German Jews

**German Jews** are Jews of German descent, or Jews living in Germany.

## Overview
 of expulsions of Jews from various European regions, ca. 1100–1600 AD.]]

Jews started living in German land in 321 AD under the Roman Empire. They formed the Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages, who survived centuries of pogroms and expulsions into the 20th century. Multiple German cities were centers of Jewish cultural life, including Mainz and Speyer, until the Nazi German-led Holocaust happened and wiped out most German Jews, among the 6,000,000+ Jews killed across Europe. A succession of ecumenical councils also banned Jews from socializing with Christians or observing the *shabbat* over the unfounded fear that Judaism (the Jewish ethnoreligion) would influence Christians. Jews across the German land were assaulted, tortured or burned at stakes.

#### First Crusade
When the First Crusade happened in 1096, Jews were massacred by the crusaders across the German land. The massacres all happened with Roman Catholic Church's tacit approval. during which dozens of Black Death-associated massacres of Jews happened.

## Renaissance
 medieval German antisemitic image depicting Jews (identified by the Judenhut) suckling from a pig and eating its excrement. The banderoles display rhymes mocking the Jews.]]

Martin Luther (1483–1546), a reformer who led the Reformation in the 16th century, was well-known for his antisemitism, despite his historical contributions to Christianity and important role in European history. Luther wrote the 65,000-word thesis *On the Jews and Their Lies* in 1543, Johannes Wallman (1930–2021), a professor of church history at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, wrote in 1987:

## Modern period
Between the Middle Ages and the 18th century, Jews in Germany suffered from persecutions punctuated by periods of tolerance. The 19th century saw a series of anti-Jewish pogroms, during which Martin Luther (1483–1546) was advertised as a folk hero in Germany,]], Germany. Antisemitism combined with anti-Americanism, Anglophobia, and the conspiracy theory of Jewish Bolshevism.]] loaded with corpses outside the crematorium of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, following its liberation.]]

### 21st century
Jews exist in Germany at a much smaller number than before. In 2023, it is estimated that 118,000 Jews remained in Germany. Official statistics also showed a rapid rise in antisemitic hate crimes in the months following the October 7 massacre.

On February 2, 2024, a pro-Palestinian Berlin undergraduate beat a Jewish classmate to the point of hospitalization following an argument over the Israel–Hamas war. The German police reported that the Jewish student was punched and kicked repeatedly on the floor, suffering facial fractures. The victim is the grandson of Amitzur Shapira, an Israeli athletics coach murdered by the Black September terrorists in the 1972 Munich massacre. In June 2024, a young Israeli couple was assaulted in Berlin's Potsdamer Platz after being heard speaking Hebrew. The suspect shouted abuses, threw a bottle and a chair at them and beat them on the floor.

On September 5, 2024, the 52nd anniversary of the 1972 Munich massacre, a suspected terrorist opened fire at the Israeli consulate and the neighboring Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism before being shot dead by police. On 7 October 2024, 10 Holocaust memorial stones were torn from their spots. The day coincided with the first anniversary of the October 7 massacre.

#### Responses
In June 2024, the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS) reported that there were 4,782 antisemitic incidents in 2023, an 80% rise as compared to 2022,

On November 6, 2024, the German lower house of parliament passed a non-binding resolution to pledge the end of funding to groups that "spread antisemitism, question Israel's right to exist, call for a boycott of Israel or actively support the BDS movement." The resolution enjoyed cross-party support, but faced opposition from MPs of left-wing populist parties like the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) and Die Linke (Left Party). and a threat of "suspected extremism" by the German intelligence agency in 2024. On May 20, 2025, the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution called the BDS "hostile to the constitution". In its report, it stated:

## Historical population
## Related pages
* Antisemitism in Europe
* Anti-Judaism and antisemitism
* Antisemitism in the Soviet Union

## Footnotes
## References