Frankfurter Judengasse
The area suffered major destruction during World War II and reconstruction left no visible signs of the ghetto in today's townscape of Frankfurt.
Initially, some 15 families with about 110 members lived in Frankfurt's Judengasse when they were forcibly removed from the city and relocated to the ghetto by decree of Frederick III in 1462.
On 18 January 1074, Henry IV granted the citizens and Jews of Worms, the ShUM-cities and other locations, including Frankfurt, certain privileges relating to reductions in fees and import duties.
Eighty years later the Mainz based Rabbi Elieser ben Nathan (who died between 1145 and 1152) mentioned the Jewish community in Frankfurt in his book Eben ha Eser.
Until the Late Middle Ages, the Frankfurt Jews lived in the present-day old city, between the Saint Bartholomew's Cathedral, Fahrgasse and the Main River.
All of this occurred despite the fact that the Jews had been protected by the Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor since 1236, and had a royal appointee running much of the city government.
The Frankfurt Jews were promised, by the Emperor and his descendants, the right to administer their own homes, cemeteries, synagogues and all the easements.
In view of the growing number of pogroms – Jews were held responsible for the Black Plague in 1348 – the Emperor included a statement in the promise that turned out to be fatal.
Two weeks after the Emperor left the city, on 24 July 1349, all the Jews of Frankfurt were beaten to death or burnt as their houses were set aflame.
By the end of 14th century, the Jewish community had grown large enough to establish a new synagogue, where the Jews participated in services, conducted business, swore judicial oaths, and heard proclamations from the emperor or the town council.
In 1349, during a Succession Crisis for the Holy Roman Emperor, the city of Frankfurt declared for Günther von Schwarzburg against Charles IV.
The term Judenstättigkeit refers to the set of special regulations which defined the rights and restrictions applicable to a Jewish resident from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
Following the expulsion of the Jews from Trier (1418), Vienna (1420), Cologne (1424), Augsburg (1438), Breslau (1453), Magdeburg (1493), Nuremberg (1499), and Regensburg (1519), Frankfurt gained importance as a financial center.
Nevertheless, when Emperor Maximilian assessed a tax on the Jewish communities to pay for his Italian Campaign in 1497, Frankfurt's contribution was second only to that of the city of Worms.
The town council secretary recorded this in his book with three crosses, the notation Te Deum laudamus (Latin God be praised) and Crist ist entstanden (German "Christ is risen").
Within the synagogue Jewish leaders were selected, regulations from the Rabbis were issued, bankruptcies were declared and corporal punishments were carried out.
For example, Jews were not allowed to leave the ghetto during nights, Sundays, Christian holidays or during the election and coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor.
However, the population of Frankfurt then learned that the city had extensive debts and that the Town Council had misappropriated the Jewish tax collected.
However, these laws, originating with the Imperial Commissioners from Hessen and the Mainz palatinate (Kurmainz), were based largely on anti-Semitic attitudes and did little to support the rights of the Jewish community.
One significant difference was that Jews were explicitly allowed to engage in wholesale businesses, trading commodities, such as grain, wine, cloth, silk, and other textiles.
Due to the damage and theft, Emperor Charles VI demanded that the town council punish the looters and better protect the Jewish community.
In 1769 the council responded to a Jewish petition to leave the ghetto on Sunday afternoons as In 1779 the drama Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Lessing, a fervent plea for religious tolerance, was published.
In 1806 the French appointed Grand Duke of Frankfurt Karl von Dalberg ordered that equal rights be granted to all religious creeds.
Following the end of the Confederation of the Rhine and reestablishment of the Free City of Frankfurt in 1816, the Senate agreed upon a series of articles to the Constitution.
In 1864 Frankfurt became the second German city, following the Grand Duchy of Baden (1862), to remove all restrictions on citizens' rights and to grant civic equality to Jews.
Due to the crowded and unsanitary conditions on the Judengasse most Jews had left the former ghetto during the 19th century and settled in the neighboring suburb, "Ostend".
Following the rise to power of the Nazis in 1933 Börnestraße was renamed Großer Wollgraben and Börneplatz became Dominikanerplatz after the Dominican Monastery on the west side.
In the 1980s, during the construction of the new Administration Building for the city's Public Utilities, portions of the Mikwe (ritual bath) and several foundations of Jewish houses were discovered.
These included the synagogues at Alt Heddernheim 33,[8] Börneplatz,[9] Börnestraße,[10] Conrad-Weil-Gasse,[11] Freiherr-vom-Stein-Straße,[12] Friedberger Anlage 5–6,[13] Hermesweg 5–7,[14] Inselgasse 9,[15] Marktplatz (Ortsteil Höchst),[16] Obermainanlage 8,[17] Ostendstraße 18,[18] Rechneigrabenstraße 5 (Niederhofheim'sche Synagoge),[19] Schloßstraße 5,[20] and Unterlindau 21.
Their property and valuables were taken by the Gestapo before deportation, and they were subjected to extreme violence during transport to the stations for the cattle wagons which carried them east.
