Frankfurt am Main: New Jewish Cemetery

1927 – 1929

Architect: Fritz Nathan

Eckenheimer Landstrasse 238, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

The New Jewish Cemetery was built between 1927 and 1929 according to the plans of government architect Fritz Nathan. It is a Jewish cemetery in Frankfurt am Main, adjacent to the Frankfurt Main Cemetery.

The cemetery was opened in 1929 after the Old Jewish Cemetery, which had been used until then, became too small for burials and could not be expanded. The cemetery is still used today by the Frankfurt Jewish Community for burials.

Location

The cemetery is located in the Frankfurt district of Eckenheim, east of Eckenheimer Landstraße. It borders the main cemetery to the south and east. It covers an area of 54,532 square metres.

Historical Background

The first plans for a new cemetery date back to 1914. By then it was clear that the old cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße was becoming too small for burials. A plot of land on Homburger Landstraße between Friedberger Warte and Marbachweg was considered and purchased for the construction of a new Jewish cemetery.

Due to disagreements with the City of Frankfurt about building on this site, it was agreed that the cemetery would be built on Eckenheimer Landstraße next to the main cemetery. The outbreak of the First World War delayed the planning and redesign.

Competition

It was not until 1921 that an architectural competition was announced. Eight Frankfurt architects were invited to submit designs, including Franz Roeckle, who had already built the Westend Synagogue and an Israeli hospital in Frankfurt.

The jury awarded three equal prizes and the congregation decided to go ahead with Roeckle’s plans. When Roeckle, who was not Jewish, supported the NSDAP in 1923, there was a rift.

The Jewish architect Fritz Nathan, who had been involved in the planning of the Field of Honour at the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee for the Jewish soldiers who died in the First World War, was called in to clarify how to proceed.

Building Programme

In 1924, the community decided on a new building programme: the new Jewish cemetery was to combine the tradition of dignified and uniform Jewish burial places with the modern hygienic and technical requirements brought about by the large number of burials in a large community.

The external appearance of the portal, enclosure and buildings was to achieve a solemn monumentality through the use of solid materials and simple forms, and through the closed silhouette of the whole complex.

With the simplest of means, the proportions and colouring were to create a place of peace that would express the serious and reverent purpose of the complex without any sculptural or picturesque decoration (Fritz Nathan, Der Neue Friedhof. Baubeschreibung, Frankfurter Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt 8, 1929/30).

Construction

Master builder Fritz Nathan was finally commissioned to carry out the work. Construction began in July 1925, but the City of Frankfurt laid claim to the land in order to create much-needed housing.

After long negotiations, an agreement was reached on an area used by allotment gardeners on Eckenheimer Landstrasse. Once the allotments had been relocated, construction began in the spring of 1927.

Entrance

The tripartite portal leads into a courtyard of honour, beyond which are the graveyards, with the Administration Building to the right and the Mourning Hall to the left.

The only decoration on the façade is the red-brown Dutch brickwork, the contrasting copper bands at the ends of the roofs and the wrought-iron gates.

The inscription above the gates quotes Psalm 116:9: “I will walk before the face of the Eternal in the realms of life”.

Layout

The main building of the new cemetery was designed by the Frankfurt government architect Fritz Nathan. As part of the New Frankfurt urban development programme, he designed a red-brown clinker building in the New Objectivity style.

Nathan’s design is notable for its symmetrical ensemble of buildings which, with its strict linear cubature, closed surfaces, uniform materiality and focus on functionality, clearly separates the cemetery from the street space and creates a place of contemplation.

The cobbled courtyard is surrounded by a colonnade. The almost square extension of the square and the square paving emphasise the rigour of the layout. The administration building rises on the right and the funeral hall on the left, both dominating as simple rectangular cubes.

Funeral Hall

The funeral hall echoes the rhythm of the colonnade in the design of the portico-like entrance. The funeral home itself rises slightly above this area and echoes the structure of the portico with a band of windows. In addition to the clinker brick, the contrasting copper bands that run around the perimeter as roof ends or friezes are the unifying element of the ensemble.

The great hall is accessed through five high arcades and five bronze doors, above which are windows that illuminate the space. The low portals on the left lead to the Small Hall, which can be connected to the Great Hall if necessary. It is lit by a stained glass wall. The portals on the right lead to the Kaddish prayer room.

The bronze door in the center bears an inscription in Hebrew and German: “All tears shed for the sake of a righteous man: The Holy One, blessed be He, counts them and stores them in His treasury.

Cemetery Grounds

The cemetery grounds contain the graves of about 8000 deceased people. In contrast to the old cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße, the new cemetery is much simpler. There are hardly any monumental or richly decorated graves.

The design of the new cemetery is therefore more similar to the traditional Jewish cemeteries, which were built in a simple style, in accordance with the basic ideas of the Frankfurt alderman at the time, Ernst May.

The plots are separated by hedges and arranged along a main axis that runs from the entrance to a large menorah.

The burial plots, separated by hedges, are aligned along a main axis that extends from the portal to a large menorah.

Along the main axis are approximately 800 graves of Frankfurt Jews who committed suicide as a result of deportation orders. These graves are uniform in design and bear the inscription “Died for the sanctification of the name”.

Cemetery Wall

In 1939, a 165-meter-long wall was erected between the New Portal of the Main Cemetery and the grounds of the New Cemetery. The cemetery wall is made of stones from the Main Synagogue, which was destroyed in the November 1938 pogrom, and the Börneplatz Synagogue, which was demolished in January 1939. Today a memorial plaque indicates the origin of the building material.

Memorial and graves

In the front part of the cemetery, there is a memorial to the Frankfurt Jews murdered during the Nazi era, the grave of Julius Blau, the first chairman of the Jewish community until 1939, and the grave of Franz Rosenzweig, a religious philosopher who died in 1929.

There are also graves of members of the Jewish community who were active in the post-war period. The Frankfurt social politician Henriette Fürth, who died in 1938, is also buried here.

Today, there are over 8,000 graves in the New Jewish Cemetery.

The cemetery is open to the public except on Saturdays and Jewish holidays. Male visitors are expected to wear a yarmulke.