Herford synagogue
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The Herford synagogue is the seat of today's Jewish community of Herford-Detmold. Today's synagogue was rebuilt 72 years after its destruction during the November pogroms in 1938 on the site of the original synagogue on Komturstrasse in Herford's new town . It was inaugurated on March 14, 2010, at the ceremony, among others, Charlotte Knobloch , President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and Jürgen Rüttgers , Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, participated.
history
Beginnings
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Since 1306 people of the Jewish faith can be traced in Herford . After her assassination in 1350 plague returned Jews to Herford. It can be assumed that there will be a continuous presence of around three to five families in Herford up to the end of the 16th century. These too will have already owned a house of prayer or have lived their faith in their private houses. After the Thirty Years' War , the Brandenburg / Prussians targeted Jews again in Herford. They also acquired today's cemetery grounds.
18th century
On March 11, 1705, the mayor, Hertz Levi, bought house no. 469 (later Johannisstrasse 19) for 180 Reichstaler. This private house formed the center of the small Jewish community of Herford in the 18th century , which was not allowed to build independent synagogues after the Brandenburg-Prussian edict of 1671. The tombstone for Hertz Levis' son Berend Herz from 1721 bears the following inscription: "He built the small house of the sanctuary from his money [...]". Herz may have had the house of prayer rebuilt.
The house, which in addition to the prayer room, also housed a classroom and accommodation for Jews traveling through, was used until 1780 . Then it should be sold under pressure from the government. Master carpenter Brandner finally agreed to take over the dilapidated building for ten years free of charge and to let the Herford Jews rent the prayer room. In 1793 this contract was extended for 20 years.
19th century
At the beginning of the 19th century, the community grew strongly due to the freedom of establishment and trade. In April 1826, the Jewish community applied for the establishment of its own synagogue and a ritual bath . However, this construction did not come about.
At that time the Herford Jews used house no. 347 (Gehrenberg 15, today the Klingenthal department store ) as a house of prayer, which has a long tradition as a Jewish house. The new synagogue at Komturstrasse 23 was only inaugurated on August 13, 1852. The simple, completely unadorned square building, to which a school was attached, was built by master mason Meyer.
In the 1890s, the synagogue was no longer sufficient for the needs of the Herford Jewish community, which had grown to almost 300 members, so a new building was considered.
Architecture of the building before destruction
Fundamental renovation
In the years 1892/93 the church on Komturstrasse was expanded and fundamentally rebuilt by the construction company Althoff and Lakemeier, and the new school and community building was built next to it . Both buildings were built in the form of neo-Gothic brick architecture, a decision that Jewish communities rarely made for their new synagogues because of the proximity of this construction method to Christian church construction.
The well-known Herford architect Schubert was possibly responsible for the overall design. The rededication of the church took place on September 3, 1893. The reconstruction of the synagogue on Komturstrasse was associated with the uncovering of the property: the building was freed from its backyard location and was now the direct neighbor of the Catholic Church of St. Johannes Baptist opposite .
extension
The extension from 1892/93 essentially consisted of an extension to the street-side south facade, which included the staircase. The extension was completed by a gable decorated with a console frieze crowned by the Star of David . High lancet windows with tracery panels and thin bars lit the stairwell and prayer room. All decorative elements - friezes, buttresses, sills, cornices, window frames and the inscription cartouche - were made of light-colored stone, which stood out from the reddish brickwork. In the east there was a semicircular extension for the Torah shrine, above it a large semicircular window and a smaller oculus. The implemented architecture program signaled the increased self-confidence of the Jewish minority as well as the increasing adaptation to the surrounding society: “The windows, the friezes and the buttresses placed across the corner now gave the formerly simple synagogue the appearance of a Gothic chapel with only the star and The inscription tape indicates the Jewish cult building. ”The fact that integration was successful at this point is also shown by the fact that the synagogue was included in a city guide.
The only known photo of the entire complex was also taken around 1900.
The Jewish community thus had a community center in which all activities could be carried out.
renovation
In 1931 , extensive renovation work in the interior was necessary due to the blatant moisture damage that had already affected the Torah shrine . It is not known whether this had anything to do with the flood.
The overall management of the renovation work was entrusted to the architect Wefelmeyer, the painting was carried out by the painter Max Lazarus from Trier and the Herford master painter Hecht.
The descriptions in the commemorative publication for the rededication of the synagogue on September 11, 1931 sufficiently replace the missing interior views of the renovated church:
"The main idea for the design of the house of God was to emphasize the flatness and to avoid any restlessness and overloading, to increase the feeling of space by emphasizing the dimensions, to direct the devotee's eye not to a certain place of the house of God, but to the distance . A space was to be created that made it easier for those entering to detach themselves from the restlessness of the outside world and to switch to the quiet contemplation of the house of God and put them in an elevated consecration mood. This task has been happily solved by everyone involved. "
In 2009 the city of Herford received designs from the painter Max Lazarus from Trier, who are to be honored with an exhibition there. Although they do not show the final execution of the synagogue, they do give an impression of the planned effect.
“When entering the three-aisled interior, the eye of the person entering is drawn to the east wall, towards which all the lines and colors crowd. The division of the difficult area was accomplished in a masterly manner. Above all, it was important to integrate the large, colorful round window into the architecture. The window was covered so that the light can only flow in dimly; only the flames of the seven-armed chandelier shine in undiminished brilliance, as if they were lit. "
destruction
The synagogue was not spared from the rise in hostility towards Jews after the Nazi seizure of power. As early as April 12, 1934, a fire in the Herford synagogue, which was soon extinguished, destroyed parts of the interior, especially the organ. It was soon discovered that drunk SS men were responsible for the crime. Although they were investigated and brought to justice, they were acquitted on the basis of an impunity law for “acts of National Socialist arrogance”. On November 9th and 10th, 1938 , the synagogue on Komturstrasse was burned down to the ground. The interior was completely destroyed. The fire brigade only intervened when the immediately neighboring dye works and chem. Cleaning Ulrich seemed at risk with its highly flammable chemicals.
The devastation that began during the night continued during the day under the eyes of a large crowd. A citizen of Herford dismantled the Star of David on the top of the extension. He is the only perpetrator who was convicted after 1945. Furnishings and cult objects were taken onto the street and looted. A Torah scroll damaged by fire and extinguishing water was saved and was returned to the Jewish community after 1945.
1938 to 1945
An unknown person gave the Herford pastor and later superintendent of the Herford parish, Helmut Gaffron, the laying of the foundation stone for the synagogue from 1852, which he hid. However, the document is lost today.
In a confidential report by the mayor at the time, he openly confirmed the negative attitude of the population. Soon after the arson, the synagogue ruins, which could still have been rebuilt, were to be "marketed". The Catholic parish offered 22,000 RM for the entire property with buildings, a Christian-Scientific Association Herford offered 15,000 RM and justified the low offer with the fact that "this property was Jewish property and it requires a thorough redesign to erase all traces of Judaism" .
The synagogue community of Herford offered the city the two properties, which had a unit value of RM 45,200 in total, for RM 25,000 on the condition that the town hall could be rented for the purpose of holding school lessons and worship for the next five years. Instead of responding to these ideas of the Jewish community, the commune demanded the immediate demolition of the synagogue, which had to be carried out by the Jewish community itself in 1939. The city finally acquired the synagogue property for 4,732 RM and wanted to have a parking lot set up here.
The parish hall initially remained in the possession of the Jewish community. Until his deportation in 1941, Rabbi Lewin tried to maintain community life by, among other things, offering classes for Jews after the school ban.
The November pogroms in 1938 marked the beginning of the second phase of the persecution of the Jews, the forcible expulsion from society with the aim of emigrating and expropriating Jewish property. From December 1941, the planned annihilation of Jewish life followed.
New beginning
After the Second World War , the synagogue property was restituted to the Jewish Trust Corporation . In Detmold, the reconstruction of the synagogue on Lortzingstrasse, which was built in 1907 and destroyed in 1938, was not seriously discussed after the war . In 1970 the Jewish communities of Herford and Detmold merged to form the Jewish community of Herford-Detmold. The newly established congregation set up a prayer room in the building at Komturstrasse 21. A new synagogue was already being considered at that time, but it did not materialize due to the small community and lack of public support.
A memorial that was financed by the Jewish community itself has been commemorating the destroyed synagogue since November 9, 1978.
Since the early 1990s, the congregation has been considering building a new synagogue on the site of the old church. On May 29, 2008, the new construction of the synagogue began according to old construction plans under the direction of the architect Paul Dahlmeier. The topping-out ceremony took place in autumn 2009.
The external form of the new building follows the previous one, but the interior has been conceptually redesigned. Among other things, there is no longer a women's gallery . There is a meeting room under the synagogue room, kitchens and utility rooms in the new basement. Leaded glass windows show tears and a broken Star of David. The focus of the interior design, which is not reminiscent of Max Lazarus' paintings, is the building ceiling. With 248 stars (that is the number of commandments ), it represents the starry sky from Jerusalem on Rosh Hashanah (New Year festival) in the year 5770 Jewish calendar. This corresponds to September 19, 2009.
The new building was completed and inaugurated on March 14, 2010. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and Jürgen Rüttgers, Prime Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, took part in the ceremony.
At the time of the inauguration, the Jewish community of Herford-Detmold had about 110 members from the Herford and Lippe districts .
Building ensemble
The new building of the synagogue, the neighboring parish hall and the mourning hall on the Jewish cemetery were built in the same architectural style and together form a building ensemble.
literature
- Christine Brade, Lutz Brade , Jutta Heckmanns, Jürgen Heckmanns (eds.): 700 years of Jewish history and culture in Herford . AJZ, Bielefeld 1990, ISBN 3-921680-92-1 , available online (PDF; 8.5 MB)
- Elfi Pracht : Jewish cultural heritage in North Rhine-Westphalia . Part III: Detmold administrative district . Bachem, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7616-1397-0 .
- Harold Hammer-Schenk : Synagogues in Germany . Christians, Hamburg 1981, ( Hamburg Contributions to the History of German Jews 8, ZDB -ID 526596-4 ), Vol. 1, p. 441.
- Sven Nieder, Jürgen Escher, Michael Helm, Christoph Laue: We are happy and we cry ...: Reconstruction of the Herford synagogue . tpk-Verlag, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3936359381
swell
- Festschrift: On the rededication of our synagogue, Herford, Erew Rauschhaschonoh 5692, September 11, 1931, Herford 1931 (no page count) Herford municipal archive, library ID 3564.
- State Archives NRW, Dept. Ostwestfalen-Lippe, D 1, No. 5783 (inventory of the synagogue)
- Neue Westf. Volkszeitung April 14, 1934. Herford municipal archive.
- Saarbrücker Volksstimme October 26, 1934. Herford municipal archive.
- Herford municipal archives, Herford city archives V 375 (handling of the sale 1938ff)
- Landesarchiv NRW, Dept. OWL, D 109, 2 (post-war history).
- Information from Harry Rothe, Chairman of the Herford-Detmold Jewish Community.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ This text is based on a lecture by Herford city archivist Christoph Laue (c.laue@kreis-herford.de) and is authorized by him.
Bielefeld | Bochum-Herne-Hattingen | Dortmund | Gelsenkirchen | Hagen | Herford-Detmold | Minden | Munster | Paderborn | Recklinghausen
Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 55.2 " N , 8 ° 40 ′ 36.1" E