Schottländer – Kolker – Cohn – Kauffmann
Four tombs, which were used to make 3D models, constitute a valuable monument of material culture, a legacy of Wroclaw’s former Jewish community. They are located in the Old Jewish Cemetery on Ślężna Street (1856-1943), former Lohestrasse in pre-war Breslau, currently functioning as the Museum of Cemetery Art, a branch of the Wrocław City Museum.
Scanned and digitised, the tombs constitute a unique and inimitable ensemble of small architecture, with their high artistic and cultural-historical value placing them among the most valuable monuments of the necropolis, which is the resting place of many eminent personalities. As wall tombs integrated into the cemetery walls, they represent different architectural styles drawn from the official European art of the 19th century, as well as from fashionable varieties of neo-styles of the historicist era: neo-classical, neo-Romanesque, neo-Moorish and Empire. Built of noble sandstone, marble, granite and colourful ceramics, with intricate decorative details, they are the work of well-known architects and high-class stonemasonry workshops, bearing witness to the artistic culture of the bourgeoisie and the creative potential of the Wrocław milieu in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The tombs represent universal art without any particular connection to traditional ritual. Instead, they are a manifestation of integration processes among the Jewish bourgeoisie, and only in a few cases do they bear a mark of affiliation with the tradition of Judaism, usually in the form of symbolism or Hebrew script, with German predominant among the grave inscriptions. The impressive mausoleum-like objects were only available to a small number of people, representatives of the former city’s elite, entrepreneurs from various Silesian industries, and those of high financial standing, whose intention was most likely to survive in people’s memory. This was also the aim of the “Materiality of History” project, part of a wider process of documenting and developing virtual heritage.
Photos: Tomasz Gąsior, courtesy of the Wrocław City Museum.
