Preparation of the pogrom

The persecution of the Jewish community at the time of the Black Death became the fiercest in the whole of the Middle Ages.^[28] In 1340, a terrible pestilence arrived in Europe. The Black Death had not reached Cologne until December 1349^[29] However, reports of its devastating impact arrived on the Rhine from the south considerably earlier. Ultimately, between 30 and 60% of the European population died from the epidemic, provoking fears of an apocalyptic nature. Accusations that the plague was caused by a conspiracy of the Jews to poison the wells (accusations that were not proven in a single case) apparently had origin in southern France, but quickly snowballed across the Continent. They formed the background for a murderous pogrom on 23/24 August 1349 in Cologne.

There is a letter of the Cologne Council to the council of Strassburg, in which the Cologne Council expresses concern about an anti-Jewish incident in Strassburg and warns insistently against an escalation. The Jews and their possessions were protected by letters of protection or consolation, which had to be considered.^[30] In the same letter the Cologne Council make clear that they would decidedly protect their own Jews.^[31] The council of Strassburg, however, having initially taken a stand against the persecutions, was itself attacked and replaced by the populace; the new council of Strassburg invoked the public peace and called on all the citizens to kill the Jews throughout their territory.^[32] This development was not lost on the town council of Cologne.

Unlike most other anti-Jewish persecutions at the time, the pogrom in Cologne was not spontaneous and did not originate among the lower ranks of Cologne's population. Rather, it appears to have been premeditated, as there is clear evidence of the involvement of the leading social figures, or at least some of them.^[33] Inspired by the aforementioned events in Strassburg, which the Cologne Council watched closely, the pogrom appears to have been methodically planned. The council members had previously formed an alliance with all that could have an advantage from the killing or expulsion of the Jews in order to secure themselves against the Jews' official protectors, particularly Charles IV (then King of the Romans) and the Habsburg Vögte. This indicates that the pogrom was ultimately aimed against the Habsburgs and exploited the panic among the population simply to reach its goals of political power.

The Archbishop of Cologne, Walram von Jülich, who had left the city at the end of June 1349 to go to France, died in Paris after a short time. Charles IV had stayed in Cologne until 19 June and had left with his entourage. He had succeeded in securing his interests in Cologne by showing favoritism in crown disputes, undoubtedly not to the advantage of every interest in the archbishopric. The extermination of the Jewish community thus would serve to weaken the positions of both Charles IV and the clergy by associating them with a group already despised by the populace. In August 1349 not only was the see of the archbishop vacant, but Charles IV was not near enough to take action. On 23–24 August the relative security of Jews in Cologne came to an end. The Jews, who had already faced slaughter in the surrounding territories, were now also killed in Cologne itself.^[34]

Night of Bartholomew and its consequences

The actual outcome of the pogrom is not well known. In the course of St. Bartholomew's Night in 1349 the Jewish quarter near the town-hall (Rathaus) was attacked, after which killing, plundering of Jewish properties, and arson followed. Fugitives were pursued and struck down. Though partly contradictory of each other, many sources testify to the calamity. Some report that the Jews themselves set fire to their houses so as not to fall into the hands of the looters.^[35] Another version has it that the Jews burned themselves in their synagogue, which is rather improbable. Archeological excavations in the area of the medieval Jewish quarter have suggested that the synagogue itself was standing without damage after the night, but that it was plundered later.^[36] In its escape from the riot one family buried its belongings and merchandise. The hoard of coins was discovered during excavations in 1954 and is now exhibited in the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum.^[37]

The account of the chronicler Gilles Li Muisis, which tells of a regular battle of the citizenry against more than 25,000 Jews and credits the victory to the stratagem of a butcher, is not considered reliable.^[38] Nevertheless, Li Muisis' account coined the term Judenschlacht (the Jews' Battle) for the events of that night. Equally unlikely is the involvement of the Flagellants who, according to some sources, were supposedly present in Cologne in 1349.^[39] Throughout the proceedings, the council refused to act. Nevertheless, after the violence had died down, the council and the new archbishop Willem van Gennep condemned the pogrom with the utmost severity. The names of the real wire-pullers and of the violent invaders of the Jewish quarter remained unknown. It can only be definitively stated that the council disclaimed any responsibility for the riots: a declaration of the council laid the blame on an out-of-town mob followed by only a few no-accounts from Cologne."^[40] A few of the Jewish survivors expelled from the town looked for refuge across the Rhine. Around ten years after the pogrom of 1349, Jewish settlements are documented in Andernach and Siegburg.

The Jews can be documented to have returned only in 1369, although Archbishop Boemund II of Saarbrücken had already tried to enforce the return of the Jews on the city during his reign (1354 to 1361).^[41] Nevertheless, it was only under Engelbert III von der Mark and particularly under his coadjutor Cuno of Falkenstein that the strained relation between the archbishop and the municipality had improved enough for the protection of Jews to seem reasonably assured. There is proof that by 1372 a small Jewish community had again sprung up in Cologne.^[42][43]

At the request of Archbishop Frederick the Jews were admitted to the town and obtained a temporary protection privilege for ten years. To this, however, the Council attached some conditions. For the privilege of admission there was a tax between 50 and 500 florins, with a new sum specifiable every year to be paid as a general contribution. After further extensions of the right of residence the Council proclaimed in 1404 a more restrictive Judenordnung. It ordained that the Jews had to be recognizable by wearing a pointed Jewish hat and banned any displays of luxury on their part. In 1423 the Cologne Council decided not to extend the temporary right of residence, which expired in October 1424.^[44] Nevertheless, it is remarkable that an attempt was made immediately to re-establish a full community, rather than allowing only a few Jews to settle at a time, as was the procedure of most other large towns.^[45]

Emigration

In 1424, Jews were banned from the town "for eternity". Following the medieval pogroms and expulsion of 1424, many Jews of Cologne emigrated to central or northern European countries like Poland and Lithuania, then part of the Ordensstaat of the Teutonic Order. The offspring of these emigrants returned to Cologne at the beginning of the 19th century and lived mainly in the area of Thieboldsgasse on the southeast side of Neumarkt. Only a few Jews remained near Cologne and settled predominantly on the eastern bank of the Rhine (Deutz, Mülheim, Zündorf). Later new communities developed, which grew over the years. The first community in Deutz lived in the area of the present Minden Street (Mindener Straße). There Jews felt themselves safe under the protection of archbishop Dietrich von Moers (1414–1463).

The ban on Jewish settlement in Cologne was withdrawn at the end of the 18th century. A new Jewish community came into existence under the French administration. At the beginning of the Modern Age the area of the Jewish quarter was rebuilt and the previous inhabitants forgotten.

After the destruction of the community during Second World War, the medieval foundations were discovered, among them a synagogue and the monumental Cologne mikveh (ritual bath). The archeological survey was conducted after the war by Otto Doppelfeld from 1953 to 1956. On the basis of the awareness of history the area has not been reconstructed after the war and has remained as a square in front of the historical Rathaus. Today, the Jewish quarter is part of the "archeological zone of Cologne".^[46]

Distinguished Cologne Jews

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Cologne was a center of Jewish learning, and the "wise of Cologne" are frequently mentioned in rabbinical literature.^[48] A characteristic of the Talmudic authorities of that city was their liberality. Many liturgical poems still in the Ashkenazic ritual were composed by poets of Cologne.

Here are the names of many rabbis and scholars of the 11th and 12th centuries: the legendary Amram, traditional founder of the Talmudic school in the 10th century; R. Jacob ben Yaḳḳar, disciple of Gerson Meor ha-Golah (1050); the liturgist Eliakim ben Joseph; Eliezer ben Nathan (1070–1152), the chronicler of the First Crusade; the poet Eliezer ben Simson, who, together with the last named, took part in the famous assembly of French and German rabbis about the mid-12th century; the Tosafist Samuel ben Natronai and his son Mordecai; the liturgist Joel ben Isaac ha-Levi (d. 1200); Uri ben Eliakim (mid-12th century); Ephraim ben Jacob of Bonn (b. 1132), the chronicler of the Second Crusade. The last lost at Cologne, in 1171, his son Eliakim, a promising youth, who was murdered in the street. His tombstone is still to be seen in the cemetery of Cologne.

Among the rabbis and scholars of the 13th century were: Eliezer ben Joel ha-Levi; Uri ben Joel ha-Levi; Jehiel ben Uri, father of R. Asher; Isaac ben Simson (martyred in 1266); Isaac ben Abraham, brother of the Tosafist Simson ben Abraham of Sens (martyred in 1266 at Sinzig); R. Isaiah ben Nehemiah (also martyred in 1266 at Sinzig); the liturgist Eliezer ben Ḥayyim; Ḥayyim ben Jehiel (d. 1314) and Asher ben Jehiel (b. c. 1250; d. 1327); Yaḳḳar ben Samuel ha-Levi; Reuben ben Hezekiah of Boppard; Abraham ben Samuel; Judah ben Meïr; Samuel ben Joseph; Ḥayyim ben Shaltiel; Nathan ben Joel ha-Levi; Jacob Azriel ben Asher ha-Levi; Meïr ben Moses; Eliezer ben Judah ha-Kohen, most of whom are known as commentators on the Bible.

The rabbis and scholars of the 14th century include: Samuel ben Menahem, Talmudist and liturgist; Jedidiah ben Israel, disciple of Meïr of Rothenburg; and Mordecai ben Samuel. These three are called in the municipal sources "Gottschalk", "Moyter", and "Süsskind". The rabbi who officiated at the time of the banishment was Jekuthiel ben Moses Möln ha-Levi.

In Middle Ages there were in Cologne the following buildings, synagogues, mikvehs, schools, hospices and cemeteries:

Judenbüchel

In 1174 a document of Saint Engelbert, at the time provost of the monastery of Saint Severin in Cologne, mentions that thirty-eight years previously Knight Ortliv had given back five jugerum of land that he had received from the monastery as a fief near the Jews cemetery, and the land had been let to the Jews against a yearly payment of four denarii and Ortliv could not have any claim on it.^[49] In 1266 Archbishop Engelbert II von Falkenburg ensured the lawful management and undisturbed usage of their cemetery on Bonner Strasse. It was located outside the walls of Cologne towards the south near Severinstores, called Judenbüchel or Toten Juden. This name remained to the area also after the removal of the cemetery until the construction of the supermarket in this place.

The cemetery measured 29,000 square meters. In 1096 Salomon ben Simeon mentions the tombstones of the Jews buried there. In 1146 Rabbi Simeon of Trier was buried in the cemetery by the leaders of the Cologne Jewish community. The earliest tombstone still in existence dates from the year 1152. After 1349 the tombstones were considered owner-less; some of them were torn out of their places and used by Archbishop William de Gunnep for the construction of the fortress of Lechenig or in Huelchrath. After 1372 the Jews of Cologne again were granted the use of the cemetery and it was used until 1693 mainly by the Jews of Deutz.^[50]

Tombstones of 1323

By excavations of the area of the Cologne Rathaus in 1953 two fully conserved tombstones were found on the northwest corner of the building in a large bomb crater. They probably came from the Jewish cemetery of Judenbüchel and were used as building material. The inscription of the tombstone of Rachel says: "Rachel, daughter of R. Schneior, died on Tuesday, the 16 Elul of the year 83 of the sixth millennium. Her soul be tied in the union of eternal life. Amen. Sela"

Deutz Cemetery

In contrast to the building evidence in Innenstadt, the history of the Jewish communities outside the city center is revealed above all through the remains of the Jewish cemeteries. There are right-Rhenish Jewish cemetery in Mülheim, "Am Springborn", in Zündorf between "Hasenkaul" and the "Gartenweg", and one in Deutz im "Judenkirchhofsweg".^[56] The last was given to the Jews of Deutz by Archbishop Joseph Clemens of Bavaria in 1695 as a rented land. The first burials took place in 1699.^[57] When in 1798 the Jews were again permitted to settle within the old city walls of Cologne, the cemetery was also used by this community until 1918.

The synagogue in Glockengasse

After the constant growth of the community the hall of prayer at Glockengasse was overloaded. A donation of the Cologne banker Abraham Oppenheim of around 600,000 thalers allowed the construction of a new synagogue. The project was won by Ernst Friedrich Zwirner, leading architect of the Cathedral of Cologne, who designed a building in Moorish style. The new synagoge was inaugurated after four years of construction in August 1861. The inner and outside design was to remind the bloom of Jewish culture during 11th-century Moorish Spain. The new synagogue had a façade of light sandstone with red horizontal stripes as well as oriental minaret and a cupola covered with copper plates. The ornaments in the inside were inspired by the Alhambra of Granada. The new synagogue, which was valued positively by Cologne people, had seats for 226 men and 140 women.

While set on fire in November 1938,^[64] the rolls of the Torah of 1902 could be saved, thanks to the Cologne priest Gustav Meinertz. After the war they were placed in a glass cabinet in Roonstrasse Synagogue. After a restoration, carried out in Jerusalem in 2007, they are now used again in the liturgies in Roonstrasse Synagogue, rebuilt after the war.

The orthodox synagogue in St. Apern-Straße

The St. Aper Straße Synagogue already existed during the middle of the 18th century. It was located in a mixed-use area, appreciated by affluent citizens. There were many exquisite antique shops, in which mostly Jewish owners sold expensive furniture and jewels. In 1884, these inhabitants built a synagogue of the orthodox community "Adass Jeschurun". The last rabbi was Isidor Caro who died in Theresienstadt concentration camp.

In the associated Jawne School, a Jewish school, there were courses from 1919 to 1941. It was the first and only Jewish gymnasium in the Rhineland.

The liberal synagogue in Roonstraße

By the end of 1899, the Jewish community in Cologne had grown to 9,745 members. Already in 1893, the community had bought a piece of land on Roonstraße — opposite the Königsplatz. In 1894, the Representative Assembly of the city voted for a grant of 40,000 marks from the city treasury. It was estimated that the cost of the new building would be about 550,000 marks. To cover this sum a substantial loan was made with the "Prussian Zentralbodenkredit Aktiengesellshaft".^[65] The synagogue was finished in 1899 and had places for 763 men and 587 women in the gallery. A historical photo was considered worth to be put in the photo archive of the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem.^[66] The final Rabbi of the Roonstrasse Synagogue before the war was Rabbi Dr. Adolf Kober. The structure has been seriously damaged during the war but it was decided to rebuild it. The reopened synagogue was dedicated on September 20, 1959.^[67]

The synagogue in Reischplatz in Deutz

The last synagogue was built in Reischplatz in Deutz. The building was dedicated in 1915 and, after the damages of the last war, was rebuilt in another form and with a new usage, as there was no more Jewish community in Deutz. A commemorative plaque remembers the Deutz community and its last synagogue.^[68]

The synagogue in Mülheim

The first synagogue of the community of Köln-Mülheim was damaged by a Rhine flood in 1784 — as was the one in Deutz. A new synagogue was dedicated in the same place a few years later, designed by the master-builder Wilhelm Hellwig in 1788/1789. The disposition of the construction began on the street with a school, on which a synagogue was attached with a hip roof on four sides. The building survived the 1938 pogrom but was damaged during the war and demolished in 1956.

Jewish community in Zündorf

The synagogue in Niederzündorf was at the beginning a prayer room, that had not enough space after the strong growth of the community in the 19th century. In 1882 a new building was completed, and the "Zündorfer Pfarrchronik" wrote:

"The Jewish synagogue has been finished after much effort, the ceremony took place with the participation of many foreign Jews."

The land (today Hauptstr. 159) was sold and partly donated to the community by two Jewish business people from there, "Lazarus Meyer" und "Simon Salomon". The Pfarrchronik also wrote:

"The Jews built a synagogue, that is a room, a chamber that served as a synagogue. The offering from the Jews of the Rhine province has supposedly reached a meager result."^[69]

Other buildings and meeting houses

• Jewish asylum for ill and old people in Silvanstraße (Severinsviertel), later Ottostraße, Ehrenfeld.
• Community and meeting houses located in Innenstadt, south of the Neumarkt, in Bayardgasse, in Thieboldsgasse, Agrippastraße and Quirinstraße behind the Church of St. Pantaleon. These houses were also meeting points for Jews who came to Cologne from East European countries.^[which?]

Jewish cemetery at Melaten

It is not clear in which year a Jewish cemetery was created as part of the large cemetery of Melaten. Until 1829, only Catholics could be buried there, while Protestants were buried in the old Geusen cemetery in Weyertal. The Jewish community buried its dead people until 1918 in Deutz and then in Bocklemünd. However, in 1899 also a section of Melaten cemetery was reserved to the Jews.^[70] In 1899 there was the first burial. A part of the piece of land bordering a high wall can still be seen from the Melatengürtel street. In 1928, the cemetery was violated for the first time, in 1938 the mortuary chapel was destroyed.^[71]

Deckstein cemetery

Located in Köln-Lindenthal, behind the area of the old Deckstein cemetery, this cemetery was created in 1910 from the community "Adass Jeschurun". Because the Adass Jeschurun oppose any concessions to Christian rituals, there is no burial in a coffin or urn. Also, flower decorations or wreaths are uncommon there. The tombstones of the cemetery are very sober and predominantly engraved with Hebrew letters. Entry is not open to the public (a permit needs to be obtained from the Synagogengemeinde Köln).^[72]

Phase One: 1933-1938

The first phase, between January 1933 and November 1938, was misleadingly called the "voluntary" Aryanization. Nazi officials, eager to maintain a legal veneer to the seizure of Jewish property, pretended that transfer of property from a Jewish to a non-Jewish owner was "voluntary".^[81]

One process through which Jews were "convinced" to give their businesses over was the advertisement of German businesses as such on the one hand, with ads and flyers declaring "German Business" or "German Produce", and on the other, through painting stars of David and hate messages on the walls or windows of Jews businesses. Local Nazi groups published lists of companies with Jewish owners to incite persecution and boycotts to drive them out of business.

On April 1, 1933, the Nazis organized a boycott of Jewish businesses, blocking entrance to Jewish shops in Cologne. The Jewish merchant Richard Stern,^{[citation needed]} who had fought in the first world war,^{[citation needed]} distributed a leaflet against the boycott ^{[citation needed]} and stood next to the SA guard posted outside his door, proudly wearing his Iron Cross ^{[citation needed]}. Customers stopped shopping in Jewish-owned businesses and owners lost their means of existence. Newspapers filled announcements about bankruptcies and acquisitions of Jewish companies.^[82]

Jewish lawyers and doctors were also targeted by the anti-Jewish boycott. On 31 March the SA and SS assaulted Jewish lawyers in the Justice building on Reichensperger Platz in Cologne. Judges and lawyers were arrested, mistreated, then loaded on garbage trucks and taken around the city.^[83]

In October 1935 Jews were excluded from the benefits of the "Winterhelp of the German People", and a "Jewish Winterhelp" was organized as an autonomous organization. It collected money,food, clothing, furniture and fuel and in winter 1937/38 the organisation supported 2,300 indigent people, a fifth of Jewish community.^[84]

According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum Encyclopedia, "By 1938, the combination of Nazi terror, propaganda, boycott, and legislation was so effective that some two thirds of these Jewish-owned enterprises were out of business or sold to non-Jews. Jewish owners, often desperate to emigrate or to sell a failing business, accepted a selling price that was only 20 or 30 percent of the actual value of each business."^[85] Cologne followed this trend.^[86]

Phase Two: 1938-1945

The second phase of Aryanization started after November 1938, with the Nazis openly seizing Jewish homes, businesses, and properties throughout Germany by force.^[85] In Cologne, over 735 houses and properties belonging to Jewish owners were confiscated by Nazis and transferred to non-Jews, between 1938 and 1944.^[87]

Examples of Aryanization in Cologne

Jewish-owned shops along with their owners were destroyed^[88] in preparation for the deportation and mass murder of Cologne's Jews in the Holocaust. Businesses both large and small were transferred from Jewish owners to non-Jewish owners in both phases of Aryanizations. A few example include:

• Brenner, the second largest photo accessories company in Germany, located in the Hohe Straße in Cologne, was forced to sell to a non-Jewish owner after the arrest of his owner, forced to sign a prepared purchase agreement while in prison in the presence of Gestapo and NSBO representatives on June 26, 1933.^[89]
• Bankhaus Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie^[90]
• Leonhard Tietz AG, Hohe Strasse
• Kaufhaus Julius Bluhm, Venloer Strasse^[91]
• numerous Jewish shops on the Hohe Straße and Schildergasse, where one in three shops were aryanized.
  • "Deka-Schuh, Leopold Dreyfuß" in Ehrenfeld,
  • Neckties wholesaler "Herbert Fröhlich" in the Streitzeuggasse
  • ,Butcher and snack bar "Katz-Rosenthal",
  • Fashion boutique "Michel" (later Jacobi)
  • "Bamberger" (later Hansen).^[92]

After World War II, many Cologne businesses ended up owning property that had been Aryanized from pre-war Jewish owners. In 2009, the publisher M. DuMont Schauberg took the German weekly Der Spiegel to court for suggesting that the publisher and family knew that it was acquiring three properties Aryanized from Cologne Jews, and Der Spiegel retracted the article.^[93][94]