Around 1850, Abraham von der Wall, a butcher from Norden, settled in Norderney and opened a kosher butcher’s shop and restaurant. He was followed by other Jewish butchers and restaurant owners, as well as numerous merchants and hoteliers.
Even before the First World War, Norderney was considered an affluent “Jewish bathing resort,” while anti-Semitism emanated from Borkum and other islands, manifesting itself around 1900 in the “Borkum Song,” among other things:
Borkum, the most beautiful jewel of the North Sea,
remain purified of Jews,
leave Rosenthal and Levinsohn
all alone in Norderney.
The “Wangerooge Jewish Song” strikes the same chord and ends with the chorus:
And in a thousand voices our call resounds:
The Jew must leave, he must go to Norderney.
The other North Sea resorts were only later declared to be such and therefore strove to distinguish themselves from Norderney through their anti-Semitism (at first as a unique selling point, so to speak, which later had to become increasingly blatant, since the other islands followed suit).
Timeline Norderney
- ↑ Inauguration of the Norderney Synagogue – August 10, 1878
- ↓ Norderney officially named seaside resort – July 3, 1797