page_title: History of the Jews in Cologne
section_title: After the expulsion
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Jews in Cologne / Modern times / After the expulsion
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der Kölner Kurfürst Joseph Clemens von Bayern (1671-1723)
context_page_description: The history of the Jews in Cologne is conjectured to date back possibly as far as the late Roman Empire, and is officially documented from the period of the High Middle Ages. Over its history, the Jewish community of Cologne has suffered persecutions, many expulsions, massacres and destruction. The community numbered about 19,500 people before its dispersal, murders and destruction in the 1930s by the Nazis before and during World War II. The community has re-established itself and now numbers about 4,500 members. Because of its historical continuity, today's Jewish synagogue calls itself the "oldest Jewish congregation north of the Alps".
context_section_description: The few Jews who remained in the city, began to re-establish a community in right-Rhenish Deutz, whose rabbi called himself later "Country Rabbi of Cologne" (Landesrabbiner). Rabbi Vives was known by this title during the mid-15th century.
  In 1634, there were 17 Jews in Deutz, in 1659 there were 24 houses inhabited by Jews and in 1764 the community consisted of 19 people. Towards the end of the 18th century the community still consisted of 19 people.
  The community was located in a small Jewish "quarter" in the area of Mindener and Hallenstraße. A synagogue, first mentioned in 1426, was damaged by the immense ice drift of the Rhine in 1784. The mikveh associated with the synagogue probably still exists under the embankment of the Brückenrampe (Deutzer Bridge). This first synagogue was then replaced by a new small building on the west end of "Freiheit", the today's street "Deutzer Freiheit" (1786–1914).
  In those times, the Jews of the Deutz community lived like all the others of the Electorate of Cologne under the legal and society conditions, that were provided by the state from the end of the 16th century through a so-called "Judenordnung". The last issue of this laws for the Jews was the Order of 1700 by Kurfürst (elector of the Holy Roman Empire) Joseph Clemens. They were kept until new legislation came also in Deutz, with the adoption of the Napoleonic code.
  During the construction of the Deutzer Hängebrücke in 1913/14, the synagogue was abandoned and demolished. In December 1913, during works to remove the "Schiffsbrückenstraßenbahnlinie" in Deutz on the "Freiheitsstraße", a mikveh was found under the old synagogue. The bath had a link to the water of the Rhine.
caption: Joseph Clemens of Bavaria grants privileges to the Jews
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