New Synagogue (Bingen am Rhein)

Postcard with the synagogue in Bingen

View of the east wall with the Torah shrine , parochet , ner tamid and organ, to the left a Hanukkah

Preserved side wing of the new synagogue

The New Synagogue in Bingen am Rhein , a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate , was built in 1903/05 and destroyed in 1938. The former synagogue was on Rochusstrasse.

history

The synagogue in the former Judengasse was burned down in 1689 when the city was destroyed by the French during the War of the Palatinate Succession . In 1698 a new building was built on the same site. After 1789 the prayer room was enlarged. Individual parts of this building are still preserved in museums.

After the inauguration of the new synagogue in 1905, the old synagogue building was sold and used as a restaurant and hotel in the years to come. In 1975 the building burned down and was replaced by a new building.

New synagogue

Since the old synagogue had become too small for the growing number of members of the Jewish community , a new representative synagogue was built according to the plans of the architect Ludwig Levy , which was inaugurated on September 21, 1905.

"Levy had designed a building complex based on Romanesque church buildings, which, although it was integrated into the row of houses, was characterized by the monumental facade." The central entrance area was flanked by two four-story stair towers, through which one reached the galleries . Between the towers was the double portal , which was crowned by an eyelash that rested on set columns . In the tympanum , the tablets of the law were depicted with two lions protecting them.

The ornate stained glass windows were donated by community members. An organ was installed above the Torah shrine . The synagogue had space for 218 men in the main room and 171 women in the galleries.

time of the nationalsocialism

During the November pogrom in 1938 , the synagogue was destroyed by SA men and Nazi supporters. The fire that started on the morning of November 10, 1938 had been put out by the synagogue attendant. Around 5 p.m. on the same day, the building was set on fire again and burned down to the surrounding walls.

As a result of a forced sale, the ruins and the property came into the hands of the Binger Winzerverein, which used the preserved right-hand part of the building as a wine bar. In 1962 the property came into the possession of the city of Bingen. This had the ruin demolished in 1970 with the east facade still in place at the time. The preserved side wing of the formerly extensive building is on the list of monuments of the city of Bingen.

In 1983 a plaque was put up in memory of the former synagogue.

literature

Klaus-Dieter Alicke: Lexicon of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area. Volume 1: Aach - Groß-Bieberau. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-08077-2 ( online version ).
Stefan Fischbach, Ingrid Westerhoff: "... and this is the gate of heaven". Synagogues in Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland . Published by the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate , State Conservatory Office of the Saarland, Synagogue Memorial Jerusalem. Verlag Philipp von Zabern , Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-8053-3313-7 , pp. 108-115 ( Memorial Book of Synagogues in Germany 2).