Traces of Jewish life in Berlin

For centuries Jews have been living in Berlin - for centuries they were persecuted.

From the past to the present day, traces of Jewish life in Berlin can be found at the following places...

Synagogues

Even from a distance shines the golden dome of the Jewish synagogue in Oranienburger Straße in Mitte. Much of the Berlin Jewish community had settled around this street.The synagogue was built in 1866 by Eduard Knoblauch. During World War II it was destroyed, reconstructed in the 1980’s and reopened in 1993. Today it houses the Centrum Judicaium, inside is a permanent exhibition about the history of the synagogue.
centrum judicaium

Centrum Judicaium

The Jewish Synagogue in Rykestraße in Prenzlauer Berg, the largest synagogue in Germany, opened in 1904. It survived the terror of National Socialism relatively unscathed and in 1953 it was inaugurated again.

Rykestraße 53

10405 Berlin 

Synagoge Rykestr.

U2 (Senefelderplatz)

The Jewish Community House (Jüdisches Gemeindehaus)

A portal, that does not fit into a modern building, stands in front of the Jewish Community House in Fasanenstrasse. It is a remnant of the past. In 1912 the synagogue (architect Ehrenfried Hessel) was inaugurated in Fasanenstrasse. In the Kristallnacht in 1938 and during the war it was almost completely destroyed. The synagogue was demolished and in 1959 it was replaced by the Jewish Community House. The portal of the destroyed synagogue remains as a memorial.

Fasanenstrasse 79 / 80
U9  (Kurfürstendamm) S-Bahn: S5, S7, S75 (Zoologischer Garten)

Bavarian quarter

A lot of Jewish life took place in the Bavarian Quarter, which was created in 1900, many well-known Jews lived there. Albert Einstein resided until 1918-1933 in Haberlandstraße.

The monument "Places of Remembrance - exclusion and disenfranchisement,

Expulsion, deportation and murder of Jews in Berlin from 1933 to 1945 "

recalls the harassing anti-Semitic ordinances the Nazis ordered. 80 signs mounted on lamp posts throughout the streets, shows you the horrendous discriminating laws against the Jews in words and pictures. Worth to visit is also the permanent exhibition "We were neighbors" in Rathaus Schöneberg. Biographies tell the life of the Jewish population in Tempelhof-Schöneberg.

Free admission
Bavarian Quarter

 U7 (Bayerischer Platz), U4 (Rathaus Schöneberg)

Jewish Cemeteries

Nothing remains of the first Jewish cemetery in Berlin  -  the Judenkiewer in Spandau. The Old Jewish Cemetery in Grosse Hamburger Strasse is the oldest cemetery that you can visit. It existed from 1672 to 1827 and has a tragic story to tell. The gravestone of the famous writer Moses Mendelssohn is the only one left in this cemetery. Even the Old Jewish Cemetery was submitted to the endless hatred of the Nazis. They destroyed it in 1943, together with the old people's home that existed since 1844 in front of the cemetery. Shortly before the Nazis destroyed it, they set up an assembly camp for Jews before the deportation to the concentration camps. In 1985 the sculpture "Jewish victims of fascism" by Will Lammert was erected at the site of the old people’s home. In the last days of the war about 2427 dead, that were killed during the battle of Berlin, were buried in the cemetery; a memorial stone in the cemetery wall remembers them.

Old Jewish Cemetery

 U6 (Oranienburger Strasse)

the sculpture Jewish victims of fascism by Will Lammert

In 1827 a new Jewish cemetery in Prenzlauer Berg was opened. Among the celebrities who are buried here, are the publisher Leopold Ullstein (1826-1899), the painter Max Liebermann (1847-1935) and the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864). 
U2 (Senefelder Platz)

The Jewish cemetery in Weissensee opened in 1880. The publishers Samuel Fischer (1859-1934) and Rudolf Mosse (1843-1920) found their last resting place here. The cemetery also houses a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. 
Bus 200 (Michelangelostr.)

graves on a Jewish cemetery in Weißensee

Traces of Jewish persecution in Berlin

For centuries, Jews were expelled, persecuted and discriminated. This persecution culminated in the holocaust where 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. The following places in Berlin remember the horrors of the holocaust.

Memorial Gleis 17

This memorial lies in Grunewald Station. From October 1941 to February 1945 over 50.000
 Jews were transported from Platform 17 to various concentration camps. The majority of them awaited death.
website

S-Bahn : S7 (Grunewald)

 The Memorial Gleis 17 at Grunewald

 Inscriptions on Gleis 17

Jews were also transported to their fate from Anhalter Bahnhof and the freight depot in Moabit.

Thousands of “Stolpersteine “ (stumbling stones) in the streets of Berlin remember the many victims of the Nazis who lived at the places where the stones were laid out. Many of these houses were destroyed during the war, so you may find a Stolperstein in front of a modern supermarket building or a bus stop!

Stolpersteine

The Holocaust Memorial near the Brandenburg Gate recalls with  2711 stelae the murdered Jews of Europe.There is also a documentation center in the underground.

website 

Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

Jewish Museum

For those who want to learn more about Jewish life, the Jewish Museum is a must. Two millennia of German-Jewish history are told here in a permanent exhibition.
Lindenstrasse 9-14 
Tel. 030/308 78 56 81 
Jewish Museum  
U6 (Hallesches Tor)

Further exhibitions about Jewish history are:

The Anne Frank Zentrum near Hackescher Markt tells about the life of Anne Frank and her world-famous diary.

Anne Frank Zentrum

S5, S7, S75 (Hackescher Markt)

At the same premises, the businessman Otto Weidt gave work and protection to over 30 blind men and women. The workshop, where they made brushes and brooms, is the highlight of a visit.

Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt