Museum zur Geschichte von Christen und Juden

The Museum zur Geschichte von Christen und Juden stands in Laupheim, a town in the Biberach district of Oberschwaben. It occupies part of Schloss Großlaupheim, with a second site in the house beside the Jewish cemetery. The exhibition was created and installed by the Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg and is run by the city of Laupheim. The museum traces 200 years of shared life between Jewish and Christian communities in Laupheim. It shows how the first Jewish families arrived in 1730 under a protection letter from Reichsfreiherr Carl Damian von Welden. By the 19th century Laupheim had one of the largest Jewish communities in the Kingdom of Württemberg. The museum also documents the destruction of this coexistence under National Socialism and the long silence afterwards. Visitors enter the main building to see displays on Carl Laemmle, the Laupheim founder of Universal Studios. Rooms explain the legal status of Jews before the secularisation and their economic role. Further sections cover the granting of full citizenship in 1864, the First World War losses, and the rise of anti-Semitism in the Weimar years. The exhibition ends with stories of local women, the sculptor Friedrich Adler, and the Salvatorian artist Ivo Schaible.