Old Main Synagogue Munich

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Old main synagogue Munich from Lenbachplatz seen
The interior in an illustration from 1887

The old main synagogue in Munich stood on Herzog-Max-Straße in the center of Munich . In June 1938 , it was one of the first synagogues in Germany to be destroyed by the National Socialists .

building

The synagogue was built in neo-Romanesque style as a free-standing monumental building surrounded by three streets according to plans by Albert Schmidt . Both the mighty appearance of the building and the striking location in the center of Munich not far from Karlstor underlined its importance as a public building in urban life in Munich at that time.

Building history

Since the synagogue on Westenriederstrasse was built in 1826, the Jewish community had grown significantly with the increase in Munich's population. After the state parliament had lifted the Bavarian Jewish edict of 1813 with restrictions on settlement and freedom of trade for Bavarian Jews in 1861 , another wave of new community members came.

Initially, a new building on Wittelsbacherplatz was considered and a plot of land was acquired there in 1870. Drafts that had already been made for this building site, including Edwin Oppler's and Schmidts', were not implemented, however, as the building authority approval was not granted. A planned expansion of the existing synagogue according to plans by Matthias Berger failed due to the unfavorable terrain and the high costs.

By order of King Ludwig II , the building site on Herzog-Max-Strasse was finally made available and acquired by the community at a price of 348,000 marks . The foundation stone was laid in spring 1883 and the synagogue was inaugurated on September 16, 1887 in the presence of the chairman of the Council of Ministers von Lutz and the mayors of Erhardt and von Widenmayer .

rabbi

  • 1871–1895: Joseph Perles (until 1887 in the synagogue on Westenriederstrasse)
  • 1895-1918: Cosmann Werner
  • 1918–1940: Leo Baerwald (rabbi also after the synagogue was destroyed)

demolition

Memorial stone

At the beginning of June 1938, the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde was informed by the city that it had to give up the synagogue and the property for the fixed price of 100,000 Reichsmarks ; Traffic-related pretexts were given to justify this. On June 8th, she received the order for the demolition, which had already started on June 9th by the construction company Leonhard Moll . The organ could be sold to the Archbishop's Ordinariate , it fell victim to a bomb attack in St. Korbinian in 1944 . A parking lot was created in place of the synagogue. The properties at Herzog-Max-Straße 3 and 5, which also belong to the religious community, had to be sold for 85,000 Reichsmarks. The initially planned demolition of these buildings - it was to be at the expense of the funds available for the development of Munich as the capital of the movement - was not carried out; Instead, Heinrich Himmler's racist organization Lebensborn moved in there.

A memorial stone created by Herbert Peters in the corner of Herzog-Max-Strasse and Maxburgstrasse has been a reminder of the synagogue since 1969 .

The property of the old main synagogue was sold to the Arcandor Group in 1999 , which was able to expand its neighboring Oberpollinger department store . The sales proceeds of 20.5 million euros were invested in the construction of the New Jewish Center on Jakobsplatz, which opened on November 9, 2006.

See also

literature

  • Wolfram Selig (Ed.): Synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in Munich. Aries, Munich 1988, ISBN 978-3920041346 .
  • Ludwig Feuchtwanger u. Leo Baerwald (Ed.): Festgabe. 50 years of the main synagogue in Munich. 1887-1937 . Published on behalf of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde München. Self-published, Munich 1937.

Web links

Commons : Old Main Synagogue Munich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. http://mediatum.ub.tum.de/?id=922865 Two construction plans for the synagogue
  2. Helga Pfoertner: Living with history. Vol. 1, Literareron, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-89675-859-4 , p. 186 ( PDF; 1.1 MB ( Memento from April 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ))
  3. Die Zeit: Back in the Heart of Munich , November 22, 2006

Coordinates: 48 ° 8 ′ 23 "  N , 11 ° 34 ′ 7"  E