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UNESCO names Erfurt medieval Jewish area World Heritage Site

September 18, 2023

UNESCO has named a group of medieval Jewish sites in the German city of Erfurt as a World Heritage Site. It's the second time Jewish heritage in Germany has been added to the list in recent years.

https://p.dw.com/p/4WRie
The Old Synagogue in Erfurt
The Old Synagogue is regarded as one of the oldest, largest and best-preserved medieval synagogues in EuropeImage: Martin Schutt/dpa/picture alliance

The medieval Jewish town center of Erfurt in central Germany was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List on Sunday. 

"The Jewish monuments of Erfurt were nearly forgotten for centuries," said Maria Böhmer, head of the German UNESCO commission. "Their rediscovery is a great gift."

Among the buildings included on the sought-after list were Erfurt's Old Synagogue, a 13th-century stone building that shows medieval Jewish family life and a traditional ritual bath, or mikveh.

The Old Synagogue was used as a storehouse and then a restaurant and dancehall. Its importance was only rediscovered and established in 1988. The ritual bath was used as a cellar for centuries and was not recognized for its historical and cultural background until 2007.

"In our time, when the immense crimes of the Holocaust still overshadow popular representations of everything Jewish, the UNESCO recognition shines a light on how Jews truly lived, loved, created, and passed on their religion and culture from generation to generation for more than nine hundred years [...] right here in Erfurt," said Alan Bern, the artistic director of culture program Yiddish Summer Weimar.

Second German Jewish site protected by UNESCO

A pogrom in Erfurt in 1349 wiped out the entire Jewish community. The city believes the synagogue's use as a warehouse and dancehall kept it from being destroyed by the Nazis. 

Today, the Old Synagogue, whose earliest signs of construction date back to around 1094, houses a museum. 

The site marks the second Jewish site in Germany to be protected by UNESCO, an important step toward honoring the common roots of Judaism and Christianity, said Kerstin Pürschel, the German ambassador to UNESCO. This brings the number of World Heritage Sites in Germany up to 52.

UNESCO or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations.

UNESCO is based in Paris and began the World Heritage List in 1978. It includes a broad array of over 1,000 sites — from the Acropolis in Athens to the Great Wall of China — nominated by their respective nations.

rm/sms (AP, DPA, AFP)

Correction, September 18, 2023: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Kerstin Pürschel. DW apologizes for the error. 

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