Synagogue (Linz)

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The Linz synagogue on Bethlehemstrasse

The Linz Synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer at Bethlehemstraße 26 in the town hall district of Linz . It was inaugurated on April 2, 1968 .

history

Jews in Linz did not live in a ghetto since the middle of the 13th century , but rather integrated into the area of ​​what is now the old town . From 1420 - after anti-Semitic rumors about a host sacrilege - expulsions and decimations of the Jewish community began (" Wiener Gesera "), which were to last for several centuries. On the other hand, Linz also became a place of activity for the Jewish personal physician Emperor Friedrich III. , Jacob ben Jechiel Loans , and the well-known German Hebraist Johannes Reuchlin , who was a welcome guest at the Linz court of Friedrich III. was.

Jews could only be found in markets for the next few centuries; they were denied the right to live within the city.

Only after 1849 did the situation of Linz's Jews improve. Jews immigrated to the city mainly from the Nuremberg area and from Bohemia and Moravia . At that time there was a rather provisional prayer house in the "Untere Badgasse". In 1867 legal equality took place.

Since the Jewish community grew continuously, it was decided in 1877 to build a synagogue in the historicist or neo-Romanesque style created for synagogues by the Kassel architect Albrecht Rosengarten . It was located at the site of today's synagogue on Bethlehemstrasse and was inaugurated by Rabbi Abraham Frank .

In the so-called “ Reichspogromnacht ” on November 10, 1938, this synagogue was destroyed by flames.

Modern synagogue

After the end of the National Socialist rule, surviving prisoners of the Mauthausen concentration camp were given preferential accommodation in Linz. As a result, the Israelite religious community in Linz was re-established in the first post-war years . Simon Wiesenthal was executive president for several years .

The ruins of the prayer house destroyed in 1938 were located on the site of today's synagogue until 1967.

In 1965, the Upper Austrian provincial government decided to help build a new synagogue as a gesture of reparation.

This was built according to plans by Fritz Goffitzer in the modernist style. On April 2nd, it was inaugurated according to the Jewish rite and since then has offered the small but growing Linz community a worthy place of worship.

Linz rabbi

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chronological table of the Jews in Upper Austria

Web links

Commons : Synagoge (Linz)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 48 ° 18 ′ 13.3 ″  N , 14 ° 17 ′ 32.6 ″  E