Old Synagogue (Göttingen)

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Old synagogue in Göttingen
Synagogue Untere Masch 1 (around 1935)

The Old Synagogue in Göttingen , a university town in southern Lower Saxony , was built between 1869 and 1872. The synagogue was in the lower Masch .

history

After the constitution of synagogue communities decreed in the Kingdom of Hanover , the Jews from Göttingen had to form a synagogue association together with those from Geismar and Rosdorf in 1844 .

Since the prayer room in Prinzenstrasse, which was set up around 1710/20, and the schoolhouse were in a poor structural condition and the number of members of the community had increased significantly, the Jewish community had a new synagogue building built in the neo-Romanesque style.

Due to the further influx of Jews to Göttingen, the synagogue was expanded according to the plans of the architect Hans Breymann and inaugurated in 1895. Instead of the previous 200, the synagogue now had around 450 seats.

  • Front view of the facade

  • Side view

  • Ground floor view

  • View of the first floor

Period of National Socialism and the post-war period

During the November pogrom in 1938 , the synagogue was destroyed by arson and the next day the technical emergency aid blew up the ruins. A year later the site was leveled. The property was sold to the Göttinger Spar- und Bauverein in 1940. The synagogue would probably have been destroyed in the bombing on November 18 or 24, 1944.

Memorial at Synagogue Square

In 1952 the land on which the synagogue had stood was returned to the Jewish community. Because they couldn't use it, they sold it to the German Federation of Trade Unions . The new owner built a union building on the property in 1955. The triangular square in front of the property was used as a parking lot until the memorial was erected.

Commemoration

In 1960 a small memorial plaque for the synagogue was attached to the union building on the former synagogue site. Because this plaque was not considered appropriate, the city council decided in 1970 to erect a memorial. In 1973 a memorial was inaugurated in front of the Göttingen prison on the corner of Obere- and Untere-Masch-Straße, on the site of the former synagogue . The sculpture, made of steel tubes and twisted in a pyramid shape on the basic shape of a Star of David, was created by the Italian artist Corrado Cagli . On December 6, 1991, the city decided to name the building-free part of the former synagogue site between Obere-Masch-Strasse and Untere-Masch-Strasse as “Synagogue Square”.

On November 9th each year, a memorial service takes place at the memorial on the square of the synagogue, during which specific parts of Göttingen's history are discussed. So was z. B. thought of scientists expelled from the university or individual families.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Platz der Synagoge (Göttingen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Maren Christine Härtel: Göttingen on the move to modernity. Architecture and urban development (1866–1989) . In: Rudolf von Thadden (Hrsg.): Göttingen - history of a university town. tape 3 : From the Prussian medium-sized town to the large town in southern Lower Saxony, 1866–1989 . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-36198-X , p. 764 .
  2. ^ Peter Wilhelm: The synagogue community of Göttingen, Rosdorf and Geismar 1850-1942. In: Studies on the history of the city of Göttingen. Volume 11, Göttingen 1978.
  3. ↑ a b c Guido Albrecht-Böning: “Go down, look up!” (PDF) In: Göttingen. Fountains - monuments - works of art. City of Göttingen, accessed on November 9, 2018 .
  4. ^ Synagogue memorial. In: Göttingen. Fountains - monuments - works of art. City of Göttingen, accessed on November 7, 2018 .
  5. ^ Gerd Tamke, Rainer Driever: Göttinger street names . 3rd newly revised, significantly expanded edition. Göttingen 2012, p. 171 ( stadtarchiv.goettingen.de [PDF; accessed on November 7, 2018]).
  6. ^ Commemoration of the Reichspogromnacht in Göttingen. In: Göttinger Tageblatt. November 12, 2017 ( goettinger-tageblatt.de ).
  7. ↑ Göttingen commemorative events for the pogrom night 1938. In: Göttinger Tageblatt. November 9, 2018 ( goettinger-tageblatt.de ).
  8. ^ Commemoration of the Reichspogromnacht in Göttingen. In: Göttinger Tageblatt. November 10, 2019 ( goettinger-tageblatt.de ).

Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 11 "  N , 9 ° 55 ′ 52"  E