(Kohelet 3, 1-5)
This permanent exhibition Jews in Hamburg depicts the life of Jews in Hamburg from
their first arrival in the town towards the end of the 16th century right up to the
expulsion and extermination of so many of them during World War II. It was the intention of
the Nazis not only to have Hamburg's Jews disappear from the town itself, but what seems
beyond comprehension also to annihilate all Jews in Europe.
The Jews of Hamburg were above all citizens of Hamburg and gave their "hometown" Hamburg
throughout the generations an unmistakable imprint. Hamburg's past is unthinkable without
its Jewish citizenry. For more than 400 years Jews have influenced the development of Hamburg
in all walks of life. The Jewish influence in Hamburg's history from the end of the 16th
century to the present, as well as the formerly rich culture and life style they contributed,
are documented in this new department of the museum.
The history is chronologically arranged. Additionally, specific themes are covered:
Jewish schools, Jews in Hamburg's business life, Jewish living conditions, the Jewish
religion, and annual Jewish ceremonial events. The Jewish anniversary feasts are highlighted
at various locations. The history of Jews in Hamburg since 1945 is also presented.
The visitor is also informed of current events in connection with Jewish culture and history.
|
1. The First Arrival of Jews in Hamburg2. Enlightenment and Emancipation3. Jewish Schools4. Jews and Business in Hamburg5. Living Conditions and Jewish Residential Areas6. The Synagogue7. Jews in the Hohenzollern Empire8. Jews in the Weimar Republic9. Persecution and the Holocaust |
Ashkenazi Jews, originally residing in Altona, are documented first in Hamburg in 1621. As a consequence of the 30 years war many Jews fled from Altona to Hamburg in 1627 and again in 1644, but they were expelled again, and could only pursue their business in Hamburg by purchasing an expensive gate-pass. Only those employed by Portuguese Jews living in Hamburg were permitted to stay. Ashkenazi Jews from Wandsbek are documented as living in Hamburg for the first time in 1688. Hamburg offered them better economic prospects, equal to those in Altona but with a worse legal status. As Jews under Danish protectorate they could at any time settle in either community.
During the 19th century several new Jewish schols were founded, beginning with the Talmud-Torah School in 1805. These schools underwent several reforms, occasionally amalgamated, and were frequently characterised by the individuals who served in them as teachers or headteachers. In the second half of the 19th century the increasing standards in the education of schoolchildren were matched by the Jewish schools, and led to the recognition of final examinations and their development into schools which qualified pupils for University entrance.
Several Jewish schools did not survive the economic crisis of the closing years of the Weimar Republic and closed down around 1930. All remaining Jewish schools became a refuge for children at the start of the Nazis persecution of the Jews in 1933, prior to them being finally closed down. On June 30th 1942 all teaching of Jewish schoolchildren was prohibited, and almost all of those few Jewish pupils and teachers still living in Hamburg were deported, and murdered.
Already in the 16th century the Jews in Hamburg were separated into social strata encompassing not only rich merchants and brokers but also bakers and cooks, manual workers and domestic servants. In the middle of the 18th century some 858 Ashkenazi taxpayers were employed in 68 different occupations. There were restrictions on the practice of certain jobs and professions by Jews. As a rule Jews were barred from guild-controlled occupations and thus were forced to concentrate their activities in the spheres of trade and finance. This ranged from the peddling of goods and wholesale trade to pawnbroking and the brokering of bills of exchange. Jews were also particularly active in street trading and the retail business.
Jews distinguished themselves by their degree of occupational mobility. In the production sector e.g. calico printing, they became entrepreneurs. A speciality was the printing of books renown well beyond the confines of Hamburg and Altona. An example of the entrepreneural activities of women is Glückel (von) Hameln (1646-1724).
The participation of Jewish families in the foundation of private banks in the 19th century was within their traditional business sphere, and was furthered by the increasing demand for capital and their foreign connections. The new industries were not controlled by the guilds or by social status, and consequently Jewish entrepreneurs invested in this growing business sector with a flexibility and willingness to bear risks. They were above all successful in the chemical and metal processing industries, as well as in mechanical engineering.
The introduction of freedom of trade in 1865, the rapid growth in population, and the new methods of mass production promoted the founding of department stores, a new form of retailing with a diversified range of products at low prices. In Hamburg, however, subsidiaries of larger chain stores from other towns became established e.g. Hermann Tietz (Hertie).
During the Imperial years and in the Weimar Republic four Jewish shipping companies were founded. Jews also worked in leading positions in other shipping lines; the Chairman of the Board of Directors of HAPAG, Albert Ballin, was, together with the banker Max M. Warburg, one of the most influential people of his time. The prominent position of individual Jewish entrepreneurs and companies should not obscure the fact that the majority of Jews living in Hamburg were active in diverse fields of business with widely different incomes. Traditional prejudices and the envy caused by successful Jewish business competition made it easier for the Nazis in 1933 to oust Jews from most occupations, to confiscate Jewish property and assets, to expropriate Jewish firms, and to deprive the Jewish population of Hamburg of their livelihood.
In 1612 the first Portuguese Jews lived in the western part of the town in the streets:
Rödingsmarkt, Mönkedamm, Herrlichkeit and Dreckwall (today Neuer Wall). For a short period they had
their own cemetery in Kohlhöfen. Later they had to bury their dead outside the town in the cemetery
in Altona in what was later called Königstraße. The cemetery was used until 1877.
In 1650 they were ordered to find living quarters in the Neustadt, at that time only partly built
upon and which offered favourable opportunities of settlement. Some 100 years later the Bürgerschaft
and the clergy tried to convince the Senate to restrict certain streets in the Altstadt and Neustadt
exclusively to Jews. This differentiated Hamburg from the more liberal conditions of domicile in
Altona and Wandsbek.
At the end of the 19th century Hamburg grew to a town with a population of more than a million. The increase in population and influx of immigrants led to housing shortages, and inner city shifts in population. A large number of Jews moved from the densely populated Neustadt to the newly built suburbs of Rotherbaum, Harvestehude and Eimsbüttel. There was a particular concentration of settlement in the Grindel quarter ironically called "Little Jerusalem". The concrete expression of their living areas were the synagogues. Up to the beginning of the 19th century these were secreted away in private homes and courtyards of houses. As a result of emancipation and a growing self confidence synagogues became a visual part of the townscape. The main synagogue built in 1906 in Bornplatz and the adjacent Talmud-Torah School at No. 30 Grindelberg were built as conspicuous free standing buildings.
The Hamburg Jewish population reached its peak in 1925 with 20,000, making up 1·73% of Hamburg's total population. Jewish living conditions and the contents and interiors of apartments did not differ essentially from the rest of the population; they were determined by the economic status of the inhabitants, their origins, and the fashion of the time.
Jews were driven into a kind of ghetto following the deprivation of their rights and the accompanying persecution by the Nazis. In 1940 Jews living in apartment houses jointly occupied by Jews and non-Jews were resettled in buildings at that time still in Jewish possession. This procedure led to the establishment of 78 so-called "Jewish Houses", predominently within the Grindel quarter, which later, in conjunction with the restriction of movement, facilitated the supervision and later deportation, and murder, of their Jewish inhabitants.
European nationalism and Jewish persecution promoted a self-assurance in certain sections of the Jewish population and a desire for an independent Jewish state. The political and organisational origin of these ideas was to be found in the concept of Zionism, whose proponents promoted the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The only Zionist congress to take place in Germany was held in Hamburg in 1909. Most emigrants departing Europe headed for the USA, but some also left for Palestine.
The First World War appeared to Jews an opportunity to prove their civic duty and loyalty. Many
were caught in the general euphoria for the war and voluntarily joined up for military service.
Those remaining at home economically supported the war effort.
Some Hamburg Jews, among them the shipping magnate Albert Ballin, opposed the rabid nationalism
and the extensive war aims of the German Reich. However, their demands for a democratisation of
the city government only brought them into conflict with Hamburg's powerful elites.
The Hamburg middle classes lost part of their political influence as a result of the revolution and quickly accepted the contention that the Jews were the protagonists of the revolution. This view was compounded by the fact that the democratic political parties, strongly opposed by the bourgeoise, were elected to parliament and with them some Jews became members of the Senate, and took up important posts in the administration.
This caused Hamburg to become a centre of antisemitism which quickly spread to professional organisations, schools and churches. The democrats were so preoccupied with solutions to the predominent economic problems that they did not counter the antisemitism in any decisive way. No major organisation within the Weimar Republic actively supported the Jews; only individuals gave their support as the Jews became increasingly isolated. In defence Jews intensified activities within their own community associations and clubs. Economics, language courses and sport were added to the list of courses and activities available.
Jewish professors taught in the Kolonialinstitut, founded in 1908. The international reputation of Hamburg University, founded in 1919, was achieved in the 1920s through the reputations of the jurist Albrecht Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the art historian Erwin Panofsky, and the physicist Otto Stern. In 1929/30 the philosopher Ernst Cassirer was the first Jew ever to become the Vice-Chancellor of a German university. The cultural studies library founded by Aby M. Warburg was of special importance.
The "Nuremberg Laws" of September 1935 were used to further the deprivation of rights and isolate the "Jews" from the general population. Jews lost their equal rights status obtained in the 19th century, and were no longer allowed to enter public office. They were not allowed to marry non-Jews. Contravention of this law was punished on average more severely in Hamburg than in the rest of Germany. In the first years of Nazi rule Jews had the possibility only of community solidarity or emigration. In most cases emigration was possibile only by incurring high costs and the ensuing loss of property. Organisations like the Jewish Culture Association offered a certain amount of support to those remaining, in their ever increasing isolation.
In the pogrom on the night of 9th/10th November 1938 ("Reichskristallnacht") the open and systematic violence against the Jews began throughout Germany, with the destruction of synagogues, the smashing of windows of Jewish shops, the expropriation of Jewish enterprises, and imprisonment. These measures caused the intended mass exodus of Jews from Germany. The freedom of movement of those remaining was further severely curtailed. By this stage the remaining Jews were impoverished, totally isolated from society in general, and under permanent contol by the Nazi state apparatus.
In the autumn of 1941 four deportation transports took Hamburg Jews to ghettos in Lodz, Minsk and Riga, where most were murdered. Between 1942 and 1945, following the Nazi decision to exterminate all of European Jewry (the "Final Solution"), 17 deportation transports left Hamburg for the concentration camp Theresienstadt and the concentration/extermination camp Auschwitz, where most of them were murdered. Jews were a comparatively small group in the Hamburg concentration camp of Neuengamme; however, thousands suffered slave labour under the most terrible of conditions in its numerous satellite camps.
8,877 Hamburg Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
Of the 17,000 Jews living in Hamburg in 1933
only a few hundred were still living in the town in May 1945 when Hamburg was liberated.