Special exhibition on the mikvah opens
Invitation: on 10 September, 3.30 pm, exhibition room, town hall
On Sunday, 10 September at 3.30 pm, the Mayor of Chemnitz, Michael Stötzer, will open a special exhibition on the mikvah discovered in Chemnitz in 2022 in the exhibition room on the ground floor of the town hall. Under the title "The Mikveh of Chemnitz. A contemporary witness to our cultural history", the State Office of Archaeology will provide information on the current status and future prospects. The 3D print of the mikvah on a scale of 1:35 will also be presented for the first time.
Representatives of the media and interested parties are cordially invited to attend. A guided tour will be offered at 4 and 5 pm. The exhibition can then be viewed until 25 October during the opening hours of the town hall: Mondays to Thursdays 8 am to 6 pm, Fridays 8 am to 4 pm, closed on public holidays.
During an excavation of the city centre in the area of the Neue Johannisvorstadt in Chemnitz, the small Kellermikwe was discovered completely unexpectedly at the beginning of 2022. In the area between Augustusburger Straße and Theresenstraße, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a ritual Jewish immersion bath between the foundations of a cellar.
"Mikveh" translates as "the collection of water". They are still important facilities in Jewish communities today. Men and women perform the immersion bath according to a prescribed procedure in order to ritually cleanse themselves after certain events and before holidays. Even crockery and vessels from non-Jewish hands must first be cleaned before being used in the immersion bath.
The Chemnitz mikvah is one of the few older architectural testimonies to Jewish culture in Saxony and therefore has a special, supra-regional significance.