Ideas and considerations for the establishment
The focus of the Historical House is on exhibition rooms in which the economic, cultural and political contributions of Jewish citizens to the history of Baden are honoured. In addition, answers can be given, for example, to questions such as: "How did Jews and Christians live peacefully side by side?" The Haus der Geschichte der Juden Badens is expressly not intended to be a memorial to the Shoah (Holocaust).
Nowadays, a museum is no longer just a place for exhibitions. In its programmatic orientation, the House of the History of Baden's Jews should radiate as an open house of encounter, experience, learning and research, especially in the Baden region, but also beyond.
The proximity to several research institutions opens up the possibility of scientific and didactic cooperation, be it through conferences, training courses, workshops, conferences and the like:
- Karlsruhe: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT
- Karlsruhe: Forum-Ludwig-Marum
- Kislau: Lernort Zivilcourage & Widerstand (Place of learning civil courage & resistance) (in planning)
- Heidelberg: Hochschule für Jüdische Studien (University for Jewish Studies)
- Heidelberg: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität
- Heidelberg: Zentralarchiv zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland (Central Archive for the Study of the History of Jews in Germany)
- Frankfurt: Goethe Universität and Fritz Bauer Institute
- Freiburg: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität
For this purpose, rooms are set up in the House of the History of the Jews in Baden, which can also be used by the trading school opposite or rented by associations if required.
An important aspect of this house is its function as a meeting place for young people. These can not only give an aging city a younger face. Young people should be able to meet here, regardless of religion, origin, language or skin colour.
The offer of the House of the History of the Jews of Baden is rounded off by a café on the ground floor (perhaps with kosher baked goods?) or even a roof terrace with catering. This roof garden will certainly not only offer visitors to the House of the History of the Jews in Baden a phenomenal view of the roof landscape from Bruchsal to the Palatinate Mountains.
Bruchsal is excellently situated in terms of transport infrastructure.
The city has its own motorway connection to the A5 (Autobahn), the federal road B3 (Bundesstraße) leads directly to the city centre, from the B 35 the city centre can be reached in a very short time.
Both ICE and IC trains stop at the Bruchsal railway station. Regional trains run from this station deep into the Baden region as well as into the Palatinate.
Bruchsal has excellent connections with international airports:
- Frankfurt Airport: 110 kilometers
- Stuttgart Airport: 82 kilometres
- Airport Karlsruhe / Baden-Baden: 67 kilometers
Financing
Before the realization of such a showcase project, the financing must of course be clarified.
There is experience with other similar projects. Afterwards, project funding is possible with considerable funds from the state, which describes and promotes museums as preservers of our cultural heritage, as extracurricular places of learning, places of communication and intercultural meeting places. The demographic and social changes require an expansion and specialisation of the offer. The House of the History of the Jews of Baden ideally meets these requirements.
The current operating costs of the facility are at least partially covered by the activities of the association. For this purpose, state funds will certainly be available, too.
High-ranking personalities from politics, business and culture will be motivated for the board of trustees (advisory board) of this association, who will be able to communicate the uniqueness of the House of History to the outside world and promote this Bruchsal flagship.
Special exhibition on Bruchsal Jews?
Since the middle of the 19th century, the Bruchsal Jews have been of great economic importance for the city. The tobacco and hop wholesale trade was almost exclusively in their hands, and important industrial companies were founded by Jewish entrepreneurs. The malthouses were very important for the economic upswing of Bruchsal or the innovative stove factories must not be forgotten, nor Otto Oppenheimer's cloth wholesale. Dr. Ludwig Marum, a member of the Baden state parliament and Reichstag, grew up in this town. The Bruchsal honorary citizen Prof. Dr. Fritz Hirsch led the renovation of the castle and St. Peter's Church. The painter Leo Kahn painted the synagogue together with non-Jewish Bruchsalers. The still today legendary Bruchsal department store Knopf ('s Knopfe-Eck) was one of over 30 branches of the Baden department store chain Geschwister Kopf in Baden, Switzerland and Alsace.
Many Bruchsal Jews left their hometown in the course of time, some voluntarily, others involuntarily during the National Socialist era. Their success abroad could also be remembered in the House of the History of Baden's Jews. Members of the Sulzberger family were and are editors and publishers of the New York Times, Bankhaus Julius Baer still bears the name of its founder from Heidelsheim, and the large Carlebach family, which produced many rabbis, also comes from Heidelsheim. The Meerapfel family's tobacco and cigar trade from Untergrombach is also worth mentioning here. In already 5th generation the trade is operated, meanwhile from Brussels. The Buenos Aires-born film director, screenwriter and film lecturer Jeanine Meerapfel is president of the Berlin Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts).
The Schrag family with its roots in Obergrombach and Untergrombach must not be forgotten here. Many qualified merchants or lawyers but also talented composers and writers come from this family.
Dr. Ludwig Marum
Ludwig Marum grew up in Bruchsal, attended the Humanistische Gymnasium, celebrated his Bar Mizwa in the Bruchsal Synagogue, graduated from high school here and worked at the Bruchsal district court. At a young age, he was a member of the Bruchsal SPD, a member of the Baden state parliament, chairman of the SPD state parliamentary group, and later a member of the Reichstag in Berlin. In 1933 he was transported in a show trip by the National Socialists from Karlsruhe via Bruchsal Schönbornstraße to the concentration camp in Kislau, where he was murdered in 1934. Ludwig Marum advocated the abolition of the death penalty, pleaded for a reform of § 218 (abortion paragraph) and demanded the improvement of the legal position of illegitimate children as well as the end of discrimination against unmarried mothers. He also advocated equal pay for men and women.
