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Historical photograph of Ingenheim © Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz, Landesarchiv Speyer
GDKE, Landesmuseum Mainz

Expulsion from the city: the emergence of rural Judaism

The old view of Ingenheim shows how strongly the synagogue, which was inaugurated in 1832, stands out in the village. In the years that followed, it went on to influence the styles of numerous synagogues in the region. The synagogue in Ingenheim was demolished in 1938.

While Jews mainly live in cities during the Middle Ages, everything changes with the Reformation. New policies of exclusion demanded by Reformers such as Martin Luther result in the Jews being expelled from many towns and cities, thus leading to rural Judaism. In villages, often those easily accessible from the towns and cities, Jews live under the protection of the nobility, pay high protection payments and are integrated into village life, despite various occupational bans. Highly populated Jewish settlement areas develop along the Rhine, Moselle, Nahe and Saar rivers in particular. In some villages, Jewish citizens make up more than 20 percent of the overall population.

Historical map of Ingenheim

Original of the map in the exhibition; original photography © Pastor Ralf Piepenbrink, ret. – project group “Jewish Life in Ingenheim”

In the 19th century, the village of Ingenheim near Landau is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Palatinate. In around 1835, nearly a third of the village’s 1,630 residents are Jewish, with the rest belonging to one of the two Christian confessions. The map shows that people’s religious denominations play no role in Ingenheim’s settlement structure; instead, people of different religious live and work side by side. The buildings marked in dark orange on the map are the synagogue and residential and commercial buildings with Jewish owners, and the orange buildings are the corresponding annexes.