfurt sports club, TuS Makkabi, is active in Frankfurt's sporting life, while the WIZO women's organisation and the women's association meet on regular basis. Jewish history A chronicle from the 12th century onwards A wall with plaques bearing the names of deported and murdered Jewish people, each with memorial stones. There is documentary evidence of a Jewish population in Frankfurt as early as **1150**. Their settlement, which was under imperial protection, was located in the immediate vicinity of today's cathedral. However, even the privilege of Emperor Frederick II could not prevent the first Frankfurt pogrom in **1241**. The next major clashes took place in **1349**, when Jews were blamed for the plague. When the cathedral caught fire, the rumour was spread that Jews had set it on fire, once again unleashing popular anger. More than 200 Jews were murdered. In **1462**, the Jews were forced to live in a ghetto on the outskirts of the city. Around 2,200 people lived there for the next 350 years, crammed into around 160 houses along the 330-metre-long city wall. The lives of the inhabitants were restricted by ordinances. The most threatening clashes occurred in **1612**, when a (Christian) grocer named Vincenz Fettmilch turned against the existing order. The conflicts between the city's lower classes, the council, which was dominated by the patricians, and the Jews intensified and led to Fettmilch and his followers not only locking up the city councillors in the Römer for several days, but also calling for the looting of the Judengasse. The so-called "Fettmilch Uprising" only came to an end with the execution of the rebels in 1616. In **1796,** French troops bombarded the ghetto and destroyed it completely. As many families had to look for accommodation in other parts of the city, the ghetto was effectively abolished in **1796** and legally abolished in **1811**. The Philanthropin, a general education school, was founded in **1804**. In **1850**, orthodox Jews founded what would later become the Israelite religious community. However, citizenship continued to be denied to Jews in Frankfurt. It was not until 1864 that full equality was achieved. This enabled the Jewish community to grow. The synagogue on Börneplatz was inaugurated in **1882**, the synagogue in Friedberger Anlage in **1907,** and the West End Synagogue in **1910**. With around 30,000 members, the Jewish community in Frankfurt was the second-largest in all of Germany. Until the Second World War, Frankfurt experienced the most important era of Jewish activity, analogous to Jewish emancipation. The year **1933** marked, as everywhere in Germany, a deep break in this development. There was a general boycott of shops whose owners were Jewish. Further drastic humiliations and reprisals followed. In **1938**, synagogues were burnt down while homes, doctors' surgeries and shops were looted. More than 2,500 Jewish men were deported to concentration camps. From **1941**, Jews had to wear the yellow star. More than 11,000 Frankfurt Jews were deported to extermination and concentration camps, where they were systematically murdered. Some were able to save themselves by emigrating. After **1945**, only a few hundred Jews returned to their destroyed hometown. The West End Synagogue was rebuilt in **1950**. The Jewish Community Centre was opened in **1986**. In the **1990s**, the Jewish community grew rapidly due to immigration from the former Soviet Union. Frankfurt once again became one of the most important Jewish centres in Germany. In **1988**, the Jewish Museum Frankfurt opened as the first independent Jewish museum in the Federal Republic of Germany after 1945. In **2020**, the museum reopened after extensive expansion with the new ‘Lichtbau’ building. Guided Tours of Jewish Frankfurt Until 1933, Frankfurt had the largest Jewish community in Germany after Berlin. Learn more about former Jewish citizens, their contribution to cultural life and the history of the city on a two-hour themed tour on foot or by bus. Book your certified guide on the topic of ‘Jewish Frankfurt’ with us. This tour is offered for individual groups as a walking tour or a bus tour. Further information - - - - -