Buildings outside the Judengasse

There were several buildings outside the Judengasse which belonged to the Jewish community. They were not regular dwellings but community facilities. The most important were the various hospital buildings. In addition there were the chapel of rest, the bakehouse and the abattoir for poultry. The chapel of rest was a small building on the edge of the cemetery. The house had been the gravedigger's dwelling since 1612. The bakehouse of the Jewish community was used to keep the Jews' meals hot on the shabbat. As Jews are forbidden to light a fire or cook on the Jewish sabbath (Saturday), Jewish communities maintained sabbath bakehouses where the fire burned from Friday afternoon until the end of the sabbath. Before the start of the sabbath, on Friday afternoon, the inhabitants of the Judengasse put their cooked meals into the oven, collecting them after the service in the synagogue on the sabbath. This meant they were able to observe the ban on lighting a fire and still keep their food hot. The community bakehouse was originally located by the synagogue inside the Judengasse. It is first mentioned in the records around 1570.
After the great fire of 1711 the ovens were removed from the Judengasse for safety reasons. In the period 1713-1718 five community or sabbath ovens were built on the eastern half of the Völkerscher Bleichgarten. The abattoir for poultry was to the west of the hospital buildings on the edge of the Jewish cemetery. It was used for ritual slaughter of poultry by shochetim in accordance with Jewish law. This enabled the Jewish butchers to supply the inhabitants of the Judengassen with kosher poultry.