Project Details
Projekt
Jewish World Heritage - Local Jewish Heritage in Germany: Shifts in Meaning, Valorisation and Perspectives for Transformation
Subject Area
Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
Human Geography
Human Geography
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 557823130
In 2021, the SchUM sites in the German cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, as was two years later the medieval Jewish heritage of Erfurt. This recognizes the Jewish contribution to the emergence of Central European culture. In addition to these now internationally recognized sites, there are numerous other buildings, archaeological remains and sites that document specific phases of Jewish presence in what is today Germany. The project takes a comparative look at the Jewish World Heritage sites and a smaller selection of other Jewish cultural heritage sites in Germany, including the MiQua/Archaeological Zone in Cologne, the former rural synagogue in Neidenstein/Baden and a former Jewish school in Leer/Lower Saxony . Using methods of qualitative but also quantitative social research as well as document and source analysis, the aim is to capture the shifts in meaning as well as the socio-cultural and urban social consequences associated with these heritage recognitions (be it at a local or international level). Several sub-questions or sub-goals are associated with this. First of all, this includes a comparative reconstruction of the processes that led to these heritage recognitions. The project also issues the locally different strategies of cultural and urban social valorization of Jewish-coded heritage and the involvement of Jews and Jewish institutions in these processes, as well as strategies for dealing with anti-Semitic incidents. In the spirit of transfer-oriented research, the project contributes to the exchange between social actors from different locations on these questions. Finally, the project investigates the communication and educational potential of the sites and confronts expectations in this regard with empirical research. A methodologically complex, predominantly quantitative survey is used to investigate the extent to which a visit to the sites leads to a change in the perception of the Jewish presence in Germany, to increased knowledge about (local) Jewish history and to a change in attitudes towards Jews. The corresponding study is internationally relevant; at the same time, the results are discussed with local social actors in the spirit of transfer-oriented research. The project design helps to identify similarities and differences between Jewish world heritage sites and other Jewish cultural heritage sites, and thus also the possible "added value" of the world heritage title. It also corresponds with the demands of the DFG Jewish Cultural Heritage program for transfer-oriented, participatory research and the perspective of cultural sustainability.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 2357:
Jewish Cultural Heritage
