1096 - Persecution of Jews in the Rhineland. Immigration from Mainz

1147 - Febr. 24 First mention of a Jewish community in connection with a pogrom

1147-1298 The Jewish community of Wuerzburg flourishes. Immigrantgs from all parts of Southern Germany, from France and from England.

1235/36 - All Jews in the Empires are made taxable subjects of the king („Kammerknechte”)

1247 - The king pledges the protection of Wuerzburg Jews and with it the resulting income to the clerical government („Hochstift”) of Wuerzburg.

1298 - Large scale persecution of jews, the bloodiest of the Middle ages, known as „Rintfleischprogrom” spread all over the South of Germany. In Wuerzburg alone 841 local jews and some 100 jews who had fled there from the provinces were killed by the gangs of Rintfleisch in collaboration with local citizens.

1336/37 - The Jewish community in Kitzingen is annihilated in the course of aw pogrom named after Knight Arnold von Uissigheim d.J. („Armleder-pogrom”). Citizens of Wuerzburg finally unite against Armleder, take him prison and have him executed as breaker of the public peace. When unrest flares up again the city of Wuerzburg threatens anyone violating the jews with permanent expulsion.

1349 - Jews were almost completely annihilated after heavy frosts had destroyed the local vinyards and as a consequence of continuing rumors from other places about well poisining for which jews hade been blamed.

1403 - Bishop Johann von Egloffstein issues a charter for jews settling in the Hochstift

1422 - Treaty between major regional princes on the taxation („Schatzung“) of jews under their sovereignty.

1429 - Bischof Johann von Brunn pledges the Jewish cemetary in Wuerzburg to a local butcher.

1430 - The last houses in the Jewish quarter near the market square are being demolished.

1445/46 - Bishop Gottfried Schenk von Limpurg issues charter for the jews in the Hochstift Wuerzburg. The Jewish cemetary is returned to the Jewish community against a considerable yearly fee.

1554 - Jews are expelled from the free city of Schweinfurt. Jews are not to settle in greater numbers unitl 1861.

1560 - Bischof Friedrich von Wirsberg weist alle Juden aus Wuerzburg und anderen Städten des Hochstifts aus.

1575/76 - Bishop Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn expells the jews from the Hochstift. He confiscates the cemetary in the Pleich quarter for the construction of the Juliusspital. Only towards the end of his reign a limited number of jews are readmitted into Wuerzburg.

1642 - Final expulsion of the jews from the city of Wuerzburg under Bishop Philipp von Schoenborn.

1803 - Moses Hirsch and his sons are granted right of settling in Wuerzburg as the first Jewish family since 1643

1816/18 - Bavarian Jews gain certain rights in connection with their choice of profession, their conducting of business and their education. Full rights as residents, yet not as state citizens. The Wuerzburg banker Jakob Hirsch is the first Bavarian Jew to be raised to nobility without prior conversion the christianity.

1836 - With the support of the Bavarian government a new Jewish community is founded.

1841 - Opening of the new Wuerzburg synagogue as first of great number of similar projects in Lower Frankonia.

1848/50 - Lack of progress in achieving legal and social equality swells the number also of Jews from Unterfranken who decide to emigrate to the USA.

1861 - In Bavaria the last legal limitations for the free movement of Jews lead to a massive influx of Jews from agricultural communities into Wuerzburg.

1864 - Founding of the Israelitic Teachers’ College (ILBA)

1868/71 - Legal and constitutinal amendments bring full legal eqality for Jew in Bavaria - with the exception of socalled „Sonderabgaben” raised until 1881.

Ca. 1880 - 4.5% of the city population are Jewish - the highes proportion ever. In absolute number the number of Jews grew to 2567 at the turn of the century.

1882 - Opening of a new Jewish cemetary in what to-day is called Werner-von-Siemens-Strasse.

1885 - A Jewish hospital opens in Wuerzburg.

1891 - Opening of a Jewish old people’s home in Wuerzburg.

1914/18 - Many Jews voluntarily follow the call to arms. 400 members of the community serve during World War I, of which 40 die in combat or later as wounded.

1918/19 - Felix Fechenbach from Wuerzburg has a leading role in the proclamation of the post war republic. The SPD politician Felix Freudenberger is merited with the revolt being bloodless. Many members of the Jewish community participate in putting down the Raete-Republic. Later, in August 1933, he is shot to death „while escaping”.

1920 - Dr. Siegmund Hanover from Hamburg elected Rabbi.

1924-1928  - Wuerzburg Jews enjoy an almost seamless integration. Yet the Jewish population counts more deaths than births during these years. Jews gain eminent positions in the wine trade, in industry (especially food, leather, clothing). Above average representation in academic professions , for instance as medical doctors and lawyers.

1931  - Infamous „Habima” case. Nazi thugs had attacked visitors of a production of the Hebrew theater „Habima”. In the following court case only light sentences were handed out on the grounds that the accused did „not have dishonorable motives”. The same year sees the opening of a new buildung for the Israelite Teachers’ College in Sandbergstrasse and the new old people’s home in Valentin-Becker-Strasse.

1935 - Owners of Jewish firms in Wuerzburg and Unterfranken were forced to sell out to „Arians”. One of thes forced sales resulted in the takeover of the Kaufhaus Ruschkewitz by Josef Neckermann.

1936 - A vocational school (with three grades) is established in the old ILBA building.

1937/38 - The Jewish communities of Heidingsfeld and Hoechberg with their own rich traditions are merged with Wuerzburg.

1938, 9/10.Nov.  In the night from November 9 to November 10 the interior of the Wuerzburg synagogue is ravaged by arson. Severe attacks, in some cases resulting in death, against Jews. First concentration camps for Jewish men. Boycott against Jewish businesses, institutions and citizens.

1939 - Rabbi Hanover leaves Wuerzburg. His successor coming out of retirement is Magnus Weinberg who had lived in Wuerzburg since 1936. Rabbi Weinberg is later deported to the concentration camp of Theresienstadt.

1941 - Wearing of the Judenstern enforced. First deportations of 202 Wuerzburg Jews to Riga. In altogether seven deportations between November 1941 and June 1943 a total of 2063 Jews are sent to extinction camps in Eastern Europe.

1943 - June In June the Secret State Police declares Wuerzburg "judenrein".

From the 15th to the beginning of the 19th century a Jew’s right to live in Unterfranken was a personal letter of safe conduct issued for the head of a household, his family and, if needed, his servants. Such letters could not be passed on to the next generation. Precondition for such a Schutzbrief (grant of security) issued by the bishop was proof of substantial wealth. Those who were not able to gain a Schutzbrief were “cadgers and beggar Jews” (“unvergleitete Schnorr- und Betteljuden”).

Around 1800 the estimated number of Jews was almost 4% of the total population. About 540 families were members of the socalled “Hochstiftische Landjudenschaft”. 629 families belonged to the corporation of the “Oberlaender” or “Grabfelder” knights. 521 families lived in the socalled “Unterlaender” corporation of knights. Jews in the Grabeld had their own Ober-rabbiner in Burgpreppach.The Jews from Unterland and the Country Jews from Altwuerzburg were served by the Oberrabbiner in Heidingsfeld. For many years Heidingsfeld was the center of Jewish life in what to-day is called Unterfranken. This community was first documented in 1298. In the 17th century its importance increased with the eviction of Jews from Wuerzburg. Jews were permitted to stay in Heidingsfeld even after the town became part of the Wuerzburg Hochstift. The Jewish and Christian populations in the villages of Frankonia lived in separate religious and cultural traditions. Jews spoke Jiddish among themselves in every day’s life. When conversing with the outside world a Frankonian dialect interspersed with Jiddish phrases was used.

The Jewish Community newly established in 1836 soon gained worldwide recognition with its Oberrabbiner Seligmann Baer Bamberger. In the discussion between reform Jews and conservative Jews he resolutely favored a middle course for Jewish orthodxy. This view found broad acceptance.

The community’s prestige grew further after the foundation of the Isrealitisch Teachers’ College (Israelitische Lehrerbildungsanstalt) in 1864. This institution quickly became one of the most authoritative of its kind in Europe. Graduates of the Wuerzburg “ILBA” were highly respected and held in great demand by many orthodox communities on the Continent.

With the end of World War I and the monarchy in Germany the political and social life changed also for the jews in Wuerzburg. In spite of beginning antisemitic agitation in the early twenties jews in Wuerzburg and Unterfranken could regard themeselves as fully integrated until the beginning of the thirties. In trade and industry Jewish firms were among the leaders. In the professions, for instance among doctors and lawywers, Jews were highly visible.

IWithin the Jewish community tensions between orthodox and liberals decreased. An example for this was the rabbi election in 1929. 90% of the votes were for Dr. Siegfried Hanover from Hamburg who was regarded as an open minded orthodox Jew. Rabbi Hanover held office until 1939 when he emigrated to the U.S.A. During the thirties the neighbouring communities of Heidingsfeld and Hoechberg, each of them with a rich tradition of their own, were merged into the Wuerzburg community. Rabbi Magnus Weinberg served after the emigration of Rabbi Hanover until his deportation to the concentration camp of Theresidenstadt.

With the „Machtergreifung” by the National Socialists in 1933 actions against Jews began on a big scale also in Wuerzburg. First signs were the occupation of trade union houses and newspaper offices, the re-naming of streets, the streamlining („Gleichschaltung”) of the city council and the dismissal of the Oberbuergermeister Hans Loeffler, boycotts against Jewish shops and a „wild concentration camp” at the Festung Marienberg. Soon followed massive boycotts of shops, doctors’ surgeries and lawyers’s offices. Then came the „Arisierung” of firms. A first brutal climax was the November pogrom 1938. The interrior of the synagogue in the Domerschulstrasse was ravaged. The synagogue in Heidingsfeld was destroyed by arson. At least four persons died during the pogrom, either as a consequence of ill-treatment or because of suicide. 300 Jewish men from Wuerzburg were sent to concentration camps. Jews were finally and systematically excluded from business. The wearing of the „Judenstern” became compulsory. Rented accomodation was denied. Jews had to live in cramped conditions in socalled „Judenhaeuser”. The Israelitic teacher college was closed.

Unitil late in the summer of 1941 a limited number of Wuerzburg Jews were permitted to emigrate when they paid a „Reichsfluchtsteuer”. In November of that same year deportations of Jews in Wuerzburg and Unterfranken began on a big scale, totalling seven until June 1943. Only few of these 2063 deportees survived. In June 1943 the secret police declared Unterfranken as „judenrein” - cleansed of Jews. Only a few socalled „Halbjuden” or „Mischlinge” were allowed to stay on.