Famous Personalities at the Old Jewish Cemetery

A resident of Wrocław, Ferdinand Lassalle (1825–1864) was the founder and leading ideologist of the first workers 'party in Germany, under the name of the General German Workers' Union. The party, founded in 1863 in Leipzig, laid the foundations for the German social democracy.

Lassalle was also the creator of the reformist movement in the German workers' movement, the so-called lassallism. He died on August 31, 1864 as a result of a gunshot wound from a revolver, sustained in a duel over a woman, in the suburbs of Geneva.

Auguste Stein, née Courant (1849–1936), mother of Edith Stein (religious name Teresa Benedict of the Cross; 1891–1942), author of philosophical works, victims of the Holocaust, from 1998 a saint of the Catholic Church, and from 1999 a patron saint Europe.

Auguste, after her husband's sudden death, took over the running of the family timber business, bringing up seven children at the same time. The company's development enabled it to purchase a tenement house at ul. Nowowiejska 38, which now houses the seat of the Society of Edith Stein.

Friederike Kempner (1828–1904) was a famous writer and poet. Her versatile poetry and literature included, among others poems, polemics, tragedies, comedies and short stories. Referred to as „the genius of unintentional comedy", she was nicknamed the „Silesian Swan" or „Jewish Nightingale".

A social activist involved in carrying out many reforms, including regarding cemetery and prison regulations. She fought for civil rights, universal education, the improvement of social welfare and the abolition of vivisection. She was an animal lover.

A resident of Wrocław, Ferdinand Julius Cohn (1828–1898), was a world-renowned botanist and microbiologist, one of the founders of modern bacteriology. He founded the Institute of Plant Physiology at the University of Wrocław, where he conducted his memorable bacteriological research. He discovered endospores in bacteria and was the creator of the classification of bacteria into four groups used in science until today.


For his services, in 1898 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Wrocław. His name was recorded in the name Cohnia for a new type of plants from the dracen family and in the names: Cohnia Reichb.f. (Orchidaceae) or Cohniella Pfitzer Orchidaceae for plants of the orchid family.

Heinrich Graetz (1817–1891) was a professor of history at the University of Wrocław and a lecturer at the Jewish Theological Seminary. His greatest work was the first synthetic history of Jews from biblical times to the nineteenth century („Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart”), published in eleven volumes, also in foreign languages. Its Polish translation was published under the title „Historia Żydów”. Graetz was the founder of the famous historical school.

His son, Leo Graetz (1856–1941), was a professor of physics at the University of Munich, known as the creator of the electrical rectifier connection system, enabling full-wave current rectification (the so-called Graetz bridge). His physics textbooks were highly regarded and translated into many foreign languages.

A resident of Wrocław, Julius Bruck (1840–1902), was the first associate professor of dentistry in Germany (1871) and the founder of academic dentistry in Wrocław. He founded the first private Dental Institute, where he gave lectures for students, later transformed into the Department of Dentistry at the University of Wrocław.

Bruck also pioneered the development of devices for illuminating body cavities. He designed a stomatoscope to illuminate the oral cavity and a urethroscope for endoscopy of the bladder and urethra.

A resident of Wrocław, Leopold Auerbach (1828–1897), was a doctor and professor at the University of Wrocław. He went down in the history of medicine as the discoverer of the plexus of the muscular membrane in the digestive system, known from his name as the Auerbach plexus (Latin Plexus Auerbachi).

His research interests included anatomy, histology, physiology, embryology, general biology and history of development. He also made a significant contribution to the development of science in the field of cell biology.

Oskar Berger (1844–1885) was a doctor and the first associate professor of neuropathology at the University of Wrocław. He founded the first medical practice in the city specializing in nervous diseases. He was also the head physician of the town house for the poor. He was one of the first doctors in Wrocław to use electroshock therapy as a therapeutic agent. He specialized in neuropathology, neurology, physiology and electrotherapy.

A resident of Wrocław, Hermann Cohn (1838–1907), was a doctor and one of the first associate professors of ophthalmology at the University of Wrocław. The creator and precursor of the so-called school eye hygiene, which is now part of the screening tests performed in terms of eye tests in schoolchildren. He was a longtime scholar known as „Eye-Cohn", and a respected clinician. During 40 years of operation, he saw 45,000 patients free of charge at his private polyclinic and performed 4,500 eye surgeries.

Julius Schottländer (1835–1911) was a landowner, entrepreneur, philanthropist and social activist. He owned 35 properties in Wrocław, and in Karlsbad (today's Karlovy Vary in West Bohemia) – a spa house with a pump room and a mineral water spring. In the vicinity of his palace in Partynice (Villa Hartlieb), he founded the South Park for the city. His tomb resembling an Egyptian temple was designed by a famous architect, Karl Grosser (1850–1918).

Hugo Kolker (1845–1915) was an industrialist, entrepreneur, Portuguese consul and art collector. It owned an oil refinery, a factory of industrial lubricants and a depot with chemicals, fats, cellulose and kerosene.

Privately, he was an art lover and the owner of a collection of works by masters of European painting, including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Max Liebermann, Édouard Manet, and Edvard Munch, with whom he was in touch. A monumental tomb, resembling a small temple, was built in the neo-Romanesque style.

Max Kauffmann (1855–1893) was an industrialist associated with the textile industry, entrepreneur and manager of a cotton spinning mill in Wrocław. He came from the families of the founder of well-known weaving factories in Silesia, Meyer Kauffmann (1796–1871).

His tomb was built in the neo-Moorish style, with the use of typical structural elements such as a dome, horseshoe arches and slender columns. The rich ornamentation (the interior of the dome is covered with a geometric mosaic with floral motifs) and the use of multi-colored ceramics emphasize the oriental character of the tomb, reminiscent of the architecture of Islam.