House of Eternity

Death and cemeteries may at first not appear like topics that allow for much to be learned about Jewish life. Yet Jewish burial sites and Jewish engagements with death are a downright mirror of centuries of Jewish existence in Germany. This is first because graves are regarded as eternal in Judaism and may not be reused. This means that Jewish cemeteries (in contrast to Christian cemeteries) are partly still preserved in the same form as centuries ago. Second, this is because Jewish cemeteries reflect the Jewish population’s emancipation process in the nineteenth century as the design of these spaces and the form, material, language, and ornamentation of the graves increasingly adapted the tastes of the surrounding culture. Finally, the history of violence characterizing Jewish existence in Germany has inscribed itself in Jewish cemeteries in the form of targeted destruction, vandalism, and neglect – constituting an unceasing continuity from the Middle Ages into the present. This seminar will explore the potential insights afforded by an engagement with Jewish sepulchral culture as well as the evident boom in engagements with Jewish cemeteries as sites of the politics of memory. 

Literature: Andreas Nachama et al., art. »Tod und Trauer«, in: ders. u.a., Basiswissen Judentum. Mit einem Geleitwort von Rabbiner Henry G. Brandt, Freiburg i. B. 2015, 325‒356; Michael Brocke/Christiane E. Müller, Haus des Lebens. Jüdische Friedhöfe in Deutschland, Leipzig 2001; Andreas Wirsching, Jüdische Friedhöfe in Deutschland 1933‒1957, in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 50 (2002) 1, 1‒40.

Für Seniorenstudium geöffnet: NEIN