48°10' N 8°37' E, :town history: " The oldest town in Baden-Württemberg, its appearance has changed very little from the 16th century." The official website. [Mar 2013]
JEWISH CEMETERY: website with history and photos: "Jewish community burials were first in Rottweil Muehringen and Hechingen. Before 1835, the Jewish community tried in vain to get a Jewish section in the city Christian cemetery. 1850, the community purchased land from the city for 50 guilders on the Nicholasfeld for their own cemetery. They adapted the Moravian custom of uniform, slightly slanting but flat gravestones expressing the equality of all people in death. In 1908 land was acquired to enlarge the cemetery. In 1910 the cemetery was partially walled and provided with a portal. Since then, access of Hoferstraase. In 1917, Jewish community member Moritz Rothschild argued for future standing gravestones, as the inscriptions of the stones lying down become illegible. He could not prevail. During the November 1938 pogrom, obviously nothing happened in the cemetery. The end of the WWII, however, the site was totally neglected. The municipality was bought in 1943 for a price of 85 RM's. A portion of the unused cemetery land became Khuonstraße Behelfswohnheime. After 1945, the cemetery on the "Jewish religious organization in Württemberg-Hohenzollern" was broadcast. In 1966 a memorial stone was erected with 62 names of Jews buried here. An equally large number of gravestones could not deciphered even then. On a special 1990 commemorative plaque, the names of the eight Rottweil Jews, who perished because of the Nazis. Drawn up in 1993 with the support of the high school students, Rottweiler Landesdenkmalamt documented the Jewish cemetery. The area of the cemetery is a 11.58. In the summer of 2012 the 1966 erected memorial stone was renovated." [Mar 2013]
78628 Baden-Württemberg (Gerz, Peters).
LOCATION OF CEMETERY: Hoferstrasse / corner Lindenstrasse (Detail).
IN USE: From 1850 until 1938 and again in 1948, 1974. Last burial in June 2004 and still in use today.
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 112.
DOCUMENTATION:
- 1990 photographs of all gravestones with mapping of graves by Zentralarchiv.
- 1995 cemetery documentation including above photographs by the Office for Historic Monuments (Landesdenkmalamt ed. Frowald Gil Hüttenmeister).
- Large numbers of photographs of individual gravestones and general cemetery views in Alemannia Judaica, from around 1930, 1980 and more recently in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
- Photographic survey by Württemberg 1932, page 120.
- History by Klein, pages 67-68.
- Numerous publications about the Jewish community of Rottweil listed in Alemannia Judaica.
- The community first attempted to acquire a burial ground in 1835, when they tried in vain to be allowed to establish a Jewish section in the new City cemetery. Eventually, they acquired a suitable piece of land in 1850 for 50 Gulden on the Nikolausfeld, the present location. There is an historical background to this area: the Roman Legions had their headquarters here and in the immediate vicinity.
- Prior to having their own cemetery, the Jewish community of Rottweil used the cemeteries in Hechingen and Mühringen (Sauer 1966, page 155).
- This Jewish cemetery is unique in Baden-Württemberg, in that almost all gravestones are at a sloping angle, which may have been replicated from the graveyard of the Protestant church in Königsfeld near Rottweil, where this was the tradition. (Sauer 1966, page 155. See also Klein, pages 67-68).
- The City authorities had compulsorily purchased the the cemetery land in 1943. Between 1943 and 1945 part of the cemetery area was used to construct temporary housing . By 1945, the cemetery itself had become totally neglected. The property was returned to the "Jüdische Kultusvereinigung in Württemberg-Hohenzollern", at that time by way of restitution.
- A memorial was erected in 1966 bearing the names of 62 Jewish citizens buried in this cemetery. A similar number of gravestones had deteriorated to such an extent that it was no longer possible to determine the names of the deceased.
- A special memorial plaque was dedicated in 1990 recording the names of the eight Jewish citizens of Rottweil who lost their lives during the Nazi era.
- In 1993 High School students in Rottweil, together with the assistance of the Office for Historic Monuments (Landesdenkmalamt), produced a history of this cemetery.
- The cemetery gates are locked but keys are available from the local Friedhofsverwaltung Rottweil, local telephone 0741/494-237 und 494-278.
[Researched and translated from German October 2008]
To see information and photographs of individual gravestones in cemeteries in Baden-Wuerttemberg, click on this link and follow the directions on that page.