Shalom and welcome to the Jewish history of Hornburg! When we now enter this "Jewish Hornburg" together, we are going straight into the past, one that ended serveral years before the horror of the Shoah.
For a long time, local Judaism was a completely natural part of town life. For almost 300 years, Christian and Jewish residents of Hornburg lived together in a largely calm and often prosperous manner. During the Thirty Years' War, Moises Isaac Schöning ended up in Hornburg. In accordance with the legal regulations for Jews at the time, he received the imperial ‘letter of protection’ required for settlement. Schöning remained loyal to Hornburg for the rest of his life since he died in 1672. His gravestone is the oldest in the Jewish cemetery, which lies south of the town on the Hagenberg. After the end of the Thirty Years' War, Hornburg slowly recovered from the chaos and damage of the war, which is why the small, now Prussian border town resumed its old trade connections as best as possible. Those who helped this trade to get off the ground were mainly Jewish traders who saw their opportunities here and settled in Hornburg. Despite restrictive regulations in the state of Prussia in the 18th century, so many Jews lived in Hornburg that a synagogue could be maintained. In 1763, the Jewish community acquired the house at Dammstrasse 20. A Jewish school was set up there, as well as the rabbi's apartment and a mikveh, a ritual bath. Even more important, however, was the construction of the synagogue behind the house, modeled on the synagogue in Halberstadt. Although it lived in a niche, hidden from the eyes of the Christian majority so as not to cause offense, this synagogue faithfully performed its service decade after decade. During the 19th century, Jews were given more and more legal equality and integrated into the Christian majority society. A clear sign of this was the acceptance of Hornburg residents of Jewish descent into the local, venerable riflemen's fraternity. The same applies to one of the monuments on today´s Friedrich-Ebert-Platz. It commemorates the war against France in 1870/71, with which Bismarck completed German unification. The only Hornburg resident killed in this war was Joseph Schwabe, and he was of Jewish origin.
The 19th century was a time of economic decline for Hornburg. While industrialization was taking hold in the big wide world, Hornburg remained the traditional farming town. In such an environment, however, the businesses of the local Jewish merchants could no longer thrive, which led to a gradual exodus. In 1923, Amalie Schwabe, the last Hornburg resident to profess the Jewish faith, died. The synagogue was demolished a year later, but its inventory was saved and is now located in the Jewish Museum of the Braunschweig State Museum, where it can still be visited today.