Marsplatz
A Ghetto House in the Historical City Centre

Marsplatz / Steinweg, 50667 Köln

The buildings on the corner of Marsplatz and Steinweg had belonged since the 1870s to the Marx family of Jewish clothing manufacturers. Their retail outlet, ‘F. Alsberg Fashions’, was on the same premises. In 1886/87 they erected an imposing new building, which was taken over in the early 1920s by the textile wholesalers Baermann & Walter. Initially, the apartments above the business were occupied largely by non-Jewish tenants, but in 1941 the building was declared a ‘ghetto house’, where Jews were compelled to live in very cramped conditions.