Cologne Cathedral and 'The Jews' - Einleitung
The objects and furnishings in Cologne Cathedral are an expression of the faith lived by the people and the cultural diversity of the times in which these objects were created.
The objects and furnishings in Cologne Cathedral include a whole range of artworks that reflect the Christian view of Judaism in their respective eras. Many of them are—either in part or in total—evidence of an appalling anti-Judaism and are quite rightly seen as highly problematic.
Christian anti-Judaism frequently led to the persecution of the Jewish population and its exclusion from society. It was also a precursor of modern antisemitism.
As Christians, we are committed to an on-going critical examination of this subject, which is why Cologne Cathedral Chapter prepared this virtual tour.
Two independent sources dating from the early fourth century provide evidence of the co-existence of a Christian and a Jewish community in Late Roman Cologne. There are written records dating from the year 313 of a bishop called Maternus. Only eight years later, in 321, a decree issued by Emperor Constantine the Great indicates the existence of a Jewish community in the city—the earliest such evidence north of the Alps.
The Middle Ages saw the emergence of a Christian society that sought unity and homogeneity with one universally binding faith as defined by the Church. The Jews, who were intent on maintaining their religious independence as a result of their permanent Diaspora situation, were the only social group to be tolerated alongside this society. They were, however, treated as a permanent alien element by the Christian majority.
As was the case in many other places, relations between Jews and Christians in Cologne went through many different phases, ranging from periods where the two communities lived respectfully together and periods where they lived more or less as neighbours alongside each other to phases where they lived in opposition to each other with increasingly distinct boundaries between the two groups. The Christian majority's initial toleration of the Jewish community increasingly turned into marginalisation and aggression, culminating in a marked anti-Judaism. Outbursts of violence escalated into horrific pogroms, resulting in the expulsion of the Jews from the city in 1349 and 1424.
From the mid-thirteenth century onwards, however, the archbishops of Cologne, whose seat is Cologne Cathedral, were also patrons of the Jews, issuing several letters of protection—albeit not without self-interest. The city later followed suit and together, Church and city enabled the existence of a self-governed special Jewish community in Cologne.
Harald Schlüter
As the city's cultural memory bank, Cologne Cathedral is probably the best place to examine a variety of objects that bear witness to the Christian view of Judaism. The numerous objects and images that were created down through the centuries and can still be found in and on the cathedral call on us to see that the self-image out of which they were created is not or is no longer a matter of course. Instead, these objects and images must be critically examined and the historical context in which they were created must be studied in order to analyse the impact they had on mentality and social history.
In other words, this is about nothing less than understanding the power of images, recognising the insidious poison of such pictorial portrayals and understanding their suggestive insinuations. Growing anti-Judaism was fed by early Christian theologies, which led to apologetic distinctions being drawn and a marked anti-Judaism in the debate about the common roots of both religions. Over time, the reproach shifted from the question of the recognition of Jesus as the Son of God or Messiah to the insinuation that the Jews were to blame for his death and, ultimately, to the monstrous accusation that they had committed deicide. The oldest surviving example of this calamitous interpretation can be found on the shrine of the Magi and dates from the early thirteenth century: in the scene depicting the flagellation of Christ, the Roman soldiers are replaced by Jews wearing conical 'Jewish hats'. In the cathedral's two typological Bible windows, however, this head covering clearly only serves to identify the representatives of the old covenant. These windows were made at around the same time as the Jewish privilege, which was documented in stone in the cathedral.
The extremely defamatory and repulsive portrayals of a ritual murder and a so-called 'Judensau' (Jews' sow) in the choir stalls date from the early fourteenth century. A Judensau gargoyle was added to the choir just a short time after these images were made. The choir stall screen, which was created not long after, illustrates the controversial subject of Jewish conversion. In the early sixteenth century, the image of the Tree of Jesse illustrated that belief in Jesus is founded in his connection to his Jewish forebears, while the groups of figures donated by Victor of Carben highlighted the perceived superiority of converts.
A number of windows were donated in the nineteenth century. On the one hand, the images in these windows feature clichéd stereotypes; on the other, they bear witness to the contributions made by Jewish citizens to the completion of the cathedral. Finally, the images in the Children of Cologne window, which was created between 1960 and 1965, are evidence of an ostentatious, alleged ignorance in early post-war German society.
Christians have the on-going task to not only uncover and reveal derogatory stereotypes, clichés, and negative connotations in the artworks created down through the centuries, but also to remember their fatal consequences.
Harald Schlüter
In 2006, the Cologne Cathedral Archive and the Karl Rahner Academy organised an academic symposium on the subject of 'Cologne Cathedral and "the Jews"'. The papers presented at the symposium were published in the 2008 edition of the Kölner Domblatt, the yearbook of the Central Cathedral Construction Association (ZDV).
In 2015, the Cologne Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation approached the provost of Cologne Cathedral, Gerd Bachner, with the idea of setting up a working group on the same subject (Cologne Cathedral and 'the Jews'). The aim of this group was to continue the discussion about the anti-Jewish artefacts in and on the cathedral and to open it up to a broader public. The group came into being the following year.
For this reason, and because the 2008 edition of the Kölner Domblatt was quickly out of print due to high demand, a special edition was published in 2018 thanks to the financial support of the ZDV.
In order to make the most important findings of the symposium available to a broader public, the Kölner Domverlag published Cologne Cathedral Metropolitan Chapter's brochure Cologne Cathedral and 'The Jews'—A thematic tour (in German only) in 2021. In the same year, an exhibition on this subject was organised in the Kölner DOMFORUM exhibition and forum space opposite the cathedral and subsequently in the cathedral's Magi Hall. All of the texts and images in the exhibition were published in a brochure. The intention is that the exhibition will be revived several times in the future.
The texts for this special digital tour on the Cologne Cathedral website were produced in 2023 on the basis of slightly abridged versions of the original brochure texts.
Shachar, Isaiah. The Judensau. A medieval anti-Jewish motif and its history, Warburg Institute Surveys & Texts, Vol. 5 (London, 1974).
Judaica, Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, edited by Liesel Franzheim, published by Hugo Borger and Heiko Steuer, exhibition catalogue (Cologne, 1980).
Cologne Cathedral and 'the Jews'. Symposium of the Karl Rahner Academy, Cologne, in conjunction with the Cologne Cathedral Administration, 18–19 November 2006 (Kölner Domblatt, special edition), published by Bernd Wacker and Rolf Lauer, 2nd edition (Cologne, 2018).
Wacker, Bernd. 'Ostentative Ahnungslosigkeit. Das sogenannte Kinderfenster im Kölner Dom. Geschichte, Theologie und Ideologie', in Kölner Domblatt 85, 2020, pp. 190–227.
Anno 321. Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland, published by Thomas Otten and Jürgen Wilhelm (Cologne, 2021).
'Der Kölner Dom und ›die Juden‹. Ein thematischer Rundgang' (Cologne, 2021).
'Der Kölner Dom und "die Juden". Zur christlichen Sicht auf das Judentum', brochure on the 2021 exhibition in the DOMFORUM (Cologne, 2021).
