Leopoldstadt Temple

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Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 50 ″  N , 16 ° 23 ′ 6 ″  E

Leopoldstadt Temple before 1879
The Leopoldstadt Temple, after Rudolf von Alt
Interior, after a watercolor by Emil Ranzenhofer
Memorial with four white columns on the site of the destroyed temple
Memorial plaque for the destroyed temple

The Leopoldstädter Tempel , also known as the Israelite Prayer House in the Viennese suburb Leopoldstadt or Synagoge Tempelgasse , was a synagogue in the 2nd  Viennese district Leopoldstadt ( Tempelgasse  3). The synagogue, built between 1854 and 1858 according to plans by Ludwig Förster , offered 2,000 seats and was opened in 1938 during the November pogrom with the exception of the side wings, which were used between 1893 and 1938. a. the Israelite Theological School was also completely destroyed. Today parts of the property are still used by the Jewish community .

The Leopoldstadt Temple served as a model for numerous other European synagogues in the oriental style , including the Zagreb Synagogue , the Spanish Synagogue in Prague , the Tempel Synagogue in Krakow and the Templul Coral in Bucharest .

history

The Leopoldstädter Tempel was built between 1854 and 1858 according to plans by Ludwig Förster. The dedication speech was given on June 15, 1858 by Adolf Jellinek , the temple's first preacher. First Chief Cantor was Joseph Goldstein . 1867 also preached conservative set Moritz Güdemann in Leopoldstadt Temple, from 1894 also Adolf Schmiedl (1821-1913), which was mainly due to his popular speeches enjoyed great popularity. Other preachers at the synagogue were Eliezer David from Düsseldorf and from 1913 Max Grunwald and from 1932 Israel Taglicht .

The first general renovation of the synagogue took place in 1898. The interior decoration in particular was upgraded with colorful stucco ornaments. In 1905 further adaptation work followed on the fronts facing the street and in the courtyard. Following a service for Jewish soldiers from the First World War , a fire broke out in the synagogue on August 17, 1917, and it developed into a major fire. The building was badly damaged in the process and it took until 1921 for the restoration to be completed. In the night of the pogrom from November 9th to 10th, 1938, the main wing with the synagogue was completely destroyed. Only the side wings were initially preserved. The library, housed in one of the side wings, was largely saved in 1943 through the courageous initiative of the student and later director of the Institute for Jewish Studies at the University of Vienna, Kurt Schubert . The collection is now in Jerusalem . The southern wing of the synagogue was razed in 1951 and replaced by a residential building ( Desider-Friedmann-Hof ). The northern side wing, however, still serves as a place of prayer for the Jewish community today. In addition to a prayer house, a Talmud - Torah school of the Agudas Israel was also housed here. The synagogue, however, was replaced by a new building with apartments. The ESRA social medicine center is also located here , which has served as a counseling and treatment center for survivors of Nazi persecution and their descendants since 1994. The facility also takes care of Jewish migrants and acts as a psychosocial center for the Jewish population of Vienna.

architecture

The Leopoldstädter Tempel was an example of the historicizing classicism or romantic historicism that prevailed in Vienna in the middle of the 19th century . During this phase, Jewish cult buildings were given oriental style elements. The Leopoldstadt synagogue consisted of cubic blocks that were erected on a wide plot of land. Since the synagogue was to be exempted, the side administration tracts were separated from the main building by courtyards. The side wings were relatively narrow, four-story buildings that housed numerous facilities. In the northern side wing there were a few apartments in addition to the mikveh and a meeting room. Community officials were housed in the southern side wing. The main building with the synagogue was realized as a four-bay building, the facade of ornate, fired clay bricks in red and yellow colors. The interior of the synagogue was accessed via a high, central entrance arch and the vestibule . The main room of the synagogue with 2,000 seats had three aisles, with the side aisles separated from the main nave by high round arches. The interior was decorated with shell limestone , stucco tiles, mosaics and windows made of cut glass.

Plaque

A memorial plaque was put up in the 1990s with an inscription in German and Hebrew:

“ This is where the Leopoldstadt Temple was located, which was built in the Moorish style in 1858 according to plans by architect Leopold Förster and was destroyed to the ground by the National Socialist barbarians on November 10, 1938 during the so-called 'Reichskristallnacht'. - Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien "

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Leopoldstädter Tempel  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michaela Feurstein and Gerhard Milchram: Jewish Vienna - city walks , Böhlau, 2001, ISBN 978-3205990949 , pp. 28 and 131
  2. ↑ Rabbi Dr. Adolf Schmiedl (/) died on November 7th, 1913  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: The Truth , No. 44/1913, November 14, 1913, Vienna 1913, ZDB -ID 2176231-4 , p. 3 f.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.compactmemory.de