Die Geschichte der jüdischen Gemeinde in Ottensoos

Jüdisches Leben und die Synagoge in Ottensoos

Im Jahr  903 taucht der Name des Pegnitzdorfes zum 1.Mal urkundlich auf. 1061 wird eine Kirche geweiht. 1268 kommt die Gegend an das Haus Wittelsbach-Bayern. Später dann an die Pfälzer(vgl. Oberpfalz), die 1478 ihr Wappen am Turm der Veitskirche anbringen lassen. Seit 1504 gehört der Pegnitzgrund zu Nürnberg (Alt-Nürnberger Landschaft); Ottensoos bleibt beim Rothenberg (Ganerbenschaft).

Wahrscheinlich ab 1500 gibt es auch in Ottensoos jüdische Haushaltungen, zuvor bereits im Rothenberger Land. Zentrum des Jüdischen Lebens ist Schnaittach, wo Gottesdienste stattfinden können und Beerdigungen.

Erst nach dem 30-jährigen Krieg wächst die Bevölkerung in Ottensoos wieder so an, dass die Juden den Bau einer eigenen Synagoge im Dorf planen. Sie wird im Jahr 1686 erbaut. In Kurbaiern ist das Zusammenleben von Lutherischen Christen und Juden in einem Dorf selten.

Was sind die Voraussetzungen dieses „Landjudentums“? Trotz aller Beschränkungen persönlicher Art (Einschränkungen bei der Berufsausübung, Grundstückserwerb) geben der Hausierhandel, besonders der Viehhandel, aber auch der Geldverleih  Möglichkeiten zum Lebensunterhalt. In Ottensoos spielt der Hopfenanbau eine große Rolle. Die großen Sandstein-Bauernhäuser weisen darauf hin, da durch den Verkauf des Hopfens viel Geld ins Dorf kommt, vor allem im 19. Jhdt. Als Hopfenhändler sind Juden an diesem Aufschwung beteiligt.

Eine Auswirkung dieser Entwicklung ist die Errichtung eines jüdischen Schulhauses: An die Synagoge wird  1869 westlich ein Anbau errichtet, welcher auch die für den Lehrer (und seine Familie) notwendigen Wohnräume umfasste.

1871 versetzt ein Brand die Synagoge in Schutt und Asche. Insgesamt 9 Gebäude brennen nieder, später als „Großer Brand von Ottensoos“ bezeichnet. Unter großen Opfern und durch bayernweite Spendenaktionen kann die Synagoge wieder aufgebaut werden. 1872 wird  das gottesdienstliche Leben im neu geweihten Raum fortgesetzt.

Weil 1806 das Königreich Bayern sich aufmacht, ein moderner Staat zu sein, der allen Bürgern  gleiches Recht zugesteht, erhalten auch jüdische Menschen schrittweise mehr Rechte. Ab 1861 kann jeder bayrische Bürger seinen Wohnort im Land selbst auswählen. Seitdem nimmt die jüdische Dorfbevölkerung ab. Vor allem die Großstadt Nürnberg bietet vielfältigere Berufschancen an, als es das Dorf jemals kann.

Ab dem Jahr 1933 werden auch in Ottensoos negative Gefühle gegen jüdische Mitbürger in Wort und Tat umgesetzt. Noch mehr jüdische Menschen verlassen das Dorf.

Im Sommer 1938 leben nur mehr ca. 15 jüdische Menschen in Ottensoos, welche dann die Schrecken der Reichspogromnacht durchmachen müssen: In der Nacht vom 9. auf den 10. November gibt es Krawalle im Dorf: Die Bewohner der Nachbarschaft verhindern ein Anzünden der Synagoge. Das Gebäude wird aufgebrochen, Gegenstände werden zerstört und durch die zertrümmerten Fenster in den Hof geworfen. Die jüdischen Bewohner werden aus ihren Wohnungen geholt und in der Schule eingesperrt bis zum nächsten Morgen - der Beginn eines schrecklichen Endes...

Im Juni 1939 wird an das Bezirksamt gemeldet, dass in Ottensoos keine Juden mehr wohnen. Das Gebäude der ehem. Synagoge wird noch 1938 an die Gemeinde verkauft.

Nach Kriegsende ist die Wohnungsnot groß: im hohen Gebetsraum werden  Decken eingezogen, um ihn als Wohnung nützen zu können.

Trotz gewisser Renovierungen wohnen immer weniger Mieter in der ehem. Synagoge. Jahrelang steht das Gebäude leer. Eine im Nov.1988  an der Front angebrachte Erinnerungs-Tafel macht auf das Schicksal des Gebäudes und der jüdischen Mitbürger aufmerksam. 2009 gibt das Konjunkturprogramm II den ersten Anstoß für eine Sanierung und Teil-Rekonstruktion, die ab 2010 begonnen werden. 

(Quelle: Martin Schieber: Ottensoos - Ein Streifzug durch elf Jahrhunderte Geschichte. Sandberg Verlag, 2003)

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History of the Jewish Community in Ottensoos

Jewish life and the synagogue in Ottensoos

The name of this Pegnitz village appeared for the first time in the official documents in 903. Already in 1061, a church was consecrated in Ottensoos. In 1268, the area came under the control of the House of Wittelsbach-Bavaria. In 1478 the Palatinate (specifically the Upper Palatinate) had its coat of arms mounted on the tower of St. Vitus (St. Veit in German) Church. Even though the Pegnitz lands came under the ownership of Nuremberg in 1504 (Alt-Nürnberger Landschaft), Ottensoos remained with Rothenberg (Ganerbschaft, or an estate jointly owned by several noble families).

There were likely Jewish households in Ottensoos already in 1500, since there were Jewish families already in the Rothenberger lands. The center of Jewish life was Schnaittach since that’s where religious services and funerals took place.

It was only after the Thirty Years' War that the population of Ottensoos grew again to such an extent that the Jewish inhabitants built their own synagogue, completed in 1686. It is worth noting, that in the Duchy of Bavaria, it was rare for Lutherans and Jews to live together in the same village.

What were the prerequisites for the "rural Jews"? Despite all the restrictions of personal nature (restrictions on practicing a profession, acquiring land, etc), the trade, especially in livestock, as well as moneylending provided opportunities for the rural Jews to make a living. Hop growing played a major role in Ottensoos. The large sandstone farmhouses in the village stand as testament to the wealth that the sale of hops brought to the village, especially in the 19th century. As hop merchants, Ottensoos Jews benefited from this booming trade.

One effect of the economic boom was the construction of a Jewish schoolhouse with living quarters for the teacher (and his family) as an extension on the west of the synagogue in 1869. In 1871, a fire reduced the synagogue to rubble. In what later became known as the "Great Fire of Ottensoos," a total of nine buildings burned down. The synagogue was rebuilt thanks to great personal sacrifices and through fundraising campaigns throughout Bavaria. In 1872, worship services began in the newly consecrated space.

Because in 1806 the Kingdom of Bavaria set out to become a modern state that granted equal rights to all citizens, Jewish people were also gradually granted more rights. From 1861, every Bavarian citizen could choose his or her own place of residence in the state. As a consequence, the Jewish population of the village began to decrease since the cities, the city of Nuremberg in particular, offered more diverse career opportunities. 

From 1933 onwards, as antisemitic sentiments and acts increased in Ottensoos, even more Jewish citizens left the village.

In the summer of 1938, there were only around 15 Jewish inhabitants left in Ottensoos; they endured the full horrors of the Night of the Broken Glass. On the night of November 9/10, there were riots in the village; the residents of the neighborhood, however, prevented the synagogue from being set on fire. The building was broken into, religious objects were destroyed and thrown through the smashed windows into the courtyard. The Jewish residents were taken from their homes and locked in the school until the next morning, the beginning of a terrible end.

In June 1939, it was reported to the district office that there are no more Jews living in Ottensoos. The building of the former synagogue was sold to the community already in 1938.

After the war ended, the housing shortage was great, so the ceilings were installed in the high prayer room so that the building could be used as an apartment building.

Despite some renovations, over time fewer and fewer tenants lived in the former synagogue. The building stood empty for some time. In 1988 a commemorative plaque was mounted on the front to draw attention to the fate of the synagogue and the Jewish citizens of Ottensoos. In 2009, the second economic stimulus package provided the initial funding for renovation and partial reconstruction of the synagogue, which began in 2010.

(Source:Schieber, Martin. Ottensoos - A journey through eleven centuries of history. Sandberg Verlag, 2003)

Haus der bayerischen Geschichte

Jüdisches Leben in Bayern:

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HOUSE of the BAVARIAN HISTORY

17^th and 18^th centuries

At the end of the 17th century in Ottensoos, there were fourteen Jewish families (around 60 people), who were legally equal to their Christian neighbors. In 1686, the community built its own centrally located synagogue opposite the parish church of St. Vitus (St. Veit in German), today on Dorfplatz 5. After the Electorate of Bavaria took over the Rothenberg Castle in 1698, along with all the associated manorial estates, the Jews of Ottensoos, Schnaittach and Hüttenbach received new letters of protection, usually valid for 15 years, in return for a payment of 8,000 guilders.

An electoral decree of 1717 that forbade Jews to acquire any more land without official permission proved to be a heavy burden for the Ottensoos Jews; in 1722, for example, 18 families lived in just seven houses. There has been so far little research into the further history of the Ottensoos Jewish community in the 18th century; all that is certain from the tax records is the overwhelming poverty of its members. If at all, only one community member took on all the basic functions (chasan, melamed, shochet) at the same time. 

One local peculiarity was the Jewish families who lived in an extraterritorial freehold and were under the protection of the Franconian imperial knights of Crailsheim. These Jewish families rarely appear in Bavarian archives, but they were regarded as committed members of the community and often took on leadership roles in the local communities.

19^th Century

In 1806, the formerly independent imperial knight districts merged, and the Franconian knight district and its inhabitants fell to the Kingdom of Bavaria. In a new list from 1811, it is mentioned that there was a (probably honorary) circumciser in Ottensoos, while in Hüttenbach and Schnaittach the rabbi himself took on the task.

The coexistence of Christians and Jews in Ottensoos was quite uncomplicated throughout the 19th century; when the religious community built a poorhouse in 1829, for example, a needy Jewish family lived in the schoolhouse during the construction period, and lessons for thirty Jewish children were moved to a room belonging to the Christian master tailor Deuerlein. The new state hygiene regulations caused quite a headache in 1829; as in almost every other Franconian rural community, the old mikvah in the Ottensoos synagogue became inadequate, since it did not comply with the new regulations. By 1834, a detached bathhouse had been built to the north of the synagogue, which was extended in 1853 with a pump system for the water supply and renovated in 1904 at great expense.

From the middle of the century, the great wave of overseas emigration set in; the plight from the countryside was exacerbated by the free choice of profession and place of residence granted to the Jews in 1861. At the start of 1866, the Jewish community in Ottensoos refused to pay the Protestant parish office the New Year's church tax, which they had to pay then to the local pastor as compensation for the loss of the income. On March 9, 1866, however, the board members Hayum Simonsfeld and Wolf Heßdörfer had to officially agree that the Jewish community "had to give 3 Nuremberg pounds of sugar to the Protestant parish office every New Year."

From 1867 onwards, the so-called "departure money" was intended to compensate somewhat for the ever-increasing loss of income for the community, which caused understandable resentment among the emigrating members of the community.

In 1869, 108 Jewish women, children and men lived in Ottensoos. While the children went to the local elementary school, they received separate religious instruction in the community school. The building, of unknown date and location, also served as a shul. As before, the state-certified religious teacher fulfilled the duties of both chasan in the synagogue and shochet. Because the young community teacher Salomon Friedheim married and needed a larger home, the IKG (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde) decided to build a new building in 1869, which was directly connected to the synagogue and cost an impressive 1,300 guilders. 

On the Sabbath night of September 2, 1871, a fire broke out in the butcher Rebitzer's barn and destroyed nine buildings in the village, including the school/synagogue complex. However, thanks to a Bavaria-wide fundraising campaign, the Jewish community of Ottensoos raised enough funds to build a new synagogue with integrated school and living quarters in the summer of 1872.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the economic situation in Ottensoos improved noticeably, mainly due to the upswing in the Jewish-dominated hop trade, which had a globally significant center in Nuremberg.

20^th Century and the Nazi Period

The Jewish population of the village had a majority in the census voting system, which was at the time based on wealth. From the end of the 19th century until 1933, there was always a Jewish representative on the community council. In 1901, the IKG initiated the construction of a water and electricity line in Ottensoos.

Community festivals, such as the fire department ball, were organized interdenominationally, and Jewish life took place quite openly in everyday life. In view of the shrinking rural communities, the IKG Ottensoos had to significantly expand its communal area. A government decree dated June 25, 1932 assigned one Jewish family in each of the villages of Röthenbach and Offenhausen to the Jewish community.

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Jews were increasingly pushed out of public life. Many Jewish citizens moved to the supposedly safe big cities or left the country, if they had the means. By 1938, only 15 Jewish families were still living in Ottensoos. As there was no longer a minyan, Ottensoos, Schnaittach and Hüttenbach joined together for religious services.

In the Night of the Broken Glass on November 9, 1938, the synagogue was vandalized, and all Jewish residents were detained in the elementary school until they could return to their looted homes in the morning. They then sold their properties under pressure and left their homes by June 17, 1939.

A total of 24 Jewish men, women and children who were born in Ottensoos or had lived there perished in the Shoah.

Present

The former synagogue was renovated in 2010 by the "Friends of the Former Synagogue in Ottensoos e.V.", and now hosts a variety of cultural events. In 1988, a memorial plaque was attached to the south wall of the building, commemorating the history of the Jewish community in Ottensoos and its place of worship. The lintel of a Jewish house from 1723 can be found in the Jewish Museum of Franconia in Schnaittach, as well as two Torah curtains from the synagogue. One of them, donated to the Synagogue by the couple Heinrich and Helene Prager in 1884, was the showpiece of a special exhibition in 2021/22 as a "rediscovered gem from Ottensoos."