The Jewish quarter

In the heart of today's Old Town is a place that has been known as Neupfarrplatz since the 16th century. This is where the houses of the Jewish quarter stood in the Middle Ages. Apart from a relief of the mediaeval synagogue created by the artist Dani Karavan in 2005, a plaque is the only thing that commemorates the Jews who lived there for more than 500 years.

Contemporary German and Latin sources generally referred to the Jewish quarter as "amongst the Jews" or "amongst us Jews". In Hebrew records, we find the expression Rehov haYehudim, the "street of the Jews". This area was part of the "Wahlenwacht", one of a total of eight districts of the city. An orange line on the map roughly indicates the location and extent of the former Jewish quarter.

The area was very built up, and would have had multiple narrow lanes between the houses rather than just a single street. This is where the members of the mediaeval Jewish community lived. At the boundaries of the quarter, for example in Kramwinkel in the north-west or Spielhof in the south-east, Christians and Jews were close neighbours.

A wide range of sources tell of the institutions that were part of the Regensburg Jewish quarter. They also provide information on the houses and plots of land and what they contained, and also and most importantly on the people who lived in this central part of the imperial city.

In a number of other towns such as Augsburg and Passau, the Jewish quarter was moved – partly for practical reasons, and partly as a result of anti-Jewish or other measures. This was not the case in Regensburg: until their expulsion in February 1519, the Jews lived in the same place in the heart of the city.