SELF-GUIDED TOUR “JEWISH LIFE IN BREISACH “

Our walking tour guides you through the city. Learn about the history of Breisach and its Jewish community through the eyes of Elaine Wolff and Hans David Blum, whose families lived in Breisach for many generations. Audio recordings, photographs and historical documents add depth to their journeys  through 700 years of the city’s history and the colourful Jewish community that lived here before the Shoah. The texts are read by actors.

Download our audio guide on your mobile phone or tablet and get started. Choose the route and pace of your walking tour yourself. We warmly invite you to take a short break at the Blue House.

YOUR DONATION

Our audio tours are free of charge. However, we welcome your support. Please help us to continue our non-profit work!

Funding and donations

Walking tour of the former Jewish quarter

Come along with Hans David Blum on a search for traces of history at places such as Münsterplatz, Synagogenplatz and the Old Jewish Cemetery. Discover the stories of Judengasse, the Rhine Gate and the “Zum Goldenen Adler” inn. Encounter members of the historical Jewish community, get to know their many different professions and the ways they contributed to their town – cattle and horse traders, butchers, brewers, innkeepers, hardware dealers, family doctors, and soldiers in the First World War, as well as the town councillor Ida Frank and Ludwig Dreyfuss, co-founder of the Breisach Festival.

Hans David Blum (1919, Breisach – 2009, New York)

Hans David Blum was born on Judengasse into a family of cattle dealers. He became a chronicler of the Jewish community. His parents were liberated from the Gurs internment camp and immigrated to New York with Hans David in 1946.

Tour of the city centre

Elaine Wolff from New York takes you straight into the hustle and bustle of Breisach’s market square before 1933. Discover traces of the Dreyfuss, Weil and Bähr family textile and hardware shops and the Günzburger family’s lively inn and brewery. Learn about the Rosenberg print shop, that produced popular postcard views of Breisach, and dive deeper into the Breisach railway station, which played an important role during the 20th century.

Elaine Wolff (born 1946, lives in New York)

Elaine’s mother Paula Wurmser came from Breisach. Hans David Blum was a childhood friend of Elaine’s mother and became friends with Elaine as well later in her life. Every time Elaine met him in New York, he told her stories about Breisach. These stories awakened her love for the city of her ancestors.

Concept and radio plays:
Gabriele Valeska Wilczek with Christiane Walesch-Schneller

Editing:
Johanna Mai, Ingrid Wenz-Gahler, Olivia Schneller

Translations: VSI-Berlin

Sound engineering:
Sergio Barone, PurpleRoom Recording Studio

Radio play production: Freiburg Living History UG

Radio play direction: Lukas Müller

Role/Speaker:

Hans David Blum: Heinzl Spagl

Elaine Wolff: Renate Obermaier

Ida Frank: Sybille Kleinschmitt

Ludwig Dreyfuss: Lukas Müller

Walter Breisacher: Jannik Sulger

Hans David Blum young: Lars Blume

Günther Boll: Christoph Hüllstrung

Heinz Bähr: Bernd Kolarik

Getrud Auer: Sigrid Franz

Selma Ziehler: Gabriele Zink

Kurt Dreyfuss: Bernd Lafrenz

Hermann Bähr: Sebastian Menges

Louise Weil: Natalia Herrera

Christiane Walesch-Schneller: Nicole Djandji-Stahl

French version:

Hans David Blum: Michel Zin-Cuder

Elaine Wolff: Marie Wuillème

English version:

Hans David Blum: Len Shirts

Elaine Wolff: Lynn Burch

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