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The following is an incomplete list of massacres that have occurred in present-day Germany and its predecessors:
Battle of Roman troops supported by troops of Attila the Hun against Burgundian forces near Worms, afterwards sacking of the city and massacre. The whole event is poorly recorded and to some degree legendary.
700 Slavic prisoners beheaded by king Otto the Great. Slavic leader Stoigniew beheaded, and his counsellor's eyes and tongue gouged and torn out.
Massacres during the First Crusade of 1096[]
In May and June 1096, during the Rhineland massacres, about 2,000–2,800 Jews have been killed by mobs of German and sometimes French Christians of the People's Crusade or committed suicide to avoid baptism. Up to 95% of all killings happened between May 25 and June 1 in the three massacres of Worms, Speyer and Cologne. At least 1,600 killings are well testified, but some estimates run up to 5,000 or even 10,000 victims, thus annihilating about 1/4 to 1/3 of the Ashkenazi population of the time. In Jewish historiography, these events are referred to as Gezerot Tatnu which means "the edicts of [the year 4]856" of the Jewish calendar. The first persecutions of this group happened in late 1095 in France (Rouen riot of [December?] 1095, a smaller massacre there happening in September 1096 only, when the Rhineland massacres were over), than in Reims, Verdun and Metz (22 killed in June 1096), the latter two cities not yet belonging to France at that time. The key person of the Rhineland massacres was Count Emicho von Leiningen who led undisciplined troops of up to 10,000 crusaders.
After the first killings had happened, the majority of the Jews were saved by the bishop of Speyer, who allowed them to enter his palace without demanding baptism. Later, he even had some prosecutors severely punished. 10 people killed plus one suicide, the names of the victims are known as are many details of the event.
On May 18, the crusaders killed some Jews they had found in their houses. Probably on May 25, they killed those who had found refuge in the bishop Adalbert's castle. Thus, the majority of the Jewish community of Worms were killed or committed suicide, only a few survived by accepting baptism. Like almost all of these forced converts, they secretly continued to practice Judaism and were allowed to return to their religion some months later. Many details about the event are recorded.
Mainz massacre (1096)
27 May 1096
Mainz
up to 600, other sources say 1,014 or about 1,100
Many details recorded. The crusaders reached Mainz on 25 May and managed to enter the city the following day. The Jewish community of Mainz, informed about the Worms massacre, paid 300 pieces of silver to the bishop for his protection. He allowed them to enter his castle, but under the combined attack of crusaders and parts of the citizens of Mainz, he had to flee himself, and could not protect the Jews anymore. According to one source, under the leadership of Kalonymus ben Meshullam they offered desperate resistance against the crusaders. Finally, almost the whole community committed suicide or was killed. Several Jews who had accepted baptism to save their lives committed suicide soon later, one of them setting his house and the synagogue on fire. According to another source, Kalonymus and 53 of his comrades had been killed by the crusaders in Worms on May 27.
Cologne massacre (1096)
1 June 1096
Cologne
Estimates run from several dozen to about 300 up to 500–700
This massacre is less well documented than the events in Speyer and Mainz. Synagogue destroyed, Jewish houses looted, many Jews killed. Archbishop Hermann III. (1089-1099) tried to protect the Jews by distributing them over seven villages or fortified towns around Cologne: Neuss, Xanten, Moers, Geldern, Wevelinghoven, Kerpen and Eller. But at several of these places the refugees were rounded up and killed end of June, with many of them committing suicide or killing each other to avoid baptism. The higher estimates of victims seem to include Jews from Cologne killed at other places. - 1096 pogroms are also attested in Magdeburg (expulsion), Regensburg (forced baptism in Danube river with return to Judaism after one year) and Prague (today Czech Republic; massacre of June 30). Unclear reports refer to Andernach and Koblenz.
Trier pogrom (1096)
June 1096
Trier
10
Names of the victims are recorded, two of them were from Cologne. Most of the casualties (if not all) happened by suicide, some by parents killing their children and then themselves, some by women jumping into the river Moselle with stones in their clothes. The majority of the community survived by taking rescue in bishop Egildert's castle who forced them to accept baptism. Another source mentions the basilica of Trier as place of (first?) rescue (before the suicides?). The Jews of Trier had prevented a massacre in April by paying money and handing over provisions to a group of crusaders coming from France. The actual pogrom carried out in June by another group of crusaders coming from Mainz, a detachment of Count Emicho's troops. Precise date of the event unknown; with regard to the distances from Mainz, Metz and Neuss, a date around June 5 is plausible.
Jews who had been evacuated from Cologne were killed in Neuss. According to one source, 200 Jews from Cologne had managed to escape with a ship on river Rhine to be caught and massacred by crusaders at Neuss.
Xanten massacre (1096)
27 June 1096
Xanten
about 60
Jews who had escaped from Cologne were killed in Xanten. One sources indicates that killings of Jews from Cologne happened in Wevelinghoven on June 25 and in Eller (now part of Düsseldorf) on June 26, 1096. The killings at Neuss, Xanten, Wevelinghoven and Eller have been carried out by the same troupe of Crusaders who had committed the pogroms of Trier and Metz several days before.
A Jew who had killed a Christian girl was lynched by the mob, after that six innocent Jews. Houses of the killed were looted. The victims have been buried beside the graves of the victims of the 1096 massacre.
Frankfurt massacre (1241)
24 May 1241
Frankfurt
up to 180
Violence started on Friday evening and lasted for two days with attacked Jews offering resistance. Three rabbis among the killed. Jewish community in Frankfurt destroyed until return of Jews around 1260, new community existed until destruction in the 1349 massacre.
Unknown. Estimates run from 4,000–5,000 to 20,000, one source estimates 100,000[1] (poorly recorded)
Mass killing of Jews in 146 villages and cities, killing around 20,000 or more people,[2] of which 3,441 victims are documented name by name. The estimate of 100,000 killed is most probably an exaggeration. The killings peaked mid/end of July, only three massacres happened between August and October. The number of victims can only be speculated, however the poorly recorded Rintfleisch massacres allegedly reached the dimensions of the 1096 Rhineland massacres.
Riots accompanied by a series of massacres against Jews in Western and Southern Germany, including Alsace (now French).
Black Death Jewish persecutions 1348 to 1351[]
These series of massacres, which resulted in the partial or complete destruction of 210 Jewish communities in the Rhineland and 350 in all of Germany, started in Southern France (Toulon, April 1348) and Spain (Barcelona), than spread to Switzerland and South West Germany. 510 events documented all over Europe.
Name
Date
Location
Deaths
Description
Stuttgart massacre (1348)
November 1348
Stuttgart
unknown
The massacres of November 1348 in Stuttgart and nearby Esslingen may have been the first of the Black Death Jewish persecutions in Germany depending on the precise date which is not recorded (before or after the Augsburg event of Nov. 22?).
Augsburg massacre (1348)
22 November 1348
Augsburg
more than 100
The partial destruction of the Jewish community of Augsburg was one of the first massacres of the Black Death Jewish persecutions in Germany, perhaps the first one.
Lindau massacre (1348)
6 December 1348
Lindau
15–18
Jews of Lindau burnt alive. Return of Jews to Lindau around 1378 only.
Complete destruction of the city's Jewish community.
Freiburg massacre (1349)
30 January 1349
Freiburg
The event is closely connected with the massacres in Basel (50-70 burnt on Jan. 16, 1349) and Straßburg (Feb. 14, up to 2000 killed), which both happened outside of today's Germany. On Jan 1, some Jews of Freiburg were arrested and accused of poisoning wells. Under torture, four of them confessed and/or told the names of "further" well poisoners. The Freiburg community was killed by burning. Only the 12 richest Jews were spared, as were pregnant women and children, the latter being forcibly baptized. The epidemic reached the city in May 1349 only.
Landshut massacre (1349)
17 February 1349
Landshut
some hundreds (?)
Like in Erfurt, the Jews have been murdered before the epidemic had reached the city. The massacre has been fully backed by Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria.
Precise date of the massacre March 21 (a Friday) is not fully confirmed, other sources say March 2 (a Sunday). The Black Death, the murdered Jews were charged with, reached Erfurt in 1350 only.[4]
Mass murder of Jews during the night of 20–21 April 1349[6]
Frankfurt massacre (1349)
14 July 1349
Frankfurt
Several hundreds (?)
About 60 slain, many more burnt in their houses. Many committed suicide by setting their own houses on fire, thus also taking revenge as the fire spread to non-Jewish neighbourhoods.
The Mainz massacre was the largest among the Black Death Jewish persecutions. Furthermore, the Mainz massacre seems to be the only of these events which has not been organized (or even diligently planned in advance) but which started as a spontaneous riot (afternoon of August 23). Number of 6,000 victims is dubious, since the Mainz community at that time had about 3,000 members.
One of the latest massacres of the Black Death Jewish persecutions and one of very few of these events which happened in Brandenburg (later Prussia) territory. Terminus ante quem is February 23, 1351.
Taborite (Hussite) troops from Bohemia reached Kamenz on October 6/7 and started to besiege the city and its castle. After five days, they conquered first the castle, than the adjacent city and killed the citizens they found, about 1,200 Catholics.[8] Many citizens of Kamenz survived the event as they had fled to Dresden before.
Lindau massacre (1430)
3 July 1430
Lindau
unknown
Jewish community of Lindau killed by burning after 1429 blood libel in the nearby city of Ravensburg. Similar events followed in Überlingen and Ravensburg itself. In Buchhorn (today: Friedrichshafen), Meersburg and Konstanz, the Jews have been arrested without being massacred (in Lindau, Überlingen and Ravensburg they have been arrested as well months before being killed). In Konstanz, the Jewish community has been arrested twice, end of 1429 and again in 1430; released end of 1430 after a high payment.
Part of the Jewish community of the town killed; one source dates the event on July 3 (same day as Lindau massacre). The killings in Lindau, Überlingen and Ravensburg happened with approval of King Sigmund.
Largest massacre of Thirty Years' War in Germany. Mass killing of the inhabitants of Magdeburg (Protestant since 1524 and hence a center of Reformation) following its siege by Imperial Field Marshal Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim and Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly. On May 9, 1631 the city has had about 35,000 inhabitants, only 5,000 to 10,000 of them survived. In a letter of June 24, Pope Urban VIII expressed his delight about the "annihilation of this nest of heretics". Up until 1639, the almost totally destroyed city was reduced to a small village of 450 people.
Massacres between 1800 and 1933[]
Name
Date
Location
Deaths
Description
Berliner Märzgefallene
18 March 1848
Berlin
303
Civilians shot during street fighting, part of German revolutions of 1848-49. "Märzgefallene" means "killed [in action] in March". 270 of the killed are known by name. The figure of 303 victims – 288 men, 11 women and 4 children – was published by Prussian authorities a few days after the event.
Sturmabteilung brigade kills 23 suspected opponents of Nazism
Night of the Long Knives
30 June 1934 – 2 July 1934
Germany
0008585+
Killing of political opponents of the German Nazi party and of rivals within the party. Whereas 85 kills are fully confirmed, some estimates run up to 700–1,000 persons murdered.
Kristallnacht
9 November 1938 – 10 November 1938
Germany
0009191+
Over 1,000 synagogues burned in all Germany and Austria, over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged. 91 Jewish people killed during the pogrom, more than 300 further died during the next days (including suicides). About 35% of these events happened in Austria or on territory which today belongs to Poland or to Russia.
10,072 mentally ill and disabled people killed and burnt. Between 1942 and 1945 another 4,422 people with this kind of diagnosis were killed near Hadamar. In total, more than 275,000 people were killed during Aktion T4, many of them in German-controlled Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Arnsberg Forest massacre
20 March 1945 – 23 March 1945
Arnsberg Forest
000208208
Mass killing of Polish and Soviet Prisoners of War.
Killing of KZ inmates by SS guards and other Nazi forces (police, Volkssturm). The traditional number of victim was 200 to 300, according to more recent research at least 170 victims are well testified. The killings started on April 8, after a train crowded with 3,800 to 4,500 KZ inmates was hit by the allied air raid against Celle during the night of April 7–8. This event killed 400 to 1000 of the KZ inmates (higher numbers being stated as well), most survivors tried to escape. Celle was conquered by British forces on April 12, 1945.
Prisoners from Nazi concentration camps killed when the SS Cap Arcona was sunk in the last days of the Second World War by the Royal Air Force, incl. killing of survivors by SS.
After Stalinist style trials in then German Democratic Republic against 3,442 persons between April and June 1950, 32 death sentences were announced in July. 23 of them were executed.
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
17 June 1953
Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, Rostock and several other cities in East Germany
75about 75
34 protesters shot on June 17 and during the following days by Soviet troops and GDR police and other GDR security forces. Another 19 executed by Soviet drumhead court-martials up until June 22; 7 more executed after regular trials by East German courts, further victims perished or committed suicide in GDR jails.
Terrorist shooting spree. Attempted attack on a nearby synagogue by neo-nazi; after failing to force entry killed two random Germans and wounded two others with homemade firearm on the street and in a Turkish restaurant; 2 killed, 5 injured[9]
^Mittelalter entdecken: Juden im Mittelalter - Teil 2: Judenverfolgungen ab 1096 [Discovering Middle Ages: Jews in the Middle Ages - Part 2: Prosecutions of Jews in and after 1096].
^Mittelalter entdecken: Juden im Mittelalter - Teil 2: Judenverfolgungen ab 1096 [Discovering Middle Ages: Jews in the Middle Ages - Part 2: Prosecutions of Jews in and after 1096].
^Tuchman, Barbara Wertheim. A distant mirror. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 113. ISBN978-0-307-29160-8. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
^Horst Grunewald: Auf den Spuren der Habsburger in der Euroregion Neiße-Nisa-Nysa, 180p. University of California, Berkeley, Oettel 2005.
