Polish school

Leopoldsgasse with the “Polish School”; idealized representation, postcard 1899

The synagogue in Leopoldsgasse , also known as the Polish School , was an Orthodox synagogue built in 1892/93 and destroyed in the November pogrom in 1938 at Leopoldsgasse 29 in Vienna's 2nd district . The synagogue was built by the Beth Israel (House of Israel) association for the Polish-Jewish community in Vienna and followed the Polish-Jewish rite.

The synagogue, built according to the plans of the Jewish Viennese architect Wilhelm Stiassny as a three-aisled complex with galleries in the oriental style , had 420 male and 217 female seats. Its most striking feature was the central onion dome .

history

Caricature on the occasion of the planned construction of the Polish School (1883)

Longitudinal section, plans 1892

Cross-section, plans 1892

On September 13, 1878, at the meeting of the Vienna City Council, architect Eduard Kaiser (1831–1911) recommended the construction project Israelitischer Tempel (Poland) for the property at Obere Donaustraße 65 (today: Obere Donaustraße 75) - and on September 11, 1879 this was the next Address of the Polish-Israelite temple (seating about 1000 people) (made by Ferdinand Dehm and Franz Olbricht ) inaugurated (today: Obere Donaustraße 79). The Israelite four-class elementary school of Joseph Plon for boys existed on this property as early as 1873 . In the 1870s, Plo (h) n advertised his institute (which was registered on site until 1883) in particular with reference to the 2,900 m² garden used for school and preschool (kindergarten) purposes.

In March 1882, the new building of the temple went to the first Hungarian glass factory defeat, Karl Pfahler , whose warehouse in the Große and Kleine Ankergasse (today: Hollandstraße) was about to be demolished. The reason for the sale were financial difficulties, allegedly caused indirectly by the rejection of the church by the faithful. In May this year, the house of prayer became a magazine rebuilt, and it came between workers and Polish Jews to blows. The main room of the temple, which was designed in the Moorish style , was divided into three floors by wooden fittings. In March 1899, the building fabric was seriously damaged by a fire attributed to spontaneous combustion.

In 1882, the proponents of the Lower Austrian Lieutenancy submitted the application of the Israelite Beth Israel Prayer House Association in Vienna to founding an association. The aim of the association was to provide its members with a worthy place of worship .

In its meeting on December 17, 1888, the board of directors of Beth Israel decided to build a synagogue for 750 people as a replacement for the prayer hall of the community in Obere Donaustraße. In March 1892 the committee formed for this purpose decided to purchase property No. 29 in Leopoldsgasse - formerly the western boundary of the Jewish ghetto - in the 2nd district of Vienna. The money for the building was raised through collections and donations from the association members, but also from the board of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien and through a lottery, for which Emperor Franz Joseph had donated the main prize, a silver coffee service for six people in the style of Louis XIV. laboriously compiled. The construction costs amounted to 75,766.93 guilders.

The Viennese architect Wilhelm Stiassny , who was also honorary president of the building committee, was commissioned to plan the building . The construction plans were approved on June 8, 1892, the laying of the foundation stone took place on March 5, 1893, the laying of the keystone and ceremonial inauguration on September 8, 1893.

In 1926 the synagogue was rebuilt and a library and an anteroom were added.

In 1938 the assets of the Beth Israel Association were transferred to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG) Vienna. The synagogue was devastated during the November pogrom in 1938 and in 1943 the property was acquired by Hollindia Handelsgesellschaft. In December 1950 it came back into the ownership of the IKG, which sold it in 1958. The remains of the synagogue were removed and in 1961 the construction of a residential building on the property was approved. A plaque in front of the house indicates the location of the former “Polish School”.

description

The interior with Torah shrine , Ner Tamid and Bima

The relatively narrow property in Leopoldsgasse was between two buildings from the Wilhelminian era . Two protruding side projections flanked a central building, which was surmounted by a dome in its foremost part. Thanks to the emphasis on the structure with the symmetrically arranged dome and the creation of a small forecourt with a wrought-iron grille, the building stood out clearly from the surrounding houses and was recognizable as a synagogue, but with its cluttered facade typical of late historicism , it looked between the much higher apartment buildings " somewhat squat ”. The dome, crowned by a turret, divided into fields by gilded longitudinal ribs and covered with slate, rested over the entrance wing and was meaningless for the interior. The side projections were horizontally striped yellow and red, the recessed central section, on the other hand, was decorated with surface ornaments. The windows in the side wings were divided into two parts, those in the middle part were divided into three parts. The building ended with a ribbon of columns and rows of stalactites, Hebrew lettering was affixed in the middle , the attic above was crowned on the sides by four turrets, in the central axis by the tablets of the law .

From the forecourt there were three entrances to the vestibule and from there to the men's prayer room; the entrances for the women were on the side and led to small vestibules, toilets and the stairs to the women's galleries. A conference room with adjoining rooms was located on the first floor above the vestibule.

Memorial plaque in front of the house at Leopoldsgasse 29

The relatively dark interior consisted of a three-aisled nave with galleries. Its color scheme is uncertain. In the middle of the room, as is customary for Eastern European Orthodox synagogues, the bimah stood raised on a platform and surrounded by a grille. The 420 seats for men were based on the model of the reform synagogues , while the gallery had 217 seats for women on three sides. The Torah shrine was located in the eastern wall of the apse , separated by a richly decorated triumphal arch. On both sides of it there was a room for the rabbi and a small prayer room.

The synagogue, built in the orientalizing Moorish style, was atypical for an orthodox Polish synagogue. The architectural style typical of reform synagogues was intended to counteract the bad reputation that Galician Judaism had among the Jews of Vienna.

See also

• Jewish life in Vienna

literature

• Pierre Genée: Vienna Synagogues 1825–1938 . Löcker, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-85409-113-3 .
• Bob Martens , Herbert Peter: The destroyed synagogues of Vienna. Virtual city walks . Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85476-313-0 .

Web links

Commons : Polish school  collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Vienna City Council. Meeting of September 13th. In:  Die Presse , No. 252/1878 (XXXIth year), September 14, 1878, p. 10 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
2. ↑ Little Chronicle. Vienna. Inauguration of the Polish synagogue. In:  The modern age. Weekly for political, religious and cultural interests , No. 37/1879, September 12, 1879, p. 292 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
3. ↑ C. Local Chronicle. (From September 1, 1879 to August 31, 1880). 1879 September. In:  Wiener Communal-Kalender and Städtisches Jahrbuch 1881 , year 1881, No. 252/1878 (XXXI. Year), p. 343. (Online at ANNO ). .
4. ^ Israelite elementary schools. Private schools with public rights. In:  Wiener Communal-Kalender and Städtisches Jahrbuch 1873 , year 1873, (I. year, new series; also XI. Year since 1863), p. 125 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
5. ^ Joseph Plohn:  (...) Froebel'schen Kindergarten (...). In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 4904/1878, April 23, 1878, p. 6, column 3. (Online at ANNO ). .
6. ↑ A broken synagogue. In:  The Fatherland. Newspaper for the Austrian Monarchy , No. 87/1882 (XXIII. Volume), March 29, 1882, p. 8, column 1. (Online at ANNO ). .
7. ↑ EXCESS between workers and Polish Jews. In:  Morgen-Post , No. 130/1882 (XXXII. Volume), May 12, 1882, p. 6 (unpaginated), column 1. (Online at ANNO ). .
8. ↑ fires. In:  Neues Wiener Journal , No. 1932/1899 (Volume VII), March 9, 1899, p. 4, column 3 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
9. ^ ( Felix Czeike ): Polish school association synagogue of the Beth Israel association . In: geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at , October 24, 2018, accessed on June 21, 2019.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Satoko Tanaka: Wilhelm Stiassny (1842-1910). Synagogue building, orientalism and Jewish identity . Dissertation Univ. Vienna. Vienna 2009, p. 63 f . ( Online (PDF file; 8.70 MB)).
11. ^ Laying of the foundation stone for a synagogue according to the Polish-Israelite rite. In:  The modern age. Weekly for political, religious and cultural interests , No. 10/1893, March 10, 1893, p. 93 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
12. ↑ Tanaka 2009, p. 66
13. ↑ ^{a b} Bob Martens , Herbert Peter: The destroyed synagogues of Vienna. Virtual city walks . Mandelbaum Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85476-313-0 , pp. 51-60
14. ^ Pierre Genée: Synagogues in Austria . Löcker, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-85409-203-2 , p. 69
15. ↑ Tanaka 2009, pp. 64f.
16. ↑ Tanaka 2009, p. 65
17. ↑ Tanaka 2009, pp. 65f.
18. ^ Synagogue for the Polish-Israelite community in Vienna. II., Leopoldsgasse 29. Architect: Wilhelm Stiassny, k. k. Baurath. (See Plates No. 54–56). In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1894, LIX. Volume, p. 70 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
19. ↑ Tanaka 2009, p. 61ff.

Remarks

1. ↑ The seat of Beth Israel was 120 meters southeast of the Polish-Israelite temple (Obere Donaustraße 65) in Vienna-Leopoldstadt , Kleine Ankergasse No. 2 .; today: east side of Hollandstraße ( ON  1A) next to Obere Donaustraße.

Coordinates: 48 ° 13 ′ 6 ″  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 39 ″  E