Rödelheim

Quarter of Frankfurt am Main in Hesse, Germany

50°07′54″N 08°36′35″E / 50.13167°N 8.60972°E / 50.13167; 8.60972CountryGermanyStateHesseAdmin. regionDarmstadt DistrictUrban districtCityFrankfurt am MainArea • Total5.145 km² (1.986 sq mi)Population • Total19,253 • Density3,700/km² (9,700/sq mi)Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)Postal codesDialling codes069Vehicle registrationFWebsitewww.roedelheim.de

Rödelheim is a quarter of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the Ortsbezirk Mitte-West and is subdivided into the Stadtbezirke Rödelheim-Ost and Rödelheim-West.

There are a number of celebrities who have established their base in Rödelheim, including Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt, Mathias Barbosa and Sabrina Setlur.

In 2015 the skeletons of 200 French soldiers that had died in 1813 were discovered here.^[2]

Jewish history in Rödelheim

From the 17th century, Rödelheim developed into a centre of Yiddish Kabbalistic folklore. An edition of the Ma'assebuch was published here in 1753 by Jona ben Josche Gamburg and printed by Karl Reich.^[3]

In 1799, the publisher and scholar Benjamin Wolf Heidenheim founded a printing press that published Jewish prayer books and theological works. Heidenheim then lived in Rödelheim until his death in 1832. Seligman Baer, a masoretic scholar and Hebrew grammarian of the modern period, also published in Rödelheim. Rödelheim had become a major center for the printing and export of Hebrew books, many of which can be found in the Jewish Museum of Switzerland’s collection.

Between 1680 and 1700, the Jewish community assembled in a barn. The first synagogue was established in 1730 at Schulstraße No. 9 (today's Inselgäßchen). At this time the Jewish community consisted of about 80 people. The Jewish community of Rödelheim was subject to the rabbinate of Gießen.

With the growth of the community, a new synagogue was built and consecrated on 29 June 1838. Ludwig Thudichum, the pastor of the Protestant Cyriakusgemeinde, gave an inauguration speech. The synagogue was built in an “oriental” style of architecture. It was damaged on the night of the 9/10 November 1938 ("Reichspogromnacht"), the interior having been set on fire. The last residents had to leave the building on 3 November 1939, after which it was used as a storage room for a car repair shop. The building was destroyed by Allied bombs on 22 March 1944.

Today, the site of the synagogue is marked with a memorial by sculptor Christof Krause, erected in 1979. An extension was added in 2015, with a row of paving stones indicating the outline of the synagogue and 8 stone blocks indicating the rows of seats. A stone with the relief of a menorah marks the site of the former Torah shrine.^[4] In addition, there are a number of Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) in Rödelheim commemorating the lives of Jews and others persecuted under National Socialist rule.

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