KUSTERDINGEN incorporating Kusterdingen, Immenhausen, Jettenburg, Mähringen, and Wankheim. used by Tübingen and Reutlingen | baden-wuerttemberg-baden-wuerttemberg

48°31' N 9°07' E. Kusterdingen is a municipality 30 km S of Stuttgart, in the district of Tübingen formed of the following five villages: Kusterdingen, Immenhausen, Jettenburg, Mähringen, and Wankheim.

Hiistory and photos.The locked cemetery is near B28 road immediately next to the dump. Obscured by trees, no apparent connection to the town of Wankheim nor the town of Kuesterdingen of which Wankheim is formally part is apparent. [Mar 2013]

History and photos. in 1774 four to five Wankheim Jewish families leased a plot to create a cemetery with an annual rent of 3 florins. Since 1843, the Jewish community tried purchasing the cemetery grounds, but the Wankheim council demanded an excessive amount, dragging out the negotiations over four years. Since 1848, the cemetery was owned by the municipality. Around 1900 until about 1933, Jewish deceased from Tübingen and Reutlingen were buried here. The cemetery is located on the old road from Wankheim after Kusterdingen (signposted several times, not far from today's B 28; area 10.88 a). In the cemetery is a Holocaust memorial for 14 from the Jewish community of Tübingen. In October 1939, the cemetery was desecrated: 65 gravestones were overturned. In 1943, the cemetery became the property of th e Wankheimmunicipality . In 1949 the burial site was returned in restitution to the Jews of Wurttemberg. Further desecration of the cemetery were in November 1950, May 198,6 and December 1989. [Mar 2013]

DISTRICT: Tübingen (Tuebingen).
LOCATION OF CEMETERY:

Leave Wankheim direction Tübingen (Detail), beside today's B28 road. Well signposted.

IN USE: From 1744 until 1941 (oldest gravestone 1788/1789).
NUMBER OF GRAVESTONES: 137.
DOCUMENTATION:

1988 to 1994 complete cemetery documentation by Frowald Gil Hüttenmeister.
Numerous photographs of individual gravestones and general cemetery views in Alemannia Judaica.

PUBLICATIONS:

Photographic overall view of cemetery by Württemberg 1932, page 132.
Complete cemetery documentation by Wankheim 1995.

NOTES:

The Wankheim cemetery came into existence in 1774 when 4 or 5 Jewish families initially rented a piece of land at an annual rental of 3 Gulden to create a cemetery.After long drawn-out negotiations the cemetery was eventually acquired by the community of Wankheim in 1848. The cemetery area was enlarged in 1900 because, up to 1933, it was also used for burials by the Jewish communities of Tübingen and Reutlingen.
There is a memorial plaque in the cemetery remembering the 14 members of the Tübingen Jewish community who lost their lives during the 1933/1945 Nazi era.
The cemetery was severely damaged in October 1939, when 65 gravestones were toppled (Wankheim 1995, page 27). In 1943 the cemetery became the property of the town of Wankheim but in 1949 it was transferred by way of restitution to the Jewish Communities Association of Baden-Württemberg.
New cemetery vandalism occurred in 1950, 1986 and 1989 ((Wankheim 1995Wankheim 1995, page 28).

SOURCES: University of Heidelberg and Alemannia Judaica.