Old Synagogue, Erfurt
About This Site
The Old Synagogue in Erfurt has parts reaching back to the 11th century, and it is the oldest synagogue in Central Europe still standing up to its roof. Since 2009 it has been a museum of the city's medieval Jewish community, which held a prominent place in Europe in its day: the building tells its own long story, the Erfurt Treasure, most likely buried at the time of the pogrom of 1349, lies in the cellar, and gravestones from the lost medieval cemetery stand in the courtyard.[1] Together with the mikveh by the river Gera and the Stone House on Benediktsplatz, the synagogue has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 17 September 2023, as the Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt: a rare chance to see, in one old town, how a Jewish community lived, prayed and did business beside its Christian neighbours in the Middle Ages.[2]
Four building phases, c. 1094–1300
Timber in the west wall gives the first synagogue its date: dendrochronology puts it at 1094, and about eight metres of that oldest masonry, rubble laid with recessed pointing, are still there to see. A second synagogue went up in the later twelfth century and left a short stretch of wall with a twin window. Then, around 1270, the community built itself a proper house of prayer, taking the older walls into a new west front with five lancet windows and a great rose, under a hall roofed with a wooden barrel vault; of its furnishings only the lamp cornice survives, clearest on the east wall where the Torah shrine most likely stood. Around 1300 the building grew a few metres northward and gained a storey, room most likely for the women's synagogue or for a school where the boys learned Hebrew.[3]
A leading community of its time, late 11th century–1349
Erfurt's Jewish community can be traced from the late 11th century, when the synagogue was first built, and by the 13th century tax lists and deeds show Erfurt Jews working in banking, with business relationships across the Holy Roman Empire. Their neighbourhood lay in the very centre of the city, in the quarter between the town hall, the Krämerbrücke and the Michaeliskirche, where they lived alongside Christian merchants; the mikveh was close by, the cemetery outside the quarter at the Moritztor. Eminent scholars lived and taught here, foremost among them the rabbi and author Alexander Süßkind ha-Kohen, and 15 Hebrew manuscripts from the community are held today by the Berlin State Library.[4]
The pogrom of 1349 and the second community, 1349–1454
The plague years carried the persecutions north, and in March 1349 they reached Erfurt. Debt, hatred of another faith, envy between traders and politics all played their part; the story that Jews had poisoned the wells gave the mob its excuse. On 21 March 1349 the community was wiped out, with as many as 900 dead, Alexander Süßkind ha-Kohen in all likelihood among them. Jews came back, probably from 1354, and this second community prayed in a synagogue the council had built for it behind the town hall in 1355–1357. It lasted a century: in 1453 the council withdrew its protection, and from 1454 no Jew was tolerated in Erfurt.[4]
Storehouse, ballroom and restaurant, 1349–1990
After the pogrom the city took the badly damaged synagogue and sold it to a trader who already owned the neighbouring plot on Michaelisstraße. He turned it into a storehouse, adding a large vaulted cellar, new roof trusses and two heavy timber floors whose beams date from 1350, and breaking cart doorways through the east and north walls. For the next 500 years it stored goods, and grains and husks can still be seen behind the glass of the west lancet windows. From the late 19th century it served for dining and dancing, with a ballroom richly decorated with stucco figures and painting on the first floor, a kitchen and later a dining room below, and two skittle alleys.[3] Hidden by so many alterations, its past as a synagogue had long been forgotten, and the building came through the Nazi period undamaged.[5]
Rediscovery, rescue and a museum, late 1980s–2009
The surviving fabric was first documented and assessed in the late 1980s, and from 1992 building surveys led by Elmar Altwasser showed the synagogue to be largely intact and of particular constructional quality — though after centuries as a storehouse and restaurant and decades of neglect it was in acute danger of collapse. After lengthy negotiations the city of Erfurt bought it in 1998. The restoration kept the traces of every later use, since they reflect the history of Erfurt's Jewish community, and cleared away many annexes so that the synagogue can be seen from outside. Work on a museum of the culture and history of the medieval community began in 2003, and the Museum Old Synagogue Erfurt opened on 27 October 2009.[3]
The Erfurt Treasure, hidden 1349, found 1998
The treasure came to light in 1998, shortly before archaeologists finished investigating the plot at Michaelisstraße 43 near the synagogue, hidden beneath the wall of a cellar entrance — a find unique in its size and composition. Some 24 kilograms of it are 3,141 silver coins and 14 silver ingots; beside them lie more than seven hundred pieces of Gothic goldsmith's work — a set of eight silver beakers, brooches set with precious stones, gold and silver rings, belt and garment fittings — and, finest of all, a Jewish wedding ring of pure gold from the second quarter of the fourteenth century, crowned with Gothic architecture in miniature.[6] Most likely a Jewish merchant hid the hoard as the pogrom approached; Kalman von Wiehe, the money lender who last owned the plot, may have been the man. The treasure travelled, to Speyer, Berlin, Paris, London and New York, before it came home to the synagogue's cellar for good.[7]
The mikveh by the Gera, 12th century–2011
A ritual bath may have stood here as early as the 12th century; only its south wall is left. In the 13th century a new bath was built against that wall, about nine metres long and not quite three wide, with its water basin right at the river Gera. The pogrom of 1349 left it badly damaged, the second community used it again after 1354, and once the Jews had been driven out in 1453 the basin was filled in and the room became a cellar.[8] Archaeologists rediscovered it in 2007 during building work beside the Krämerbrücke.[5] A protective building designed by the Weimar architects gildehaus.reich went up in the first half of 2011, and the mikveh opened as a museum that September, visited on guided tours.[8]
The Stone House, c. 1250
In a complex of buildings at Benediktsplatz 1, in the historic centre, stands a medieval stone house built around 1250, which has kept an exceptional amount of its original structure.[9] Its owners can be traced to the Jewish community, and hardly any secular building of its age anywhere in Europe still has what this one has: a painted ceiling in its original state.[2]
World Heritage, 2014–2023
Erfurt's old town has kept unique buildings from the Jewish community of the late 11th to the mid-14th century, and with them a wealth of original objects that show how Jews and Christians lived together in a medieval city; that is why Erfurt sought World Heritage status for its medieval Jewish heritage.[2] The Old Synagogue and mikveh joined Germany's Tentative List in 2014, the nomination and its management plan reached UNESCO in Paris in early 2021, and experts inspected the site in Erfurt that September. The session planned for Kazan in June 2022 was postponed because of the war in Ukraine, and on 17 September 2023, meeting in Riyadh for its 45th session, the World Heritage Committee inscribed the Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt — the Old Synagogue, the mikveh and the Stone House — on the World Heritage List.[10]
Museum, quarter and music, 2009–2026
The museum's exhibition runs through the whole house: gravestones in the courtyard, the building history on the ground floor, the treasure in the cellar and the Erfurt Hebrew Manuscripts upstairs.[1] A lift reaches every exhibition space, a video guide leads visitors through the house and works with an induction loop, and touch tours for visually impaired visitors can be booked.[11] Out in the streets, the open-air exhibition "Inter Judeos" has 19 stations through the Jewish quarter, directly linked to the synagogue, the mikveh and the Stone House, and public tours of the quarter and of the mikveh are free.[12] The Yiddish Summer Weimar festival has brought international concerts and talks on Yiddish music and culture to Erfurt, in 2026 for the twelfth time, in cooperation with the city and its network for Jewish life.[13]
Questions visitors ask
- What is the Old Synagogue in Erfurt?
- A medieval synagogue with parts from the 11th century, the oldest in Central Europe still standing up to its roof, and since 2009 a museum of Erfurt's medieval Jewish community.[1]
- How old is the Old Synagogue?
- Its oldest walls date from the late 11th century, with timber dated by dendrochronology to 1094; the building was rebuilt in the 12th century, largely renewed around 1270 and extended and raised around 1300.[3]
- What happened to the synagogue in 1349?
- In the pogrom of 21 March 1349 Erfurt's whole Jewish community was destroyed and up to 900 people died.[4] The damaged synagogue was sold to a trader and used as a storehouse for about 500 years, later as a ballroom and restaurant.[3]
- What is the Erfurt Treasure?
- A hoard found in 1998 at Michaelisstraße 43, near the synagogue, most likely buried at the time of the 1349 pogrom: 3,141 silver coins, 14 silver ingots and more than seven hundred pieces of Gothic goldsmith's work, above all a Jewish wedding ring of pure gold. It is on permanent display in the synagogue's cellar.[6]
- Why is the Old Synagogue a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
- Since 17 September 2023 it has been inscribed, with the mikveh and the Stone House, as the Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt: buildings and objects that bear witness to the Jewish community of the late 11th to the mid-14th century and to how Jews and Christians lived side by side in a medieval city.[2]
- Can I visit the Old Synagogue and the mikveh?
- Yes. The synagogue at Waagegasse 8 is a museum with a lift to every exhibition space;[11] the mikveh is visited on guided tours, and the open-air exhibition Inter Judeos leads through the Jewish quarter between them. See the visitor details for current opening times and admission.[12]
Sources (13)
- Die Alte Synagoge Erfurt — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Das jüdisch-mittelalterliche Erbe in Erfurt — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Die Baugeschichte der Alten Synagoge — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Jüdische Gemeinde im Mittelalter — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Alte Synagoge (Erfurt) — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Erfurter Schatz — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Historischer Hintergrund — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Die Baugeschichte der mittelalterlichen Mikwe — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Objekte der Erfurter Bewerbung — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Antragschronologie — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Besucherinformation Alte Synagoge — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Jüdisches Leben Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Alte Synagoge außer Haus: Kostenfreie Angebote während der baubedingten Schließung — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Yiddish Summer Weimar kommt erneut nach Erfurt — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, retrieved 13 September 2026
Visit Information
Public tours of the Jewish Quarter and the mikveh are free; donations are welcome.
Closed for renovation from 3 August 2026 to 28 February 2027. Free public tours of the Jewish Quarter on Saturdays and Sundays at 10:15 am from Benediktsplatz; mikveh tours on Thursdays and Fridays at 2 pm and on Saturdays and Sundays at 11:45 am from Kreuzgasse.
Waagegasse 8, 99084 Erfurt
50.9786, 11.0293
In the history of Erfurt
Historic sites
Krämerbrücke, between Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt, 99084 Erfurt
The medieval Jewish quarter lay between the town hall, the Krämerbrücke and the Michaeliskirche, and the mikveh was rediscovered beside the bridge in 2007.
Around Weimar
20 km West
The oldest synagogue in Central Europe standing up to its roof, and since 2023 the heart of Erfurt's UNESCO World Heritage.