The following is an incomplete list of massacres that have occurred in present-day Germany and its predecessors:
Massacres up until the year 1000 The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in the territory of the present-day Germany before the year 1000:
NameDateLocationDeathsDescriptionBlood court at CannstattStuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Suabiaseveral thousands mass killing of Suabian leaders by Frankish ruler Carloman after failed uprising; many details unclearMassacre of VerdenVerden, Lower Saxony4,500 mass killing of Saxons by Frankish king Charlemagne during his campaign to conquer and Christianize their territory in today's Northern GermanyLenzen massacreOld SaxonyUnknownSlavic captives, taken after the Battle of Lenzen, beheaded by king Henry the Fowler in SaxonyRecknitz massacreMecklenburg-Vorpommern700700 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 were 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.
NameDateLocationDeathsDescriptionSpeyer killings (1096)Speyer11 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.Worms massacre (1096) and Worms500–800; about 400 known by nameOn 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)Mainzup to 600,Rolf Dörrlamm: Magenza. Die Geschichte des jüdischen Mainz. Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 1995. ISBN 3-87439-366-6 other sources say 1,300 or about 1,100Eva Haverkamp (Hg.): Hebräische Berichte über Judenverfolgungen während des Ersten Kreuzzuges = Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Hebräische Texte aus dem mittelalterlichen Deutschland 1: Hebräische Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen während des Ersten Kreuzzugs. Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 2005. ISBN 3-7752-1301-5Many 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)CologneEstimates run from several dozen to about 300 up to 500–700This 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 Trier10Names 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. Neuss massacre (1096)Neussabout 200(?)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)Xantenabout 60Jews who had escaped from Cologne were killed in Xanten. One source 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.
Massacres during the years 1097 to 1347
NameDateLocationDeathsDescriptionWürzburg massacre (1147)WürzburgunknownJews murdered, motivated by the Second Crusade 1147-49.Neuss killing (1187)Neuss7A 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)Frankfurtup to 180Violence 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.Rintfleisch massacres – Southern Germany, ThuringiaUnknown. Estimates run from 4,000–5,000 to 20,000, one source estimates 100,000Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906. . (poorly recorded)Mass killing of Jews in 146 villages and cities, killing around 20,000 or more people,Haim Beinart (1981), Carta's Atlas of the Jewish people in the Middle Ages; Carta Jerusalem; 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. Armleder riots–Rhineland, BavariaunknownRiots 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.