New Synagogue Mainz
The New Synagogue Mainz has been the successor to previous synagogues in Mainz since September 3, 2010 . It is located as a community center on the square of the old main synagogue on Hindenburgstrasse in Mainz Neustadt . The square in front of the synagogue was renamed Synagogenplatz .
Starting point and planning
Magenza, as an important Jewish center on the Rhine, had defining synagogues for centuries; this tradition ended for the time being during the November pogroms in 1938 . After the Second World War , the Mainz synagogue initially only had to accommodate a small group of returning parishioners. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall , the community said it had 140 members. The high number of immigrants from Eastern Europe enlarged the community in the 1990s and new space was required. In December 2006 it comprised around 1050 members.
In 1999 a competition for the construction of a new synagogue and a Jewish community center was held, which was won by the architect Manuel Herz . The cost estimate at that time was around eleven million euros; the city of Mainz has promised three and a half million euros. The financing model stipulated that the city, state and federal government each assume a third of the construction costs. A building permit was granted in 2000. The main customs office building from 1955, which was located on the property, was only demolished in October 2008.
The assembly room of the new synagogue was to offer around 450 seats, which was almost five times the previous capacity. The design is reminiscent of the deconstructivist and symbolic design of the Jewish Museum in Berlin by Daniel Libeskind .
A Magenza Foundation with the patrons of Prime Minister Kurt Beck and Lord Mayor Jens Beutel supported the construction and maintenance of this new synagogue; another 29 citizens and dignitaries from Mainz and the surrounding area were among the founding donors.
architecture
The building should reflect the Jewish liturgical term Keduscha (קדושה) ( German : blessing for “sanctification” and “exaltation” ) in a physically tangible way. The Cologne architect Manuel Herz wants to use the five Hebrew letters to symbolize the five areas of the Jewish center for community events, adult education and as a Hebrew school for school-age children. The letter forms originally emerged from pictorial symbols with which the initial sound of the respective symbol was later associated. This gives Hebrew letters the character of an object, a quality of the representational. The funnel-shaped roof of the assembly room, which faces east (Jerusalem), represents a shofar . Mythologically, the shofar stands for communication with God. This form of the synagogue is intended to express the call of the congregation to YHWH , to listen to the Eternal, and to receive the divine light and His wisdom. Traditionally, the congregation was called together by blowing the shofar.
The synagogue includes a ballroom, mikveh , kosher kitchen, club room, kindergarten, school room, social service, community offices, library, meeting room and apartments. The Jewish community in Mainz offers a lively cultural program that is also open to non-Jews.
The architect Manuel Herz received the German Façade Award for ventilated curtain façades (VHF) 2011 for the building .
Development of the building
The foundation stone for the New Synagogue in Mainz was laid on November 23, 2008 in a solemn ceremony in the presence of many invited guests. Andreas Berg and Dr. Peter Waldmann. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on October 16, 2009. The date for the inauguration was originally scheduled for June 17, 2010, but due to weather-related construction delays in winter 2009/2010, this date has been postponed to September 3, 2010. This was also the anniversary of the inauguration of the old main synagogue from 1912. The chairwoman of the Jewish community, Stella Schindler-Siegreich, Prime Minister Kurt Beck and the Mayor of Mainz Jens Beutel invited everyone to the inauguration ceremony. Among the numerous invited guests from home and abroad were former Mainz Jews, contemporary witnesses and community members as well as Federal President Christian Wulff and the Ambassador of the State of Israel Yoram Ben-Zeev .
Voices on the construction project
"Manuel Herz's Jewish Community Center in Mainz, whose research has dealt with the nature and history of European Jews like no other, is perhaps the world's most interesting synagogue project since Louis Kahn ."
literature
- Manuel Herz: Synagogue Center Mainz - Light of the Diaspora . Brochure.
Web links
- Jewish community Mainz
- Text for laying the foundation stone of the Mainz synagogue as PDF
- Digital photo montage (image material: computer animation heart)
- Synagogue project
- Website of the architect for the synagogue
- mainz.de - City history of Mainz: Jewish Mainz
- History of the Jewish community and the synagogues in Mainz
Individual evidence
- ↑ Naming "Synagogenplatz" on a historical date: Anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp. Press release of the City of Mainz on January 27, 2009, accessed on July 27, 2015
- ^ Synagogue Center Mainz - Light of the Diaspora; Manuel Herz (brochure); no page number (p. 8)
- ↑ http://www.fvhf.de/Fassade-bilder/docs/Prospekte/FVHF_Doku_Fassadenpreis_2011.pdf
- ↑ Text of the Foundation Stone Roll (PDF; 58 kB) on jgmainz.de
- ^ Jewish community celebrates topping-out ceremony in Hindenburgstrasse ( memento from August 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) from the Allgemeine Zeitung from October 16, 2009
- ↑ Federal President Wulff as guest at the ceremony for the new synagogue building in Mainz ( memento of August 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) from the Allgemeine Zeitung of August 16, 2010
- ↑ Synagogue is inaugurated - open day for all citizens on September 5, 2010 Press release of the City of Mainz, August 30, 2010, accessed on July 27, 2015
Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 31.3 " N , 8 ° 15 ′ 33.5" E