Jewish Cemeteries in Leipzig, Germany

Hands of the Kohen – a symbol of blessing on some graves of the Old Israelite Cemetery

There were three and now there are two Jewish cemeteries in Leipzig.[1] The first Jewish cemetery of the city, in the Johannistal, no longer exists. The Old Israelite Cemetery on Berliner Straße was used from 1864 to 1928.[2] Burials still take place today at the New Israelite Cemetery on Delitzscher Straße, which opened afterwards.[3][4]

Background

In the late 15th century, the Jews of Leipzig were stripped of their right of residence. Only from 1710 onward were there occasional settlements.[5] An exception was made during the times of the trade fair, when Jewish traders were in some cases even welcome. If one of them died during this period, burial in Leipzig was not possible.[6] It was necessary to transport the body to home towns not too far away, or to the Jewish cemeteries in Naumburg or Dessau, in each case for a fee.[4] From 1798 onward, Jewish merchants—particularly those from Brody—sought a burial site in Leipzig. Their efforts were not crowned with success until 1814.[7]

The first Jewish cemetery

The first Jewish cemetery in the Johannistal
Location of the first Jewish cemetery

For 200 Thalers and an annual concession fee of 20 thalers, the Brody merchants received permission from the Leipzig council to establish a burial site in the Johannistal at location with coordinates 51°20′02″N 12°23′21″E / 51.333792°N 12.389192°E / 51.333792; 12.389192 (First Jewish cemetery). [8][4]The grounds were located next to the municipal black powder depot, on which the new Leipzig Observatory was built in 1861.[9] From 1832 the cemetery was surrounded by allotment gardens.[10]

The first burial took place on 28 November 1814.[11] Within the following 50 years, 334 people were buried there.[4] The closely spaced gravestones presented the typical appearance of a Jewish cemetery.[12] The shortage of space for graves, together with the Saxon regulation requiring a mortuary on every cemetery—which was no longer possible here, led to the cemetery's closure in 1864, although it initially remained intact as such.[2]

In 1937 the Jewish community received notice of the cemetery's termination from the National Socialist Leipzig city administration.[4] The dead were exhumed and the remains buried in individual containers in a mass grave at the New Israelite Cemetery. Only a few prominent figures received individual graves. The gravestones, apart from a few that were likewise moved to the New Israelite Cemetery, were broken into small pieces and reused in burials. [13] The cemetery grounds were absorbed into the surrounding allotment garden complex.[10]


The Old Israelite Cemetery

In 1862 the Jewish community had acquired a strip of land adjoining Berliner Straße from a private owner at 51°21′40″N 12°23′44″E / 51.36119°N 12.395431°E / 51.36119; 12.395431 (Old Israelite Cemetery). The work began in 1863 on laying out a burial site. In addition to the mortuary, it included ritually necessary rooms and the residence of the cemetery administrator. The 400-metre-long grounds extend from Berliner Straße to the later Theresienstraße and are less than 50 metres wide. To the west they are bordered by the later buildings on Hamburger Straße and to the east by the Nordfriedhof (North Cemetery), opened in 1876. The site is accessed by a central main path. Of the five sections, the first four are each divided by partition walls. On these and on the side walls are the wall plots of family and hereditary burials, which are rather atypical for Jewish cemeteries and here represent above all the banking houses such as Ariowitsch, Kroch and Breslauer.[4] One wall monument is also that of Rabbi Abraham Meyer Goldschmidt and his wife, the educator and women's rights activist Henriette Goldschmidt. A memorial commemorates the names of 121 Jewish war dead of World War I.[14]

The cemetery suffered damage through vandalism during the Nazi era and World War II.[15] Small numbered stones in the rows of graves mark lost monuments as well as burial sites that never had a monument, among them concentration camp victims. A floor slab in the children's section indicates that Jewish children played in the cemetery during the Nazi era because they were forbidden to do so in public grounds.[16]

At the end of the 1920s, burials shifted to the New Israelite Cemetery, but resumed once more after that cemetery was devastated in 1938.[17] The cemetery contains more than 5,000 grave sites.[18] The buildings in the entrance area were demolished after being hit by bombs in World War II. The Old Israelite Cemetery is today a protected historic monument and is maintained by the cemetery department of the City of Leipzig's Office for Urban Greenery and Waters.[19]

After completing a multi-year research project, the Ephraim Carlebach Foundation succeeded in producing a complete digital documentation of all grave sites of the Old Israelite Cemetery.[20]

The New Israelite Cemetery

The former funeral hall, destroyed during Nazi rule
Interior of the funeral hall, looking towards the dome

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish community again sought to lay out a new cemetery, since the full occupation of the old cemetery was foreseeable. On grounds acquired by the Jewish community on Delitzscher Straße at the northern edge of the city, opposite St. Georg Hospital at coordinates 51°23′12″N 12°22′53″E / 51.386586°N 12.381343°E / 51.386586; 12.381343 (New Israelite Cemetery), planting work to lay out a cemetery began in 1925. At the entrance to the roughly two-hectare site, a funeral hall was built from 1927 till 1928 over an 18-month construction period by plans of the architect Wilhelm Haller.[21] The U-shaped, two-storey structure grouped its functional rooms around a central domed building with a three-arched pillared portico. The domed hall had a floor area of 18 by 18 metres, above which the dome rose in a double shell, externally 21.5 metres high with an octagonal plan, and internally round with stalactite-like concrete pendants.[22] The cemetery was consecrated in May 1928.[23]

Just ten years later, the cemetery building fell victim to an arson attack by the National Socialist Motor Corps on 10 November 1938, the day after Kristallnacht.[24] The domed hall remained almost undamaged. It was blown up in 1939 by order of the NSDAP district leadership. Without the buildings, no more dead could be buried, which is why the old cemetery was used instead.[25]

By 1948 the clearing work on the devastated cemetery was completed, and with the help of two barracks, burials could take place again. In 1951, on the site of the former domed building, a sarcophagus-like memorial was created for the murdered Jews of Leipzig, with the inscription in German and Hebrew: "Hear, all you peoples, and behold my sorrow."[26] When a new funeral hall was built from 1953 to 1955 on part of the former cemetery building, the memorial was moved to the interior of the cemetery.[27][28]

Among the roughly 1,500 grave sites of the New Israelite Cemetery are also those of the well-known choral conductor Barnet Licht, the founder of the Leipzig Synagogal Choir Werner Sander, and the founder of the Leipzig Eitingon Hospital Chaim Eitingon. In the rear part stand the historic gravestones from the first Jewish cemetery of Leipzig. Among the gravestones of more recent date, Russian Jewish names predominate, since the Jewish community in Leipzig is composed mostly of Russian immigrants.[29]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Neuer Israelitischer Friedhof - Leipziger Stadtgeschichte erfahren". Bildlexikon Leipzig (in German). 2024-06-28. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  2. 1 2 "Alter Israelitischer Friedhof". Leipzig.de (in German). Stadt Leipzig. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  3. ↑ "Neuer Israelitischer Friedhof: HTWK Leipzig gestaltet mit" (in German). HTWK Leipzig. 2023-10-02. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Löffler, Katrin (2022). Leipzigs alter jüdischer Friedhof im Johannistal (in German). Leipzig: Lehmstedt Verlag. ISBN 978-3-95797-138-8.
  5. ↑ Diamant, Adolf (1993). Chronik der Juden in Leipzig: Aufstieg, Vernichtung und Neuanfang (in German). Chemnitz: Heimatland Sachsen. p. 24. ISBN 978-3-910186-08-8.
  6. ↑ Alicke, Klaus-Dieter (2016). "Leipzig (Sachsen)". Aus der Geschichte der jüdischen Gemeinden im deutschen Sprachraum (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  7. ↑ "Gedenkstele für ersten jüdischen Friedhof in Leipzig". Leipzig.de (in German). Stadt Leipzig. 2024-10-25. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  8. ↑ Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred, eds. (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 12 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 633–634. ISBN 978-0-02-865940-4.
  9. ↑ "The History of Astronomy and Science in Leipzig". Leipzig.de. City of Leipzig. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  10. 1 2 "Leipzig (Saxony)". International Jewish Cemetery Project. International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  11. ↑ "Leipzig (Saxony)". International Jewish Cemetery Project. International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  12. ↑ Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred, eds. (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 12 (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 633–634. ISBN 978-0-02-865940-4.
  13. ↑ Schimke, Dörthe (2023). "Review of: Katrin Löffler, Leipzigs alter jüdischer Friedhof im Johannistal". Neues Archiv für sächsische Geschichte (in German). 94. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  14. ↑ "Leipzig (Alter Israelitischer Friedhof), Sachsen". Onlineprojekt Gefallendenkmäler (in German). 2008-09-15. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  15. ↑ Bund der Antifaschisten e.V. (Stadtverband Leipzig) (2006). Stätten des Gedenkens für Verfolgte und Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft und für antifaschistische Widerstandskämpfer in und um Leipzig (in German). Schkeuditz: GNN Verlag Schkeuditz. ISBN 978-3898192163.
  16. ↑ Bertram, Ellen (2001). Menschen ohne Grabstein: Die aus Leipzig deportierten und ermordeten Juden (in German). Leipzig: Passage-Verlag. ISBN 978-3932900570.
  17. ↑ Held, Steffen (2011). Die jüdische Gemeinde in Leipzig 1918–1945: Institutionalisierung, Verfolgung und Vernichtung (in German). Hamburg: Dölling und Galitz. pp. 112–116. ISBN 978-3862180165.
  18. ↑ "Leipziger Nordvorstadt: Alter Israelitischer Friedhof" (PDF). Leipzig-Lexikon (in German). 2025-03-05. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  19. ↑ "Kulturdenkmale im Freistaat Sachsen - Denkmaldokument Obj.-Dok.-Nr. 09260354" (in German). Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Sachsen. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  20. ↑ "Jüdische Biografien und Friedhöfe in Leipzig komplett digitalisiert". MDR Kultur (in German). Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. 2024-11-12. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  21. ↑ Thalheim, Daniel (2019-04-09). "Verlorene Bauwerke in Leipzig: Wer war Wilhelm Haller?". Leipziger Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  22. ↑ Wilhelm Ze'ev Haller – Modern Architecture – Leipzig / Tel Aviv (in German). Leipzig: Passage-Verlag. 2009. pp. 42–56. ISBN 978-3938543719.
  23. ↑ "Vorstellung Neuer Israelitische Friedhof – Leipzig". Ariowitsch-Haus (in German). Zentrum für jüdische Kultur. 2025-08-26. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  24. ↑ "Document L-202: Report of American Consul David H. Buffum on Anti-Semitic Persecution in Leipzig, dated November 21, 1938". Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression. Vol. VII. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1946. pp. 1037–1041.
  25. ↑ Knoll, Joachim (2014). Jüdische Friedhöfe und Bestattungskultur in Sachsen (in German). Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich. pp. 88–92. ISBN 978-3-95565-055-1.
  26. ↑ "Friedhöfe - IRG Leipzig". Irg-leipzig.de (in German). Israelitische Religionsgemeinde zu Leipzig. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  27. ↑ Lange, Bernd-Lutz (2004). Jüdische Spuren in Leipzig (in German). Leipzig: Forum Verlag. pp. 84–89. ISBN 978-3861510499.
  28. ↑ "Neuer Israelitischer Friedhof". Bestattungshaus Hänsel Friedhofsportal (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  29. ↑ Feigina, Inna (2021). Religion und Veränderung: Jüdische Immigranten aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion (in German). Leipzig: Universität Leipzig.

Further reading

  • Steffen Held: Jüdische Friedhöfe in Leipzig. Special issue of the Stadtgeschichtliche Mitteilungen des Leipziger Geschichtsvereins e. V., Leipzig 1999.
  • Wolfgang Grundmann: Der Neue Israelitische Friedhof. In: Leipziger Blätter No. 3, 1983, pp. 90–91.
  • Michael Brocke, Christiane Müller: Haus des Lebens. Reclam-Verlag Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-379-00777-3, pp. 217–219.
  • Josef Reinhold: Noch gibt es Spuren: zur Geschichte des ehemaligen israelitischen Friedhofs im Johannistal. In: Leipziger Blätter No. 40, 2002, pp. 24–26.
  • Kerstin Plowinski: Ein »guter Ort« in Leipzig – Der Alte Israelitische Friedhof. In: Leipziger Blätter No. 45, 2004, pp. 80–82.
  • Katrin Löffler: Friedhofsgeburtstage · 1814 und 1864 wurden in Leipzig jüdische Friedhöfe eröffnet. In: Leipziger Blätter No. 64, 2014, pp. 60–62.
  • Katrin Löffler: Leipzigs alter jüdischer Friedhof im Johannistal. Lehmstedt Verlag, Leipzig 2022, ISBN 978-3-95797-138-8.
Wikimedia Commons logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jewish cemeteries in Leipzig.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.