DETTENSEE: City of Horb am Neckar. Dettensee is one of 17 districts of the city of Horb am Neckar. The village is situated in the SE of Freudenstadt district and first mentioned in documents as 816 Tatinse. From the 18th to the 20th century, Dettersee existed as a large Jewish community with its own synagogue and cemetery, but in 1903 only 19 Jews lived there. In WWII, many buildings in the town, including the town hall, were destroyed.
Jewish history. The Jewish community at Dettensee presumably was founded with permission of the monastery of Mur by 1764 but from judicial documents, Jews were living in Dettensee before 1579. A promissory note by a citizen of Nagold to Gumprecht, a Jew living in Dettensee, dates from 1618. Forty-seven years later, both men's descendants were still arguing about repayment. The Jews were living in three manorial houses. Housing was pitiful. In those buildings with a prayer room and a school room in addition to all the families. No family had more than two rooms.. The village become a part of Hohenzollern in 1806 when the Jewish community was one of three besides Haigerloch and Hechingen in Hohenzollern. In 1820, a synagogue was built. In 1822, even an own rabbinate could be installed. A Jewish school was founded in 1826. All the Jews except the schoolmaster, the precentor and one innkeeper were traders and dealers. However, the possibilities of trade and commerce were very limited due to the restrictions and orders of the administration; as a consequence meant Jews only could survive by begging and receiving alms. The population of the Jewish community at Dettensee peaked in 1830 with 197; roughly half of the population.Meanwhile, a cemetery opened. An 1849 order of the princely government of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen emancipated the Jews: They could buy houses, marry more easily so their general situation improved. Still, in the years to follow, decline became obvious: The Jews moved to the bigger cities or emigrated to America. With 143 Jews in 1886, only 100 in 1890 and four in 1904, the school closed in 1902. The relief-fund was taken over by the Jewish community of Haigerloch, When the Nazis took power in 1933, the two Jews left in Dettensee, siblings Hermann and Luise Hirsch. Hermann Hirsch had given the real estate and the assets of the Jewish community to the village of Dettensee in 1930. Dettensee, in exchange, agreed to maintain and take care of the cemetery and to tear down the synagogue. On July 1, 1934, Herman Hirsch died. His sister Luise stayed at Dettensee until August 22, 1942. On that day, she was deported to Theresienstadt. From there, she came to the extermination camp at Maly-Trostinec, where she was murdered. The cemetery is still intact, Hermann Hirsch's tombstone is a pillar of the torn-down synagogue. A door of the prayer house today serves as the entrance door of a former joinery. The most famous Jew from Dettensee, maybe the one citizen from Dettensee known best at all, was the painter Salomon Hirschfelder born here on May 16, 1831. Later, he moved to Munich to study at the academy of arts. [February 2013]
The coat of arms signifies a banking group in the village of Dettensee. The star refers to the Lords of Nonagon, the local owner from 1596 to 1620. The coat of arms was adopted on 28 February 1969 by the Ministry of the Interior awarded.
72160 Baden-Württemberg (Gerz)
see Horb.
To see information and photographs of individual gravestones in cemeteries in Baden-Wuerttemberg, click on this link and follow the directions on that page.