Judengang
The Path of the Jews
This historic peculiarity is located between the wall on the back of the Jewish cemetery and the court yards of the apartment-houses on the Kollwitzstrasse. The Path is seven meters wide an four hundred meters long.
Today the cemetery is the oldest visible Jewish burial place in Berlin. At its beginning in the year 1827 the "Jewish Path" was just a simple way through the fields. When that area was built up between Metzer Strasse (on Senefelder Platz) and Kollwitzplatz the path remained. Its original function is not historically authenticated. It has been told that the Jews were not allowed to use the main entry of the cemetery on Schönhauser Allee because the King didn’t want to be disturbed by the sight of funeral processions on the way to his summer castle in Niederschönhausen. That is why the Jews of Berlin had to use the "Jewish Path" and the back entry to reach their cemetery. When the Jewish Cemetery was restored in 2003 the path with its gate was cleared and made visible again. Today it is a garden monument.