Old Synagogue Bochum

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Theodor Haarmann's synagogue building on Wilhelmstrasse (1863–1895)

The Bochum synagogue was built in what was then Wilhelmstraße 18, today Huestraße / Dr.-Ruer-Platz in Bochum , and inaugurated in 1863. It was destroyed in 1938. In 2007 the New Synagogue in Bochum was opened.

history

A prayer room for the Jewish residents in Bochum has been documented since 1650. The first synagogue for around 50 people at that time existed by 1765 at the latest. It was located on the Schützenbahn (today's house number 1).

The number of Jewish residents increased steadily from this time onwards, so that a new, larger synagogue was necessary. It was built from 1861 in what was then Wilhelmstraße 18, today Huestraße / Dr.-Ruer-Platz. Seen from the street, the synagogue itself was set back slightly behind the school building. It was designed by the local architect Theodor Haarmann in a neo-Romanesque style. The foundation stone was laid on May 29, 1861. The church was inaugurated on August 28, 1863.

The building was expanded in 1895 and 1896 so that it could accommodate 500 people instead of 300. The neo-Romanesque building has now been redesigned in the Moorish style based on designs by the Cologne architect Joseph Seché . The central building was extended in both directions, an apse was added on the east side, the octagonal tower in the middle was raised and the building was given a new double dome. It was decorated with corner turrets, battlements, etc. The inauguration after the renovation took place on September 4, 1896.

At this point in time, the Moorish-Oriental style that Seché had chosen was almost out of date. New synagogues were built around the turn of the century, mainly in the neo-Romanesque style. Apparently the Jewish community in Bochum soon found the new synagogue no longer appropriate: in 1925, double domes, corner turrets and crenellated wreaths were removed and the appearance of the synagogue returned to its original shape.

In the entrance area of ​​the synagogue there was a memorial plaque for the Jewish soldiers who died in the First World War . On this there was also a bronze relief depicting the " Lion of Judah ". During the destruction of the synagogue on November 9, 1938, someone had taken the "Lion of Judah" and handed it over to the house of the Jewish Baer family the next day. The family took the relief with them when they emigrated to France in February 1939. The daughter, Karla Goldberg, gave the city of Bochum a copy of the bronze lion in 2001, which was placed in the entrance area of ​​the new synagogue in 2007.

With 1244 people, the Jewish community in Bochum reached its highest membership in 1930.

The synagogue on Wilhelmstrasse was built together with a neighboring building (Wilhelmstrasse 16), which housed the Jewish elementary school. This building was redesigned several times and housed the teacher's apartment, classrooms for at times 100 students, offices for the community administration, the hikers welfare office, the community library and a daycare center.

Opposite the synagogue was the seat of the Gauleitung of the NSDAP Westphalia-South in the 1930s .

The relatively large synagogue was completely destroyed on the night of November 9-10, 1938. The school building was protected by the fire brigade like the other surrounding buildings, but its interior was devastated by the SA. The membership of the Jewish community decreased to 644 by 1938.

In 1938 the cantor of the community, headmaster and main teacher Erich Mendel was arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp . From the end of January 1939, the school building was used for services instead of the previous synagogue. In 1939, the property on which the synagogue and school had been located became the property of the Stadtsparkasse. The school was closed in 1939, but continued to exist as a private school under the teacher Else Hirsch until 1941. In the summer of 1941 the school was closed.

Then the three-storey school building with its Wilhelminian style facade was converted into a “Jewish house”, in which no fewer than 13 Jewish families had to live together in 1942. Today there is a SEB AG building on the property . In 1943 the school building was destroyed by a bomb attack. The teacher Else Hirsch, who was deported in 1942, had probably already perished in the Riga ghetto by this time .

Since 1968, a memorial plaque on the side wall of the Huestraße 30 building has been commemorating the old synagogue on Wilhelmstraße.

See also

literature

  • Gisela Wilbertz : Synagogues and Jewish elementary schools in Bochum and Wattenscheid. , Bochum 1988.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Station 7: Synagogue and Jewish school. on bochum.de
  2. ^ Clemens Kreuzer: The teacher Else Hirsch and Bochum's Israelite school in the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich. (PDF; 2.0 MB), p. 8.
  3. ↑ The first version of the synagogue in Wilhelmstrasse on ruhr-bauten.de
  4. ^ Westphalian history.
  5. ↑ The second version of the synagogue in Wilhelmstrasse on ruhr-bauten.de
  6. ↑ "Her Gift to us was Color" - Obituary for Karla Goldberg ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Bulletin of the Bochum Citizens' Association, September 2011, No. 15 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.erinnern-fuer-die-zukunft.de
  7. ^ Clemens Kreuzer: The teacher Else Hirsch and Bochum's Israelite school in the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich. (PDF; 2.0 MB), p. 6.
  8. ^ Clemens Kreuzer: The teacher Else Hirsch and Bochum's Israelite school in the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich. (PDF; 2.0 MB), p. 17.
  9. ^ Clemens Kreuzer: The teacher Else Hirsch and Bochum's Israelite school in the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich. (PDF; 2.0 MB), p. 28.
  10. ^ Clemens Kreuzer: The teacher Else Hirsch and Bochum's Israelite school in the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich. (PDF; 2.0 MB), p. 7.
  11. ↑ Clemens Kreuzer: The teacher Else Hirsch and Bochum Israelite school in the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich. (PDF; 2.0 MB), p. 30 ff.

Coordinates: 51 ° 28 '47.2 "  N , 7 ° 13' 8.6"  E