Eintracht, Benjamin Graumann answers when asked what connects him most with Frankfurt. He was six years old when his father took him to the Waldstadion for the first time. “Since then, I have been hooked on the club.” As a youngster, he stood in the G-Block, but today he prefers to watch the games from a seat. He has had his season ticket “for more than 15 years.”
And he still calls his father after every game. Then they analyze the game, argue about the players’ performances, get angry or are happy. “How Eintracht does depends largely on my mood,” says Graumann.
For Graumann, Frankfurt is an “international village”
The 42-year-old lawyer is a Frankfurter through and through, he has never lived anywhere else. He attended the Jewish Lichtigfeld School and later the Bettina School, and studied law at Goethe University. He grew up in the Eschersheim district, and now lives in the Westend with his wife and two daughters. His office is around the corner from Freßgass’. He calls his hometown an “international village”.
Graumann has been a member of the board of the 6,300-member Jewish community in Frankfurt for four years. The lawyer was elected to the board as the first member of the “third generation,” i.e. the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. Graumann is responsible for the community’s finances and taxes, the kindergartens and youth center, the Jeschurun religious school, the family center, and digitalization.
He is proud that he initiated the development of a community app, that the Frankfurt community is more visible on social networks and has more followers than any other community in Germany. And he is proud of the family center that opened in 2021, where birth preparation and pregnancy courses are offered, where young families can exchange ideas and get to know each other. Ensuring that Jewish life in Frankfurt has a future: Graumann sees this as his mission.
Religion plays a central role
Religion plays a “central role” in his everyday life. He eats kosher food and the holidays are important to him. Despite this, he does not go to synagogue every Saturday and does not wear a kippah. He “learned to get involved from my parents.” His father, Dieter Graumann, was himself on the board of the Frankfurt community for a long time and was president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany from 2010 to 2014. His mother, Simone Graumann, headed the German branch of the Women’s International Zionist Organization.
Drawing by Alfred Schüssler
His parents showed him how “fulfilling volunteering is,” even if it takes up a lot of time, says Graumann. His work for the community is almost like a part-time job. “It requires good time management.”
The lawyer believes that it is especially important now for Jews to be self-confident in public. He calls October 7 and the subsequent increase in anti-Semitic attacks in Germany a “fundamental break”. We “could not have imagined” the “amount of hatred and aggression” against Jews, especially on social media. This has brought them even closer together in the community.
And Graumann is also visiting Frankfurt schools more than before. There he explains, tries to convey what it means to be part of a minority, to be confronted with hate speech. And what can happen “if society remains silent about it.” For many students, these appointments are often the first time they have ever met a Jew. “I hope that this helps,” says Graumann. “I hope that I can raise awareness.”
