A medieval jewish dwelling and trade complex in the city of Erfurt and its interior decoration system

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Christoph Merzenich; Privatdozentin Dr.-Ing. Barbara Perlich-Nitz
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Art History
• Term: from 2014 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264547474

Several High- and Late-Medieval buildings constitute the residential complex at today's Benediktsplatz 1 in Erfurt, the centre of the medieval Jewish quarters. During the first application phase, this complex had been thoroughly investigated with regards to its building history, its use and its owners; the assumption, that this complex represents a fully preserved example of Jewish habitation, could be confirmed. Besides the mere use for housing, evidence was found for a department store, planned by Jewish builder-owners. Quite surprisingly, the existence of a private (?) Jewish prayer-room, dated into the middle of the 13th century, could also be proven.Despite the fact that private Jewish prayer-rooms are not only documented for the 17th through the 19th century but also mentioned in medieval written sources, not a single preserved medieval prayer-room in a private house is as yet known except for these new findings in Erfurt. Therefore, these Erfurt-findings open up the possibility to reconsider also other so called Judenhäuser (domus iudeorum): Had there been private prayer rooms also in other residential buildings owned by rich Jews (comparable to private chapels owned by the Christian upper-class)? Based on the Erfurt-findings, a further two or three medieval Jewish houses (possibly a recently discovered building in Schwäbisch-Gmünd; furthermore buildings in Zurich, Hainburg a.d. Donau, Osnabrück, Hallein), for which already fundamental building-archaeological studies exist, shall be investigated regarding possible evidence in respect of private sacral use. Attention shall be paid, next to architectural elements, to traces of decorative wall paintings, which seem to be verifiable for the relevant period in all four prospective objects. The project is aiming at incorporating the results gained in Erfurt into a supra-regional context as well as generating an initial record of architectural characteristics of this hitherto unresearched topic of medieval Jewish private prayer-rooms.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partners: Dr.-Ing. Thomas Nitz; Professorin Dr. Annette Weber