The Börneplatz Memorial was dedicated on 16 June 1996. Located in the eastern section of the Frankfurt city centre between the Old Jewish Cemetery in Battonnstrasse and Rechneigrabenstrasse, it commemorates women, men, and children who were murdered because they were Jews.
The History of the Site
Before the National Socialist rise to power, this was the site of Börneplatz (Börne Square), which doubled as a busy traffic hub and a marketplace. The Börneplatz Synagogue and the Jewish hospital were also located here. When the city of Frankfurt decided to build an administration building on this historical site in 1985, the local Jewish Community proposed the erection of a memorial in the direct vicinity. Archaeological excavations carried out during construction work in 1987 uncovered the remains of altogether nineteen houses belonging to the Early Modern Judengasse (Jewish ghetto). The discovery prompted mass public protests known as the Börneplatz Conflict. The dispute ultimately led not only to the revision of the memorial concept but also to the establishment of the Museum Judengasse as a branch of the Jewish Museum.
The Elements of the Memorial
The Börneplatz Memorial is based on a design by the architects Andrea Wandel, Wolfgang Lorch, and Nikolaus Hirsch and encompasses several elements: At the centre of a grove of plane trees is a large cube consisting of stones uncovered during the construction of the neighbouring administration building and once part of houses in the no-longer-existing Judengasse. On the Rechneigrabenstrasse side is an installation of several street signs recalling the site’s different names (Judenmarkt, Börneplatz, Dominikanerplatz, Neuer Börneplatz). An asphalt ground plan in the midst of the gravel covering the memorial grounds serves as a reminder of the Börneplatz Synagogue, a commemorative plaque of its destruction during the November Pogrom.
Remembering the Murdered
The central element of the memorial is a frieze on the outer side of the cemetery wall. It meanwhile consists of 11,908 metal blocks commemorating the women, men, and children who had lived in Frankfurt, were born here, and/or were deported from here, and were murdered on account of their Jewish descent. Each block displays the name, year of birth, and, where known, the year and place of death of the murdered Jews. The memorial frieze is also a cemetery: in keeping with the Jewish mourning custom of laying stones on gravesites, members of the murdered victims’ families and visitors can place pebbles on the blocks.