German Jews

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

Jews started living in German land in 321 AD under the Roman Empire.^[2][3] They formed the Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews^[a] in the Middle Ages,^[4][5] who survived centuries of pogroms^[b] and expulsions into the 20th century.^[8] Multiple German cities were centers of Jewish cultural life, including Mainz^[9] and Speyer, until the Nazi German-led Holocaust happened and wiped out most German Jews,^[10] among the 6,000,000+ Jews killed across Europe.^[10]

Under the Germanic Frankish Merovingian dynasty between the 5th and 8th century, Jews were banned from working as public servants.^[11] 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.^[11]

Systematic persecutions of Jews intensified in the 11th century under the Capetian dynasty, when King Robert the Pious tried to kill all Jews who rejected Christian conversion.^[11][12] Jews across the German land were assaulted, tortured or burned at stakes.^[11][12] The persecutions coincided with the destruction of the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah in 1009, which was exploited by Benedictine monk Rodulfus Glaber to spread rumors about Jewish "involvement" in the destruction.^[13]

When the First Crusade happened in 1096, Jews were massacred by the crusaders across the German land.^[12][13] The events were seen by some historians as a series of genocidal massacres.^[14] The massacres all happened with Roman Catholic Church's tacit approval.^[13][14]

Between the 1182 and 1394, at least 13 expulsions of Jews happened,^[15] during which dozens of Black Death-associated massacres of Jews happened.^[16]

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.^[17][18] Luther wrote the 65,000-word thesis On the Jews and Their Lies in 1543,^[17][18] consisting of accusations of "Jewish conspiracy against Christianity" and incitement to extreme violence towards Jews.^[17][18]

Luther's antisemitism is said by historians to have contributed significantly to antisemitism in German society,^[17][18] while the claims in Luther's 16th-century book are still being promoted by some influencers.^[19] Johannes Wallman (1930–2021), a professor of church history at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, wrote in 1987:^[17]

The assertion that Luther's expressions of anti-Jewish sentiment have been of major and persistent influence in the centuries after the Reformation and that there exists a continuity between Protestant anti-Judaism and modern racially oriented anti-Semitism, is at present wide-spread in the literature; since the Second World War it has understandably become the prevailing opinion.

Richard Steigmann-Gall, a history professor at Kent State University, wrote in his 2003 book The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945:^[20]

The leadership of the Protestant League [had] a similar view. Fahrenhorst, who was on the planning committee of the Luthertag, called Luther "the first German spiritual Führer" [. ...] Fahrenhorst invited Hitler to become the official patron of the Luthertag [. ...] Fahrenhorst repeatedly voiced the notion that reverence for Luther could somehow cross confessional boundaries: "Luther is truly not only the founder of a Christian confession [...] his ideas had a [major] impact on all Christianity [sic] in Germany.

Between the Middle Ages and the 18th century, Jews in Germany suffered from persecutions punctuated by periods of tolerance.^[22] The 19th century saw a series of anti-Jewish pogroms,^[22] emancipation of Jews followed in 1848.^[22]

By the early 20th century, German Jews were more integrated than the Jews in other European countries.^[22] The situation changed in the 1930s when the Nazis took over and started the Holocaust.^[10][22] At least 170,000 German Jews were killed in the Holocaust,^[23] during which Martin Luther (1483–1546) was advertised as a folk hero in Germany,^[20] whose teachings were publicly circulated.^[20] Luther's statues were also built across Germany,^[20] along with celebrations of "German Luther Day",^[20] a national holiday made by Hitler in 1933.^[20]

Jews exist in Germany at a much smaller number than before.^[25] In 2023, it is estimated that 118,000 Jews remained in Germany.^[25] Jews in Germany continue to be subject to antisemitic violence.

On October 18, 2023, 11 days following the Hamas-led October 7 massacre which killed over 1,200 in a day, a Berlin synagogue was firebombed with molotov cocktails by two masked men.^[26] Official statistics also showed a rapid rise in antisemitic hate crimes in the months following the October 7 massacre.^[27]

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.^[28] The victim is the grandson of Amitzur Shapira, an Israeli athletics coach murdered by the Black September terrorists in the 1972 Munich massacre.^[28]

In May 2024, some Jewish parents from suburban Berlin transferred their kids to Jewish schools in Mitte, many of which guarded by police and enclosed walls, due to increasing antisemitic violence in Berlin.^[29] 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.^[30]

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.^[31] 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.^[32]

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,^[33] an 80% rise as compared to 2022,^[33] most of which happened following the October 7 massacre.^[33] In October 2024, Felix Klein, the German Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight against Antisemitism, asserted that "open and aggressive antisemitism has been stronger than at any time since 1945."^[34]

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."^[35] 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).^[35]

Meanwhile, the BDS movement itself was designated as antisemitic by the German government in 2019^[36] and a threat of "suspected extremism" by the German intelligence agency in 2024.^[37] On May 20, 2025, the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution called the BDS "hostile to the constitution".^[38] In its report, it stated:^[38]

[t]he anti-constitutional ideology of the BDS campaign, which denies Israel’s right to exist [...] supporters of BDS in Berlin justified and/or glorified the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023 [...] signs with stereotypical antisemitic imagery were repeatedly displayed.

• Antisemitism in Europe
• Anti-Judaism and antisemitism
• Antisemitism in the Soviet Union