11,908 names, 11,908 fates: the memorial site at Börneplatz recalls the Jewish community in Frankfurt that was annihilated during the National Socialist era. The memorial site is located to the east of the inner city between Frankfurt’s oldest Jewish cemetery and the rear of the building in which the new Museum Judengasse is housed.
Eleven Years of Planning and Construction
The City of Frankfurt organized a competition for the development of Börneplatz as early as 1985. A Customer Center for the municipal utilities (Stadtwerke) was to be located there. At the same time, the City Council and Magistrate decided that, along with the new building, Börneplatz was to be re-designed and named New Börneplatz. The Jewish community suggested that a memorial site be installed to commemorate the deportations of Frankfurt’s Jewish citizens.
The Börneplatz Conflict of 1987
During the construction of the Customer Center, house foundations and two mikvehs from Frankfurt’s Judengasse, the former Jewish ghetto, were discovered. As the city government under the Lord Mayor Wolfram Brück (CDU) decided to retain the plan for a new municipal utilities building, the remainders of the foundation walls were removed. This led to considerable public protest. In the summer of 1987, marches were held protesting the removal of the archaeological finds; the building site was occupied temporarily by protesters. The Börneplatz Conflict finally ended with a compromise: the foundations of five houses from the former Judengasse, two ritual baths, and other archaeological remains were returned to their original location. Today, they make up the focal point of the Judengasse Museum, which was opened in 1992. Parallel to the municipal buildings works, a competition was organized for the "New Börneplatz Memorial Site".
Fritz Backhaus, "Und keiner hat für uns Kaddisch gesagt ...", Frankfurt am Main 2005, p 500."The work of remembering is a never ending process."
A Place of Mourning and of Remembering: Börneplatz Memorial Site
The central feature of the memorial site opened in 1996 is the frieze on the outer wall of the Old Jewish Cemetery. 11,908 blocks each with a name recall all the known Frankfurt victims of the National Socialist annihilation policy. Visitors to the memorial site can place small stones on the wall in keeping with the Jewish mourning ritual. The neighboring Jewish Cemetery was given two modern metal gates on which the words "Beth HaChaim" (House of Life) are written in Hebrew lettering.
On the square itself is a large stone cube surrounded by a grove of plane trees. The cube is made up of remains of the foundations of the former ghetto. The ground is covered in grey gravel. The ground plan of the former Börneplatz synagogue is marked out by metal strips. The synagogue was destroyed in 1938 during the November pogrom. A memorial plaque commemorating the destroyed synagogue was installed on the rear wall of the municipal utilities building; that plaque had already been unveiled closeby in 1946.
Five street signs just a few meters away from the stone cube recall the square’s different names over time: first it was called Judenmarkt, as of 1886 Börneplatz, in 1935 it was renamed Dominikanerplatz because the man it had been named after, Ludwig Börne, was a Jew. In 1978 the name reverted to Börneplatz. Since 1996 it has been known as Neuer Börneplatz.
Visitor information
Börneplatz Memorial Site
Opened today: 00:00 – 23:59
The memorial is permanently acessible.
Prices
- Visiting the memorial is free of charge.0€
Accessibility
The crushed rock ground on large parts of the memorial is difficult to access for wheelchair users.
Börneplatz Memorial Site
Neuer Börneplatz
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Public transportation
Tram 11, 12 (RMV station Battonnstrasse)