Der Friedhof von Niederhof

Between 1776 and 1851, the Jewish community of Stralsund buried its dead in the Niederhof cemetery, located on the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern between Stralsund and Greifswald. The community came into being around the time the royal Swedish mint was founded in Stralsund in the run-up to the Seven Years’ War. From then on, Jews who were able to process and trade in metals were allowed to settle in Stralsund. The Niederhof cemetery provided the community with a permanent place for their deceased ones.

The theologian and Hebraist Andreas Ruwe has researched this site in full for the first time. With the help of Nathanja Hüttenmeister, an expert on Jewish cemeteries, Ruwe has transcribed and translated the inscriptions on all the gravestones for this book. Several gravestones were reconstructed from the available fragments. The historian Joachim Krüger compiled a detailed overview of the history of Jewish life in Western Pomerania since the Middle Ages, with a special focus on the coinage system. Not only were the identities of the buried persons analysed as far as possible, but also their social and political significance within their community and in connection with the history of coinage and money in Stralsund and Western Pomerania.

Sponsored by:

Fonds des Landes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern für Vorpommern und das östliche Mecklenburg