Rat-Beil-Straße 10, 60318 Frankfurt am Main
Rat-Beil-Straße 10,
60318 Frankfurt am Main
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Jewish Cemetery on Rat-Beil-Strasse

The Jewish cemetery at Rat-Beil-Strasse 10 forms the southern boundary of the main cemetery and was used between 1828 and 1928 following the closure of the old Jewish cemetery on Battonnstrasse.1 There are approximately 30,000 – 40,000 graves on the 74.000 sq. m area.2 City master mason Friedrich Rumpf’s neoclassical gate is comprised of a Doric columned portal with wrought iron portico and side connecting walls with engaged columns. The architrave bears the Hebrew inscription, “He will come in peace; they will rest on their resting places – he who walks in his integrity.”3 This entrance is no longer in use; entry is now a few meters to the right. Many famous personages from the worlds of art and culture, science and finance are buried there, among them members of the Rothschild family.

Of particular interest are the opulent, sometimes ostentatiously picturesque graves of wealthy, liberal Jews.4 In 1886 members of the breakaway Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft had part of the cemetery walled off for their own use. In keeping with Orthodox custom, gravestones there are only engraved in Hebrew. The cemetery is open to the public, except on Saturdays and Jewish holidays. Men are requested to wear a head covering (Kippa, for example).
  1. Kalusche, Bernd; Setzepfandt, Wolf-Christian (2002): Frankfurt am Main Architekturführer. Berlin: D. Reimer, S. 23.
  2. Meier-Ude, Klaus; Senger, Valentin (2004): Die jüdischen Friedhöfe in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main: Fachhochschulverlag Frankfurt, S. 33f.
  3. Yeshayahu 57:2
  4. The photos show the sarcophagus of Gustave J. Wetzlar, the pedestal with amphora and fluted column of Paul and Ella Dondorf, and the gravestone of Sara Nussbaum.