Following tradition (1812-1880)
In the decades up to around 1840, the number of Jewish families in Münster grew only slowly. In 1843, the resident population included 182 ”persons of the Mosaic faith”. Unfortunately, no complete lists of the deceased have survived from this period. During World War 2, moreover, a bomb destroyed many of the oldest gravestones to the right of today's main path; others, made of soft Baumberge sandstone, probably fell victim to weathering.
The only identifiable gravestone from these early decades is that of Sophie Haindorf, née Marks. She died on September 6, 1816 after the birth of her first child – a daughter also named Sophie, who initially grew up with her grandparents in Hamm and then with her father, the physician Dr. Alexander Haindorf, in Münster's Salzstrasse. When he died in 1862, his wife Sophie's gravestone was apparently placed at the head of the tomb. (R25)
In 1865, the governing board of the Jewish community asked the city magistrate to cede the cemetery site to them “in perpetuity” and to allow them to buy the adjoining plot of land: as the legal situation had changed, cemeteries no longer had to remain in municipal ownership but could now be purchased by the religious communities concerned. However, this request also reflects the fact that the Jewish community had grown considerably to around 350 people: it was foreseeable that the burial ground would soon no longer be large enough. It was, after all, Jewish custom that the dead should be granted eternal rest – there was no question of reusing existing graves. Around a dozen gravestones each still exist from the periods 1860-1870 and 1871-1880. This roughly corresponds to the numbers of recorded deaths, whereas in the decade 1881-1890 the number tripled.
In 1887, the synagogue community was able to buy a plot of land to the west, to the left of today's main path.
Thus the part of the cemetery to the right of the path represents the period when Münster belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia, as well as the first decade of the German Empire.
In this area, for example, there are not yet any combined graves: even in the case of married couples, each spouse has his or her own grave with its own headstone. Hence there are separate gravestones for Abraham (R106) and Thirza (R105) Steinberg. This may be seen as another way of respecting the peace of the dead. The shape of the stones is consistently traditional, an upright block, sometimes surmounted by a roof-like structure and sometimes with a rounded top.
On the gravestone of Heinemann Steinberg (R116), who died young, two “weeping” roses are depicted under the rounded top, symbolizing a life that ended too soon. The types of inscriptions are also characteristic of this period: the older stones bear Hebrew inscriptions on the south side – the side facing Jerusalem, from where pious Jews expect the resurrection of the dead to begin. On the north side is the German-language epitaph, which is similar in structure and phrasing to Christian inscriptions. The Hebrew inscriptions, on the other hand, reflect Jewish beliefs and customs. The names of the deceased are often the traditional Jewish ones given to them by their parents in the synagogue – the boys when they were circumcised, the girls when their parents attended synagogue for the first time after the child’s birth. In contrast, the German-language side of the gravestone features the first name registered by the Prussian authorities. Sophie Haindorf is a good example: her first name in the Hebrew inscription is Veigele. This means “little bird” – the Yiddish for the Hebrew name “Zippora” (in the Bible, the wife of Moses).
Literature:
Gisela Möllenhoff / Rita Schlautmann-Overmeyer, article on Münster in: Historisches Handbuch der jüdischen Gemeinschaften in Westfalen und Lippe, vol. 2, Münster 2008, pp. 487-513, here p. 509: the authors briefly outline the acquisition and successive expansion of the Einsteinstrasse cemetery and the role played by gravestones in Jewish burial culture in the 19th and early 20th century.
Marie-Theres Wacker, Ein neuer Mordechai und ein quellender Brunnen. Genderspezifische Beobachtungen zum Jüdischen Friedhof an der Einsteinstraße in Münster/Westfalen (1816–2016), in: Angela Berlis et al. (eds.), Die Geschlechter des Todes. Theologische Perspektiven auf Tod und Gender, Göttingen 2022, pp. 363–395 (+ 6 illustrations).
(compiled by Marie-Theres Wacker)