The Jewish burial place “am Clauberg” was first mentioned in 1718. The origins are unknown. The oldest preserved gravestone is dated June 15, 1820 and was erected for Sprinz, daughter of Jizchak Halevi, wife of Coppel Samuel. The Jewish cemetery on Estherweg reflects 120 years of funeral culture of the Jewish community in Solingen—from the simple, traditional forms of the first half of the nineteenth century and classic gravestones that already approached the bourgeois taste of the time to elaborately designed family graves that reflect the high social status of the dynasties of factory owners.
The horror of National Socialism also becomes visible—through a memorial stone for the editor Max Leven, who was murdered in the pogrom night, through blank spaces on family gravestones, as well as through additional plaques commemorating deported and murdered relatives. The last funeral took place in April 1941. Since the destruction of the Solingen Synagogue in November 1938, the cemetery on Estherweg is the last publicly visible testimony of the former Jewish community. Since 1988, it has been looked after by the working group “Jewish Cemetery” at the Alexander Coppel Comprehensive School (formerly the Solingen Municipal Comprehensive School).
