Purity on the Tauber - Jewish Life in Rothenburg

Experience history where it actually happened:

The Rothenburg Museum and Kulturerbe Bayern offer this unique guided tour of Jewish heritage in Rothenburg. Every Saturday at 14:30, visitors can discover traces of Jewish history in the city - from the Judaica collection at the Rothenburg Museum to Judengasse 10, one of the oldest Jewish residential houses in Germany with its impressive mikvah from the 15th century.

The tour begins at the Rothenburg Museum, where participants gain their first insight into the culture and history of the city's Jewish population. The museum's Judaica collection displays religious and everyday objects that bring Jewish life in medieval Rothenburg to light. From there, the tour leads into the Judengasse - a quarter that is considered one of the best-preserved Jewish city districts from the late Middle Ages in Germany and beyond. Upon arrival at Judengasse 10, guests encounter a house that has preserved over 600 years of history and today stands as a monument of national significance under the care of Kulturerbe Bayern. After an introduction to the building's rich construction history, the tour guides visitors to the heart of the house: the mikvah in the cellar - the only surviving ritual bath from that era in Germany that still exists with its original residential house.

Judengasse 10 is the first project that Kulturerbe Bayern took on and restored. Since 2015, the non-profit initiative has followed the example of the British National Trust in preserving Bavarian cultural heritage and making it accessible to the public.

"With this tour, we show how vibrant heritage preservation can be," says Dr. Sybille Krafft, chair of Kulturerbe Bayern. "Judengasse 10 tells a story that has significance far beyond Rothenburg. Through collaboration with the Rothenburg Museum, we are making a piece of Jewish heritage