After sensational find: New presentation on the Chemnitz mikvah

The discovery of the remains of a mikvah - a ritual Jewish immersion bath - in Chemnitz in 2022 caused a sensation. Now this historical find and its significance are being made visible with an exhibition in the immediate vicinity. The remains are now part of a new residential and commercial building and are not open to the public.

The find puzzled the experts. This is because Jews were not allowed to settle in this country at the time they were found, as the former director of the Chemnitz Schloßberg Museum, Thomas Schuler, explains. He initiated the presentation. The mikvah shows that there were nevertheless traces of Jewish life in this country at this time. It was probably set up around 1690 and filled in when the house was rebuilt in 1791, explains Schuler. The owners of the house were Christian carters. But why then the Jewish immersion bath?

An immersion bath as a service for traveling Jews

At that time, Jewish merchants from Bohemia and Moravia would travel to Leipzig several times a year for the trade fairs and stop off in Chemnitz with their carriages, explains Schuler. The carters probably ran a kind of black restaurant in their house and set up the immersion bath as a service for their guests.

According to the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, the discovery of the mikvah is of great significance far beyond the city of Chemnitz. There is no evidence of any other such facility in the whole of Saxony.

The presentation can be seen until the end of October in the traffic circle on the corner of Bahnhofstraße and Zschopauer Straße and is freely accessible. The focus is on a 1:10 scale model of the mikvah. In addition, information boards in German and English provide information about the find and its history, but also about the function of mikvahs for Jewish life.