New Synagogue (Essen)
The New Synagogue at Sedanstrasse 46 in Essen's southeast district was completed in 1959. It has been a listed building since 1999 .
history
Until 1938 the Jewish community of Essen used the large synagogue at Steeler Strasse 29 , which was badly damaged by arson during the November pogroms in 1938 . The Jewish community, which was severely decimated during the National Socialist era, initially used the preserved rabbi's house at the Old Synagogue as a house of prayer in the post-war period.
The community decided to build a new building in the late 1950s, largely financed by American donations. The new synagogue was completed in 1959 together with the community center based on designs by the architects Dieter Knoblauch and Heinz Heise and opened on October 21, 1959. The new Jewish religious building was modeled after that of Erich Mendelsohn built Park Synagogue in Cleveland built.
Before that, there was a Jewish youth home on the site of today's synagogue, which was built in 1929/1930 according to Mendelsohn's plans. After the building was first occupied by the Hitler Youth in June 1933 , it was also destroyed in the pogrom night of 1938.
description
The complex rests on a wedge-shaped land and consists of a circular round , semi- spherical shell and a plurality of cubes . The actual synagogue has no windows, but receives its light only from glass brick fields that are inserted into the dome. This synagogue building is unique in Germany and is considered to be one of the most striking of the 1950s.
The main entrance to the synagogue is located in a small transverse building in front of the dome. The synagogue consists of a hemispherical dome , which is covered with sheet copper. It offers space for around 200 believers. In the basement is the mikveh . Kurt Lewy created the stained glass windows of the dome and on the Torah shrine the twelve enamel copper plates with the symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel .
The synagogue building is connected to a three-story, flat-roofed parish hall via two single-storey connecting wings. There is a relief of a menorah on the facade of the concave transverse structure .
literature
- Berger Bergmann, Peter Brdenk (ed.): Architecture in Essen 1900–1960. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0246-6 , p. 168 No. 111.
- Elfi Pracht-Jörns : The new synagogue in Essen (= Rheinische Kunststätten , issue 549). Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection, Cologne 2013, ISBN 978-3-86526-095-6 .
Web links
- Entry No. 908 in the list of monuments Stadt Essen on the website of the city of Essen, accessed on November 12, 2016
- Synagogue on the side of the Central Council of Jews, accessed on March 21, 2015.
- New Synagogue - an often forgotten architectural monument in Essen . In: WAZ of December 10, 2013, accessed on March 21, 2015.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry No. 908 in the list of monuments Stadt Essen on the website of the city of Essen, accessed on November 12, 2016
- ↑ a b Berger Bergmann, Peter Brdenk (ed.): Architecture in Essen 1900–1960. Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0246-6 , p. 168 No. 111.
- ↑ New Synagogue - an often forgotten architectural monument in Essen . In: WAZ of December 10, 2013.
- ↑ Description in the list of monuments Stadt Essen on the website of the city of Essen, accessed on November 12, 2016
- ^ Jewish history in Essen , accessed on March 21, 2015.
Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 50.5 " N , 7 ° 1 ′ 29.6" E