Börneplatz synagogue

The Börneplatz synagogue, around 1890

The Börneplatz synagogue was a synagogue of the Israelite community in Frankfurt am Main . It was 1881/1882 instead of 1780 at the southern end of the former Jewish quarter built stranger Hospitals built and inaugurated on September 10 1,882th As one of the four large Frankfurt synagogues, the Börneplatz synagogue served as a spiritual center for the Orthodox wing of the community. On November 10, 1938, she was set on fire by a National Socialist mob during the November pogroms . It burned down to the outer walls. Their remains were removed immediately afterwards. Today the Neuer Börneplatz memorial is a reminder of the former synagogue.

history

Location of the synagogue on Börneplatz

Synagogue floor plan, around 1880

Memorial plaque for the destroyed synagogue

In 1851 a strictly orthodox Israelite religious society split off from the Israelite community in Frankfurt. This was preceded by a conflict over the appointment of the liberal rabbi Leopold Stein , a representative of the Jewish reform movement . In order to prevent the further emigration of Orthodox Jews from the majority community, the community endeavored to build another synagogue for the followers of the Orthodox rite in addition to the liberal main synagogue. In 1878, Markus Horovitz, an Orthodox rabbi, was appointed to the Israelite community. After this, the synagogue was colloquially referred to as the Horovitz synagogue. In 1881 the construction of an orthodox synagogue began according to plans by Siegfried Kusnitzky . For this purpose, the former Israelite Hospital ( formerly: Foreign Hospital ) from 1780 on the so-called Judenmarkt , a square on the southern edge of the former ghetto, was demolished. This had already become obsolete in 1829, when the Rothschilds had the hospital for the Israelite men's and women's health insurance companies built on the site of today's New Börneplatz . The rear of the building bordered the Old Jewish Cemetery, which had existed since the Middle Ages and was closed in 1828 . The building made of red Main sandstone , the typical material for representative buildings in Frankfurt, in the style of the Italian Renaissance , offered 520 places for men in the interior of the single-aisled hall and 360 places for women in the gallery around it. Under the copper-clad dome facing Börneplatz there was an apse with the Torah shrine . In contrast to the nearby main synagogue, there were no liturgical elements that were foreign to Orthodox Judaism, such as an organ .

In 1901 the Börneplatz synagogue was expanded by 400 seats. In 1919 Max Beckmann painted his well-known picture The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main , which is now in the Städel .

In 1935, Börneplatz and Börnestrasse were renamed Dominikanerplatz and Dominikanergasse, respectively, after the Dominican monastery opposite the synagogue . On the night of November 9-10, 1938, marauding groups of the SA set the synagogue on fire. Since the fire brigade rushed to do nothing to fight the fire, the building and its entire interior burned out. The burned-out ruins were removed at the beginning of 1939 at the expense of the Israelite community, and the property was given to the city for a small amount of compensation. Stones that were still usable were used to build a wall along Eckenheimer Landstrasse to enclose the area of the main cemetery , which was expanded in 1928 .

The dispute over the Börneplatz development

After the Second World War , the property of the former synagogue remained in the possession of the city. On March 20, 1946, the Allied military administration had a memorial plaque erected there with the note Here was the Börneplatz synagogue, which was destroyed by Nazi criminals on November 9, 1938.

The area, like the entire eastern city center, was largely in ruins after several heavy bombing raids in 1943 and 1944 . Reconstruction only began in 1952, although the former Börnestrasse was never rebuilt. A wide street breakthrough, Kurt-Schumacher-Straße , was cut through the formerly densely built-up area. On the Börneplatz , which was partly used as a parking area and which bore its name Dominikanerplatz until 1978, which was determined by the National Socialists, a wholesale flower market was initially built, but was relocated again at the end of the 1970s.

In 1987, during the construction of the customer center for Stadtwerke Frankfurt am Main, the remains of a mikveh in the so-called stone house and the foundations of five houses in Judengasse and the Börneplatz synagogue were uncovered. This find came unexpectedly, as archaeologists and town planners did not expect any noteworthy remains of the previous buildings.

The then mayor of Frankfurt Wolfram Brück rejected a construction freeze and a change in the original planning and pointed out that the Jewish community had also given its approval in 1983 to the planned development of the Börneplatz. His predecessor Walter Wallmann saw no cause for shame in the foundations of the Judengasse . This led to a nationwide debate about how to deal appropriately with the remains of Jewish culture. Only after massive public protests against the building plans were some foundation walls and archaeological evidence secured and integrated into the “Museum Judengasse”, which opened in 1992, in the basement of the administration building. The "Museum Judengasse" is a branch of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt .

From 1996 a memorial was erected on Neuer Börneplatz . The memorial, realized by the architects Wandel, Hoefer Lorch and Hirsch , integrates the outline or the undeveloped part of the former Börneplatz synagogue.

literature

Fritz Backhaus: The conflict over the Frankfurt Börneplatz . In: Blickpunkt Archäologie 1/2016, pp. 17–22. ISSN 2364-4796.
Michael Best (Ed.): The Frankfurter Börneplatz. On the archeology of a political conflict . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-5962-4418-8
Janine Burnicki: Stones of Memory. The conflict over the Frankfurt Börneplatz and the “memorial on the Neuer Börneplatz for the third Jewish community in Frankfurt am Main destroyed by the National Socialists”. Master's thesis, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 2000
Frankfurt Historical Commission (ed.): Frankfurt am Main - The history of the city in nine contributions. (= Publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XVII ). Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1991, ISBN 3-7995-4158-6 .
Hans-Otto Schembs : The Börneplatz in Frankfurt am Main. A reflection of Jewish history . Waldemar Kramer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-7829-0344-7
City of Frankfurt am Main (ed.), Memorial on Neuer Börneplatz for the third Jewish community in Frankfurt destroyed by the National Socialists. Red. Klaus Kemp, Sigmaringen 1996
City of Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Neuer Börneplatz Memorial, Frankfurt am Main. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-7995-2323-5