We visited here on a day dedicated to Jewish life past and present in Berlin. The dome was familiar and very famous because when you see newsreels of crystallnacht there is an indelible image of this synagogue on fire-which incidentally was extinguished by the Berlin. The synagogue which is located in North-East Berlin once had 2000 seats, but still today, with its 1200 seats it is the biggest German synagogue. During the night of November 9th it was set on fire but then extinguished again because of its location in a backyard. Nevertheless it was confiscated by the Nazis in 1940.
Synagoge Rykestraße Rykestrasse Synagogue | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Judaism |
District | Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin |
Rite | Conservative (Ashkenazi) |
Year consecrated | 1904 1939 1945 |
Status | active synagogue |
Location | |
Location | Prenzlauer Berg, a locality in the Pankow borough of Berlin. |
State | Germany |
Geographic coordinates | 52°32′07″N13°25′07″E / 52.535381°N 13.418598°ECoordinates: 52°32′07″N13°25′07″E / 52.535381°N 13.418598°E |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | Johann Hoeniger [de] (1902/04) Ruth Golan (1995–2007) |
Style | Neo-Romanesque |
Groundbreaking | 1903 |
Specifications | |
Direction of façade | southeast |
Capacity | 1074 |
Length | 45.78 metres (150.2 ft) |
Width | 26.68 metres (87.5 ft) |
Height (max) | 17.3 metres (57 ft) |
Materials | brick |
Rykestrasse Synagogue, Germany's largest synagogue, is located in the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood in the Pankow borough of Berlin. Johann Hoeniger [de] built the synagogue in 1903/1904. It was inaugurated on 4 September 1904, in time for the holidays of and around Rosh haShana. The synagogue stands off the street alignment and is reached by a thoroughfare in the pertaining front building.
The years 1902 to 1933[edit]
Berlin's Jewish Community [de] (German: Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin), comprising the bulk of Jewish faithful of mainstream (also called liberal, in today's English terminology 'conservative'), Orthodox and Reform affiliation, grew strongly in membership in the second half of the 19th century. With the expansion of Berlin into new neighbourhoods the need of additional synagogues within a walking distance became urgent. However, the Jewish community could not fulfill all the claims for additional premises, so many private synagogues (Vereinssynagogen, literally synagogues of registered associations) emerged scattered over the city. Most Jews in Prenzlauer Berg, however, could not afford to establish a Vereinssynagoge with their own funds. So in 1902 Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin bought the site in Rykestraße [de] and its building master Johann Hoeniger (1850–1913) was commissioned to design and supervise the building of this new synagogue.
Construction started in 1903 and at noon on Sunday, 4 September 1904, the synagogue was inaugurated with Handel's prelude in D major and the Ma Tovu prayer led by cantor David Stabinski (1857–1919), Rabbi Josef Eschelbacher [de] (1848–1916, illuminating the ner tamid) and Rabbi Adolf Rosenzweig (1850–1918) preaching.[1] Almost the complete board (Vorstand) of Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin and many members of the elected assembly of representatives (Repräsentantenversammlung) attended the ceremony, while the city of Berlin sent its school councillor Carl Michaelis and Paul Langerhans [de], president of the city parliament.
In the afternoon of the same day Berlin's other Jewish community Israelitische Synagogengemeinde Adass Jisroel [de], solely comprising Orthodox members, opened its own synagogue in Artilleriestraße, today's Tucholskystraße. Five days later on the eve of Rosh haShana the Rykestraße Synagogue was first time used for its actual religious purpose.
With its members of different Jewish affiliations Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin also offered services in its different synagogues following different ceremonial styles. Some followed old style (Alter Ritus), such as the Old Synagogue [de] on Heidereutergasse 4, especially for the members clinging to the so-called intra-community orthodoxy (Gemeindeorthodoxie, as opposed to seceded orthodoxy [Austrittsorthodoxie], the proponents of which had seceded from Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin establishing Adass Jisroel in 1869).
Other synagogues applied the new style (Neuer Ritus), often including organ music, (mixed) choirs and additional songs sung in German language.[2]
Each synagogue of Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin had its own elected Synagogenvorstand (board of gabba'im), which developed synagogal minhagim including their own peculiarities.[3] Rykestraße Synagogue adopted a compromise minhag close to Alter Ritus. Thus rabbis of mainstream and Orthodox affiliation served the congregants.
The gabba'im decided to allow women and men sitting side by side, despite criticism from some Orthodox members.[4] In this the synagogue equalled the practice in Lützowstraße Synagogue. The plan to install an organ – as realised in Berlin's New Synagogue in 1861 – was given up after a hefty debate.[5] The space in the prayer hall prepared for the organ remained empty.
In 1904 Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin opened a Jewish religious school (VI. Religionsschule) in the front building.[6] During World War I Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin engaged Rabbi Martin Joseph as chaplain for Jewish Russian prisoners of war kept in detention centres at Berlin. On the high holidays the German High Command allowed them to attend services in Rykestraße Synagogue.[7]
Joseph Himmel (1872–1943, Theresienstadt) served as president of the gabba'im in the 1910s probably until the 1920s. Orthodox Rabbi Siegfried Alexander (1886–1943, Auschwitz) won the congregants to elect the first woman, Martha Ehrlich (née Eisenhardt; 1896–1942) as gabba'i, equally participating in gabba'i decisions and tasks, however, except of – unlike her male colleagues – calling congregants up to read the Torah.[8] In the 1930s until the closure of the synagogue in 1940, Josef Luster (1886–1943, Auschwitz) presided the board of gabba'im.[9]
In 1922 a private School Association opened a Jewish school in the front building. The synagogue served the congregants in the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood as place of worship and for their rites of passage such as weddings and Bar Mitzvah ceremonies as well as Bat Mitzvah ceremonies starting as of the mid-1920s.[10] On Yom Kippur ceremonies the prayer of Kol Nidrei was skipped, as was typical for Neuer Ritus style. However, this was protested in the 1920s by a group of congregants, the so-called Kol Nidrei demonstrators, who ostentatiously left the main prayer hall shortly before the service on the eve of Yom Kippur and then formed a minyan in the hallway, praying Kol Nidrei there, before returning again to the main hall.[11]
The Israelitisches Familienblatt dedicated an article to the 25th anniversary of the inauguration of the Synagogue,[12] while the gabba'im decided to celebrate a special ceremony on Sunday, 29 September 1929.
Some congregants formed a registered association for the Rykestraße Synagogue (Synagogenverein Rykestraße), promoting strong company among the congregants, organising meetings, festivities, lectures to this end, cherishing Jewish traditions and collecting and donating money for needy congregants (Tzedakah), but also demanding a say at employing rabbis and cantors. In 1931 Hugo Alexander presided over the association.
In January 1933 Sally Heilbrunn, Heinrich Loewe [de] (1869–1951, Tel Aviv) and Rabbi Moritz Freier gathered 300 people protesting the replacement of Michael Sachs' Rödelheim siddur (Siddur Sefat Emet סדור ספת אמת) and machzor by the Berlin unitary siddur and machzor (Einheitsgebetsbuch).[13] On 25 January the same year Synagogenverein gathered for a lecture and made the case for unitary siddur and machzor, denying aiming at Reform but at restoring the minhag as it used to be until by 1928, claiming that most congregants disliked the traditionalist changes since.[14] In the end the protesters prevailed and the Rödelheim siddur and machzor remained in use in Rykestraße Synagogue until today.
The synagogue during Nazi rule[edit]
The upcoming Nazi dictatorship with its anti-Semitic discriminations, invidiousnesses, persecutions, and atrocities changed the lives of German Jewry so thoroughly that disputes on style and traditions fell silent. After the new Nazi government had widely banned Jewish performers, artists and scientists from public stages and lecterns, Rykestraße Synagogue opened for their concerts and lectures organised by Kulturbund Deutscher Juden or benefit performances by Jüdisches Winterhilfswerk (Jewish winter aid endowment) in favour of poor Jews, who had been excluded from government benefits.[15]
On 16 February 1934 the synagogal choir under Kurt Burchard (1877–1942, Auschwitz) enacted for the first time the new Friday night liturgy that had been composed by Jakob Dymont (1881–1956), choirmaster at Adass Jisroel synagogue. Dymont composed it along the melodies of chazzanut following the Nussach. Also Dymont's Shabbat morning liturgy was presented in the synagogue. For the 30th anniversary of the synagogu,e Rudolf Melnitz reported in Israelitisches Familienblatt that the synagogue had attracted more people and that, with Orthodox and mainstream rabbis officiating, Rykestraße congregation enjoyed a unique richeness.[16]
The synagogue did not burn during the November Pogrom, then euphemised as 'Kristallnacht' (Night of Broken Glass) on 9 November 1938, when Nazis attacked in well organised pogroms synagogues and Jewish businesses.[17] Instead the Nazis ordered – as in other comparable sites too[18] – a 'mere' vandalisation and demolition of furnishings, since the synagogue is located inside of a block of residential buildings.[19] A fire ignited and burning torah scrolls and smashed furniture was soon extinguished before spreading to the actual building.[20] Many windows had been destroyed. Rabbis and other male congregants were arrested and brought to Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin mended the synagogue, one of the few little-destroyed ones in Berlin, and reopened it on the eve of Pessach 1939 (3 April).[21] Regular Jewish ceremonies could be held until, on 12 April 1940, Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt announced that services would not held be any more in Rykestraße and in the also reopened New Synagogue until further notice. That was the usual way in which Nazi prohibitions were publicised.
The Jewish school in the front building was forced to close in 1941. However, the Jewish community formally remained proprietor of the site. In May 1942 the borough of Prenzlauer Berg declared its will to acquire the site paying the ridiculous sum of reichsmark (ℛℳ) 191,860 and with effect of 1 September 1944 the site was conveyanced to the borough.[22] When on 6 May 1943 the Jewish community applied at the Gestapo for a sale permission, since all its property was under custodianship as were any sales proceeds, it named the Heeresstandortverwaltung I Berlin (German Army garrison administration no. I) as the tenant of all the site, except of two little apartments in the front building still rented out to residential tenants.[23]
The oft-mentioned usage of the synagogue by the Wehrmacht as a horse barn is not proven and unlikely. There were no premises and remainders found in the synagogue indicating that usage.[23] Instead it is reported that furniture was stored in the prayer hall. The furnishings (chandeliers, lustres, menorot, ner tamid, cupper coverings of doors) of the synagogue made from non-ferrous metal, which was scarce and much needed for war production, were not dismantled.[24]
Post-war[edit]
The prayer hall lacked most of its benches and the aron kodesh was screened off by a raw provisional wall built after April 1940. Sanitary installations had been dismantled and the destroyed windows exposed the interior to the impact of weather. Erich Nehlhans [de] (1899–1950, Soviet Gulag), who survived the Shoah living underground, the new president of Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin much promoted the reopening of Rykestraße Synagogue. He informed the city council that on Friday, 13 July 1945, the first shabbat ceremony was held, also attended by Soviet City Commander Nikolai Berzarin, however using the better preserved and smaller weekday prayer hall. On 29 July 1945 Rabbi Martin Riesenburger [de] could celebrate the first Jewish wedding there since the closure of the synagogue in 1940. Jewish displaced persons, who survived the Shoa and were stranded in Berlin, used to live in the front building.
The great prayer hall was provisionally refurnished with benches. A new central bimah replaced the original one located directly in front of the aron qodesh and thus also screened off by the wall. Services were held on Rosh Hashana 1945 and Pessach 1946, before another closure for a more serious refurbish 1946/1947.[25]
In the period of GDR[edit]
In 1952 Heinz Galinski, since 1949 president of still undivided Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin, commissioned Heinz Juliusberger, head of its construction department, to prepare and supervise an extensive renovation of the synagogue, being the sole functioning synagogue in the eastern sector of Berlin. Material unavailable in the communist planning system, such as zinc to repair the roof, were bought in West Berlin and brought over.[26] The provisional wall was demolished reopening the access to the aron qodesh and the original bimah, so that the central bimah, disliked by Riesenburger, could be removed again.[27]
During the course of the anti-Semitic campaigns in Czechoslovakia during the Slánský trialGDR authorities arrested and interrogated Jews living in East Germany. The Stasi searched community offices all over the GDR, leading to renewed exodus from the GDR by Jews. West Berlin permitted these migrants and within several months, between 500 and 600 Jews crossed over.[28]
Berlin's Chief Rabbi Nathan Peter Levinson [de] then urged Galinski, who rather maintained a low political profile after the Soviets had deported his predecessor, to warn Jews in the east of the upcoming persecution, which he did by way of a press conference held in West Berlin. CommunistVolkskammer deputy Julius Meyer [de] (1909–1979), president of the union of Jewish congregations in East Germany (not including Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin), was interrogated between 6 and 8 January, when GDR officials prompted him to declare in the name of the Jewish community that there is no anti-Semitism in communist states, that Israel is a fascist state and that he acknowledges the Slánský trial. Meyer refused and fled to West Berlin in the night after the Doctors' plot started on 13 January 1953.[27][29]
Hoping to spare themselves from further persecution members of Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin in East Berlin formed a new provisional executive board only competent for the eastern sector on 21 January, thus establishing Jüdische Gemeinde von Groß-Berlin (i.e. Jewish congregation of Greater Berlin), dividing Berlin's Jewish community. Rykestraße congregant Georg Heilbrunn (1887–1971; brother of the aforementioned Sally Heilbrunn), president of the Rykestraße gabba'im, was elected member of the East Berlin community board.[30] On 25 January the GDR started a wave of arrests of Jews.
So there were Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin and Jüdische Gemeinde von Groß-Berlin, one western one eastern, when Riesenburger re-inaugurated Rykestraße Synagogue on Sunday, 30 August 1953, giving it the name 'Friedenstempel'( English: Temple of Peace). Georg Heilbrunn and Israel Rothmann held speeches, the latter praising the great Soviet Union and the GDR government. The latter sent Arnold Zweig and Robert Havemann as its representatives. However, an arson attack on the day before cast a pall on the re-inauguration.[31] The naming 'Friedenstempel' did not prevail.
Further repairs followed in 1957, 1967, but funds for houses of worship were in short supply from an atheistic government. After the erection of the Berlin Wall the number of members of the Jewish community in the eastern sector of Berlin amounted to about 3,000 persons.
On Sunday, 11 March 1962 Rabbi Riesenburger, who was also an organist, inaugurated an organ installed for the first time in the preserved location, which he played in concerts of traditional Berlin synagogal organ music.[32] Still in use today, this instrument, a single keyboarded church organ of famous organ builder Sauer [de] (Frankfurt upon Oder) is used sometimes for concerts and some religious services as wedding ceremonies.
On Tuesday, 1 September 1964, Jüdische Gemeinde von Groß-Berlin celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Synagogue. Leipzig's Jewish cantor Werner Sander [de] directed the concert of the Leipziger Synagogalchor [de] accompanied by West Berlin's cantors Estrongo Nachama [de] (1918–2000) or Leo Roth [de] (1921–2004), with Riesenburger preaching.[33] After his death in 1965 Riesenburger was succeeded by Rabbi Ödön Singer. After he returned to Hungary in 1969 the position remained vacant.
On 21 September 1976 East Berlin registered Rykestraße Synagogue as a monument, so public subsidies flowed for the renovations in 1986/1987. On Rosh haShana 1987 (23 September) Isaac Newman assumed his office as rabbi for Jüdische Gemeinde von Berlin (after 1970 the Groß had been skipped). However, congregation and rabbi were disappointed of each other so Newman returned to the United States in May 1988. On 25 February 1988 the GDR government reversed the property transfer of 1944, thus Jüdische Gemeinde von Berlin (East) held again property title to the Synagogue. However, as the long practice showed since 1945, it was not the property title, anyway discretionarily not respected by the communist East German rulers, which allows the de facto usage, but usage depended on the pure goodwill of the rulers. By 1990 the community counted a mere 200 members and had no longer had a rabbi. On 1 January 1991 the small Jüdische Gemeinde von Berlin (East) and the much bigger Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin (West) reunited.
After unification[edit]
On 12 September 2004 the centenary of Rykestrasse synagogue was solemnly celebrated, cantor Jochen Fahlenkamp singing 'Adoshem Malach' by former Rykestrasse choir conductor and composer Jakob Dymont (1860-1956).
The synagogue's interior, which now seats up to 1,074 people, originally sat 2,000. After more than a year of work to restore its prewar splendor, it was rededicated on 31 August 2007, this time as an Orthodox synagogue, with separate seating and an OrthodoxMinyan. The inauguration saw rabbis bringing the Torah to the synagogue, in a ceremony witnessed by political leaders and Holocaust survivors from around the world.
'It is now the most beautiful synagogue in Germany,' the cultural affairs director of the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin, Peter Sauerbaum, said.
Today, Berlin has the largest Jewish community in Germany, with 12,000 registered members and eight synagogues.
Visiting the synagogue[edit]
Public tours through the Rykestrasse Synagogue are available on Thursdays between 14:00 and 18:00 and Sundays between 11:00 and 16:00. Tours are offered in German; an English tour starts at 16:00 on Thursdays. Entry is permitted until 17:30 pm and no entry is permitted at any other time.
Services are held on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.
The Synagogue can easily be accessed by public transport through the underground line U2 (stations Senefelderplatz and Eberswalder Strasse) and the tramway line M2 (stations Knaackstrasse and Marienburger Strasse).
List of rabbis serving at Rykestraße Synagogue[edit]
Since the archives of Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin were mostly destroyed following the compulsory dissolution of the community by the Nazi government exact years of office cannot be given. The rabbis also alternately served at other synagogues of Jüdische Gemeinde, some restricting themselves to only Alter Ritus or Neuer Ritus synagogues, some serving wherever the gabba'im invited them.
- Siegmund Maybaum (1844–1919; mainstream)
- Josef Stier [de] (1843–1919; mainstream)
- Samson Hochfeld [de] (1871–1921; mainstream)
- Josef Eschelbacher [de] (1848–1916; Orthodox)
- Siegfried Alexander (1886–1943, Auschwitz; Orthodox)
- Moritz Freier (1889–1969; Orthodox)
- Ezechiel Landau (1888–1965; Orthodox)
- Wilhelm Lewy [de] (1876–1949; Orthodox)
- Israel Nobel (1878–1962; Orthodox)
- Markus Petuchowski (1866–1926; Orthodox)
- Max Weyl (17.02.1873-27.09.1942, deported to Theresienstadt in 1942; graduate of Rabbinerseminar für das Orthodoxe Judentum, however mainstream), tutoring the world's first female Rabbi Regina Jonas.[8][34]
- Manfred Swarsensky (1906–1981; mainstream)
- no services at Rykestraße Synagogue between April 1940 and July 1945
- Martin Riesenburger [de] (1896–1965), officiated since July 1945 till his death[35]
- Ödön Singer, officiated 1965–1969
- vacancy 1969–1987
- Isaac Newman (b. 1923), officiated September 1987 till May 1988
- vacancy 1988–1990
- rabbis of Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin, reunited since 1 January 1991
List of cantors serving at Rykestraße Synagogue[edit]
- David Stabinski, succeeded by
- Max Sacher (1863–?), succeeded by
- Leo Juda Leib Ahlbeck (1880–?, emigrated to Britain in 1939), succeeded by
- Joseph Schallamach (b. 1907, emigrated to Shanghai), also serving as shammes
- no services at Rykestraße Synagogue between April 1940 and July 1945
- Paul Hecht (1897–?, emigrated by 1953 to the USA)
- Moritz Spitzer (1885–1964)
- Alfred Scheidemann (1905–1972)
- Sally Simoni (1905–1989)
- Oljean Ingster [de] (b. 1928), officiating since Pessach 1966
- Jochen Fahlenkamp (1953-), officiating since 1998
Cantors on weekdays before 1940:Salomon Blaustein (1847–1933) and Bernhard Kassel
References[edit]
- Georg Dehio. Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler: Berlin, Ernst Gall (ed.), Sibylle Badstübner-Gröger, Michael Bollé, Ralph Paschke (collaborators) et al., Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2000, p. 325. ISBN3-422-03071-9
- Ulrich Eckhardt [de], Andreas Nachama [de] with Heinz Knobloch and Elke Nord, Jüdische Orte in Berlin, Berlin: Nicolai, 1996, pp. 38seq. ISBN3-87584-581-1
- Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), 63 pages. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- Zeugnisse jüdischer Kultur: Erinnerungsstätten in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin, Sachsen-Anhalt, Sachsen und Thüringen , Klaus Arlt, Ingrid Ehlers (eds.), Constantin Beyer (photos) et al., Berlin: Tourist-Verlag and Wichern-Verlag, 1992, pp. 144seq. ISBN3-350-00780-5
External links[edit]
Media related to Synagoge Rykestraße at Wikimedia Commons
Notes[edit]
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 10seqq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 23seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Cf. Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 21seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 11. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 15seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Cf. Israelitisches Familienblatt, 3 October 1904.
- ^Cf. Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 23. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^ abCf. Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 25seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^He ran a kosher mineral-water and soft-drink factory on a site adjacent to the synagogue in the same block.
- ^Cf. Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 18. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Cf. Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 24. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Cf. Israelitisches Familienblatt, 15 August 1929.
- ^Cf. Israelitisches Familienblatt, 18 January 1933.
- ^Cf. Israelitisches Familienblatt, 2 February 1933.
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 38. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 34seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Zeugnisse jüdischer Kultur: Erinnerungsstätten in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin, Sachsen-Anhalt, Sachsen und Thüringen , Klaus Arlt, Ingrid Ehlers, Constantin Beyer (photos) et al., Berlin: Tourist-Verlag and Wichern-Verlag, 1992, p. 145. ISBN3-350-00780-5
- ^The synagogue in Berlin's Pestalozzistraße was not set on fire at the November Pogrom due to its location inside a block, the synagogue in Augsburg weathered it, because it neighboured a compound of kerosine tanks, the synagogue in Lübeck, because it stood (and still stands) almost wall to wall to the city's Museum of Art and Culture, etc.
- ^Ulrich Eckhardt, Andreas Nachama with Heinz Knobloch and Elke Nord, Jüdische Orte in Berlin, Berlin: Nicolai, 1996, p. 39. ISBN3-87584-581-1
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 39seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 41. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 43. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^ abHermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 44. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 45. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 47seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 48. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^ abHermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 49. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^556 Jews filed for refuge in West Berlin until March 1953 with prior c. 2,500 Jews in East Berlin and another 2,000 in East Germany proper.
- ^Also the presidents of the Jewish congregations of Dresden, Erfurt, and Leipzig escaped to the West.
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagogue Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 49seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 50seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 17. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904–2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), p. 55. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^Weyl also served in the synagogue Kaiserstraße, New Synagogue and Lindenstraße.
- ^Jüdische Gemeinde employed Riesenburger on 1 June 1933, he was ordained rabbi 1939, practising until June 1943, then occupied on Weißensee Cemetery to perform Jewish burials of the deceased among the few Jews still living in Berlin, mostly Jews living in a so-called mixed marriage.
Neue Synagoge | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Conservative Judaism |
Rite | |
Leadership | Gesa Ederberg |
Year consecrated | 1866 |
Status | Active |
Location | |
Location | Oranienburger Straße 29-31, Berlin, Germany |
Geographic coordinates | 52°31′29″N13°23′40″E / 52.52472°N 13.39444°E |
Architecture | |
Type | Synagogue |
Style | Moorish Revival |
Groundbreaking | 1859 |
Completed | 1866 |
Capacity | 3200 seats |
Website | |
www.or-synagogue.de (synagogue)[1] (co-located museum) |
The Neue Synagoge ('New Synagogue') was built 1859–1866 as the main synagogue of the BerlinJewish community, on Oranienburger Straße. Because of its eastern Moorish style and resemblance to the Alhambra, it is an important architectural monument of the second half of the 19th century in Berlin.
The building was designed by Eduard Knoblauch. Following Knoblauch's death in 1865, Friedrich August Stüler took responsibility for the majority of its construction as well as for its interior arrangement and design. It was inaugurated in the presence of Count Otto von Bismarck, then Minister President of Prussia, in 1866. One of the few synagogues to survive Kristallnacht, it was badly damaged prior to and during World War II and subsequently much was demolished; the present building on the site is a reconstruction of the ruined street frontage with its entrance, dome and towers, and only a few rooms behind. It is truncated before the point where the main hall of the synagogue began.
Building[edit]
The front of the building, facing Oranienburger Straße, is polychrome brickwork, richly ornamented with sculpted bricks and terracotta, accented by coloured glazed bricks. Beyond the entrance, the building's alignment changes to mesh with pre-existing structures. The synagogue's main dome, with its gilded ribs, is an eye-catching landmark. The central dome is flanked by two smaller pavilion-like domes on the two side-wings. Beyond the façade was the front hall and the main hall with 3,000 seats. Due to the unfavourable alignment of the property, the building's design required adjustment along a slightly turned axis.[clarification needed]
The Neue Synagoge is also a monument of early iron construction. The new building material was visible in the outside columns, as well as in the dome's construction. Iron was also a core component for the now-lost floor structure of the main hall.
History[edit]
The New Synagogue was built to serve the growing Jewish population in Berlin, in particular, immigrants from the East. It was the largest synagogue in Germany at the time, seating 3,000 people. The building housed public concerts, including a violin concert with Albert Einstein in 1930. With an organ and a choir, the religious services reflected the liberal developments in the Jewish community of the time.[1]
During the November Pogrom (9 November 1938), colloquially euphemised as 'Kristallnacht', a Nazi mob broke into the Neue Synagoge, desecrated the Torah scrolls, smashed the furniture, piled up such contents as would burn in the synagogue interior, and set fire to them. Lieutenant Otto Bellgardt, the police officer of the local police precinct on duty that night, arrived on the scene in the early morning of 10 November and ordered the arsonists to disperse. He said the building was a protected historical landmark and drew his pistol, declaring that he would uphold the law requiring its protection. This allowed the fire brigade to enter and extinguish the fire before it could spread to the fabric of the building, and the synagogue was saved from destruction.[2] Senior Lieutenant Wilhelm Krützfeld, head of the local police precinct, and Bellgardt's superior, later covered up[clarification needed] for him. Berlin's police commissioner Graf Helldorf only verbally reprimanded Krützfeld for shielding his subordinate and, partly in consequence, Krützfeld has often mistakenly been identified[3] as the rescuer of the New Synagogue.[4]
The New Synagogue, like the synagogue in Rykestrasse, remained intact and was subsequently repaired by the congregation, who continued to use it as synagogue until 1940. Besides being used for prayers, the main hall was also used for concerts and lectures, since Jews were banned from other venues. The main prayer hall was last used by the congregation for a concert on Sunday, 31 March 1940. The concert ws the last of a series of benefit concerts in aid of the Jüdisches Winterhilfswerk (Jewish Winter Aid Endowment), a charity helping poor Jews, who had been excluded from government benefits.[5] On 5 April 1940 the Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt was required to announce that services in the New Synagogue would not be held until further notice;[5] this was the usual way Nazi prohibitions were publicised. Congregants were requested to evacuate their belongings from their shelves in the prayer hall by Monday April 8.[6] The main hall was then seized by the Heeresbekleidungsamt III (uniform department No. III) of the Heer (German Army), who used it to store uniforms.
The Rykestraße Synagogue was closed and seized by the Heer a week later. The Jewish Community of Berlin continued to use the office rooms in the front section of New Synagogue, including the Repräsentantensaal (hall of the assembly of elected community representatives) below the golden dome. The congregation occasionally held prayers in this hall until September 1942, when it had to evacuate the front section as well.[7] During World War II the New Synagogue was heavily damaged; it was completely burned after Allied bombing during the Battle of Berlin, a series of British air raids lasting from 18 November 1943 until 25 March 1944. The strike on the New Synagogue was recorded in the Berlin police commissioner's bomb damage reports, regularly issued after attacks, for the raid on the night of 22–23 November 1943.[8]
The building to the left from the New Synagogue, and the second one to the right at Oranienburger Straße 28,[a] also belonged to Berlin's Jewish Community. These buildings survived the war intact, and it was in the latter that surviving Jews formally reconstituted the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin, Berlin's mainstream Jewish congregation, in 1946. In the immediate post-war years, there were the anti-Semitic manifestations in Czechoslovakia (Slánský trial, November 1952), arrests and interrogations of Jews in East Berlin and East Germany (January 1953), and the Soviet Doctors' plot (started on 13 January 1953). Members of the Jüdische Gemeinde in East Berlin, hoping to spare themselves from further persecution, formed a new provisional executive board competent only for the eastern sector, and thus divided the Jewish community into an eastern and a western one (21st January 1953).[9]
In 1958 the Jewish Community of East Berlin was prompted[by whom?] to demolish the ruined rear sections of their building, including the soot-blackened ruin of the main prayer hall, leaving only the less-destroyed front section.[10] The damaged, but mostly preserved, central dome on top of the front section was also torn down in the 1950s. East Berlin's Jewish Community, impoverished and small after the Shoah (Holocaust) and the flight of many surviving members from Communist anti-Semitism, saw no chance to restore it.[10]
It was not until the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 that reconstruction of the front section began. From 1988 to 1993, the structurally intact parts of the building close to the street, including the façade, the dome, and some rooms behind were restored as the 'Centrum Judaicum' ('Jewish Center'); the main sanctuary was not restored. In May 1995, a small synagogue congregation was reestablished using the former women's wardrobe room.[citation needed] The area behind the restored frontage, formerly the main prayer hall, remains an empty space, and is open to visitors.[11]
Together with the New Synagogue, the whole Spandauer Vorstadt neighbourhood (lit. 'suburb towards Spandau', often confused with the Scheunenviertel) experienced a revival. Chic restaurants and boutiques opened up in the area, catering to an increasingly bourgeois clientele.
In 2007 Gesa Ederberg became the first female pulpit rabbi in Berlin when she became the rabbi of the New Synagogue.[12][13][14][15] Her installation was opposed by Berlin's senior Orthodox rabbi, Yitzchak Ehrenberg.[12]
Today[edit]
Jewish services are now held again in the New Synagogue;[16] the congregation is the Berlin community's sole Masorti synagogue.[17] Most of the building, however, houses offices and a museum. The dome may also be visited.
See also[edit]
- Louis Lewandowski - Choirmaster at the Neue Synagogue and composer of sacred music
Notes[edit]
- ^odd and even numbers are on the same side of the street
References[edit]
- ^Rebiger, 26
- ^Regina Scheer, 'Im Revier 16' (In precinct No. 16), in: Die Hackeschen Höfe. Geschichte und Geschichten einer Lebenswelt in der Mitte Berlins, Gesellschaft Hackesche Höfe e.V. (ed.), Berlin: Argon, 1993, pp. 74–79. here p. 77. ISBN3-87024-254-X.
- ^Knobloch, passim and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- ^Regina Scheer explains that Heinz Knobloch popularised the story that Wilhelm Krützfeld rescued the New Synagogue. Knobloch learned about the rescue from the report of an eyewitness, the late Hans Hirschberg. Hirschberg, who was a boy in 1938, observed the fire with his father, the tailor Siegmund Hirschberg. He recalled that his father and a police officer, who was one of his father's clients and whom Hans assumed to be the head of the police precinct, got into a conversation, while the police officer was supervising the work of the fire brigade, about their experiences in the same sector of the front in World War I. When Knobloch did research for his book Der beherzte Reviervorsteher about the rescue of the New Synagogue, he learned that the head of the precinct was Krützfeld and identified him as the officer. But Krützfeld was never conscripted in that war. After Knobloch's book appeared another neighbour, Inge Held, Hirschberg, and Hirschberg's sister in Israel all confirmed that the rescuer was Otto Bellgardt. Cf. Regina Scheer, 'Im Revier 16' (In precinct No. 16), in: Die Hackeschen Höfe. Geschichte und Geschichten einer Lebenswelt in der Mitte Berlins, Gesellschaft Hackesche Höfe e.V. (ed.), Berlin: Argon, 1993, pp. 74–79, here p. 78. ISBN3-87024-254-X.
- ^ abOlaf Matthes, Die Neue Synagoge, Markus Sebastian Braun (ed.), Berlin: Berlin-Edition, 2000, (=Berliner Ansichten; vol. 16), p. 58. ISBN3-8148-0025-7.
- ^In the original: 'Die Platzinhaber werden hierdurch aufgefordert, ihre Gebetutensilien bis Montag, den 8. April, mittags 12 Uhr, aus den Pulten herauszunehmen.' Quote from 'Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt' after Cf. Olaf Matthes, Die Neue Synagoge, Markus Sebastian Braun (ed.), Berlin: Berlin-Edition, 2000, (=Berliner Ansichten; vol. 16), p. 58. ISBN3-8148-0025-7.
- ^Olaf Matthes, Die Neue Synagoge, Markus Sebastian Braun (ed.), Berlin: Berlin-Edition, 2000, (=Berliner Ansichten; vol. 16), p. 59. ISBN3-8148-0025-7.
- ^It says: 'Heeresbekleidungsamt III Bln. C2, Oranienburger Str. 30 Totalschaden.' Quote after Olaf Matthes, Die Neue Synagoge, Markus Sebastian Braun (ed.), Berlin: Berlin-Edition, 2000, (=Berliner Ansichten; vol. 16), p. 59. ISBN3-8148-0025-7.
- ^Hermann Simon, Die Synagoge Rykestraße (1904-2004), Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich and Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin / Centrum Judaicum, 2004, (Jüdische Miniaturen; vol. 17), pp. 49seq. ISBN3-933471-71-0
- ^ abOlaf Matthes, Die Neue Synagoge, Markus Sebastian Braun (ed.), Berlin: Berlin-Edition, 2000, (=Berliner Ansichten; vol. 16), p. 62. ISBN3-8148-0025-7.
- ^'Centrum Judaicum - Jewish Community of Berlin'. www.jg-berlin.org.
- ^ ab'A lone groan for female rabbi in Berlin | Jewish Telegraphic Agency'. jta.org. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
- ^'MERCAZ USA Newsletter'. mercazusa.org. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
- ^'After Long Path Female Rabbi Installed in German Community - InterfaithFamily'. interfaithfamily.com. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
- ^'Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue | The team of the Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue'. or-synagoge.de. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
- ^Group, Berlin Information. 'Synagogues in Berlin'. www.berlinfo.com. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
- ^e.V., Masorti. 'Masorti e.V. Berlin'. www.masorti.de. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
- Knobloch, Heinz (1990). Der beherzte Reviervorsteher: ungewöhnliche Zivilcourage am Hackeschen Markt. Berlin: Morgenbuch-Verlag. ISBN3-371-00314-0.
- Rebiger, Bill (2005). Jewish Berlin: Culture, Religion, Daily Life Yesterday and Today (1st ed. 2000 in German ed.). Berlin: Jaron Verlag GmbH. ISBN978-3-89773-099-1.
- Scheer, Regina (1993). 'Im Revier 16 (In precinct No. 16)'. Die Hackeschen Höfe. Geschichte und Geschichten einer Lebenswelt in der Mitte Berlins (Gesellschaft Hackesche Höfe e.V. (ed.), pp. 74–79 ed.). Berlin: Argon. ISBN3-87024-254-X.
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (ed.) (2008). Do Not Stand Silent: Remembering Kristallnacht 1938.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)http://www.ushmm.org/remembrance/dor/years/detail.php?content=2008
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to New Synagogue. |
- Entry at Berlin Monuments site(in German)
Coordinates: 52°31′29″N13°23′40″E / 52.52472°N 13.39444°E