The Grindel is a quarter in the Hamburg-Rotherbaum district with its centre at Allende-Platz (formerly: Bornplatz) and the area of Grindelberg to the north, which today belongs to the Harvestehude district. Documentary mentions of the former forest and wetland west of the (later built) Dammtor can be found from the 14th century onwards. The main building of the University of Hamburg is located near the Dammtor train station, not far from the main campus (Von-Melle-Park) with the Hamburg State and University LibraryCarl von Ossietzky, the Audimax and several other teaching buildings. On the other side of Grindelallee, other teaching buildings are grouped around Martin-Luther-King-Platz. The Geomatikum near the Schlump underground station forms the end in the west.
As Hamburg grew in the 19th century, the Grindel quarter developed into the center of the local Jewish communities. This was reflected, among other things, in the construction of several new synagogues, the most famous of which were the New Dammtor Synagogue (1895) and the Bornplatz Synagogue (1906). In addition, institutions such as the Talmud Torah School at Grindelhof and the German-Israeli Orphanage Institute at Papendamm were built. The former Jewish cemetery at Grindel served as the main cemetery for the High German Israelite Community and the Portuguese Community in Hamburg from 1835 to 1909. In 1933, when the Nazis seized power, around 25,000 members of Jewish communities lived in the Grindel quarter. During Kristallnacht in 1938, most of the synagogues and community facilities were destroyed. The synagogue at Bornplatz was set on fire and demolished. The bunker was then built. The synagogue of the Israelite Temple Association at Oberstrasse 120 (today: The Great Broadcasting Hall of the NDR) remained undamaged because the local police station was located in the building next door. It would have been difficult to explain that such things could have happened here without the knowledge and tolerance of the law enforcement authorities. Nevertheless, the closure was enforced after the November pogroms of 1938. From 1941, the remaining Jews who had not managed to escape were deported to Eastern Europe and murdered there. From 1942, Jews had to move from their homes to Dillstrasse 15. The assembly point for the deportations was on Moorweidenstrasse between the main building of the university and the Carl von Ossietzky State and University Library and is now called Platz der Jüdischen Deportierten.
On June 30, 1942, the Talmud Torah School was closed, along with all Jewish educational institutions in the Hanseatic city. Of the 28 teachers, three survived. After the war, the British occupation set up an officers’ club in the school. Various university departments were located there until 1968, and then aspiring librarians were trained there. On June 30, 2004, the city handed the school over to the Jewish Life Foundation, which the Jewish community founded, among other things, for the purpose of rebuilding the Talmud Torah School. The building was opened as a Jewish community center in June 2007. The former Talmud Torah School has been home to the Josef Carlebach School since August 28, 2007. This is a Jewish elementary school up to grade 5. Among other things, kosher food is offered to the children and Jewish religious studies and Hebrew are taught there.
Even today, the Grindel is a center for the approximately 4,000 Jews living in Hamburg. The synagogue of the Jewish community in Hohen Weide is not far away. Since Orthodox Jews have to walk to the synagogue on the Sabbath, the Grindel is a popular Jewish residential area. Among other things, there is the Jewish salon, which is attached to the Café Leonar. Literary readings are held in the Jewish salon, and the café serves kosher bacon, mezze and other delicacies from Jewish or Middle Eastern cuisine. The café resembles the coffee houses in Israel and the many that used to exist in the Grindel. It was named after the Leonar works in Hamburg-Wandsbek, whose family had to flee Wandsbek in 1938. The owner thus remembers his grandfather. An important chronicler of the Jewish history of the Grindel district was the publicist, painter and art teacher Arie Goral-Sternheim, who died in 1996. The writer Rada Biller lived in the district and her son Maxim Biller grew up there.
