Synagogue (Burgkunstadt)
| Burgkunstadter Synagogue | ||
|---|---|---|
.jpg) Synagogue in Burgkunstadt (around 1935) |
||
| Data | ||
| place | Burgkunstadt, Kulmbacher Straße 26, formerly house no. 131, formerly house no. 123 |
|
| Client | Burgkunstadt Jewish Community | |
| Architectural style | Franconian half-timbering from the early modern period on a solid floor | |
| Construction year | Mid- 17th century to mid- 18th century | |
| demolition | November 12, 1938 | |
| height | approx. 10 m | |
| Floor space | approx. 130 m² | |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 8 '24 " N , 11 ° 15' 2.8" E | |
|
||
The Burgkunstadter Synagogue was the synagogue of the Jewish community in the Upper Franconian town of Burgkunstadt . It was built as a sandstone block in the middle of the 17th century and rebuilt in the middle of the 18th century. The synagogue, presumably based on previous buildings, was over 300 years old and stood at Kulmbacher Strasse 26 until it was destroyed in 1938. From around 1825 to 1914, the synagogue was the spiritual center of the Burgkunstadt district rabbinate .
history
15th century to 1933 - construction and use
In the lower town of Burgkunstadter on the Mühlbach , possibly on the same site, a synagogue already existed at the beginning of the 15th century . This emerges from a partition agreement between the barons of Schaumberg zu Strössendorf , which dates back to 1434. The Freiherren von Schaumberg, who also had numerous possessions in Burgkunstadt, acted as the patrons of Burgkunstadt Jews for centuries, along with other regents . Until the 19th century, the synagogue property had been given to the Jewish community as a Schaumberg-Strössendorfer fief since at least 1710 , for which considerable fiefdoms had to be paid annually.
The synagogue building, which has been preserved to the last, was built before 1657 on the property with the house number 123 (from around 1820 Hs.no.131), which later became Kulmbacher Straße 26. In that year, on August 16, Hans Ernst von Schaumberg renewed the fiefdom of the Burgkunstadter Jews for the rebuilt synagogue known as the “Jewish School”. In 1679 a parish hall was built next to the synagogue. Presumably this is the building with the former house number 130 (in the picture above right next to the synagogue). Reconstruction measures or a partial new building of the synagogue are likely in the second half of the 18th century due to the architectural style. A new interior was probably installed around 1830 after the Jewish community described the synagogue on April 18, 1825, in a letter to the royal Bavarian government of the Upper Main District , as an "old poorly furnished temple". The synagogue order introduced by the liberal and reformist Rabbi Leopold Stein in 1835 comprised only 17 paragraphs and was therefore one of the shortest in all of Franconia. It was clearly reduced and even more liberal compared to the synagogue ordinance for the Obermainkreis, enacted by law on May 5, 1831 . This comprised 31 paragraphs and was based on a draft by the Bayreuth reform rabbi Joseph Aub . Other, more conservative Franconian synagogue orders from this period comprised up to 56 paragraphs.
Up until 1851, school lessons for the Jewish children of Burgkunstadt took place in the synagogue. From then on, this was given to the Jewish community in the new school, for which the brothers Moses and Zacharias Sack had acquired property no. 100 (today Feuerweg 19; building demolished and replaced in the middle of the 20th century). On March 10, 1860, in a very solemn ceremony, a new Torah scroll was introduced into the community. In particular, the high level of the musical part of the celebration found nationwide recognition in the Jewish communities. It is recorded from 1909 that the services in the synagogue took place "every Friday evening, Saturday, on Israelite holidays and on days on which the religious community members celebrate the anniversary for their parents or other relatives who had passed away".
1933 to 1945 - Destruction during the Nazi era
During the November pogrom in 1938 , the synagogue was destroyed on November 10, 1938. At 2 a.m., the Lichtenfels SA district leader Lorenz Kraus came from Lichtenfels to Burgkunstadt around the SA local group leader and, through him, the Burgkunstadt mayor at the time , Dr. Inform Leo Feuersinger ( NSDAP ) about the planned destruction. Immediately afterwards, the Burgkunstadter NSDAP and SA members were notified and summoned in front of the synagogue. Under the leadership of the SA district leader from Lichtenfels, the windows were broken in the early morning hours of November 10th and the interior was devastated. Around 1.30 a.m., Kraus had received instructions by telephone to take action against Jews. Before he reached Burgkunstadt a good half an hour later, he had called about two dozen SA men in Lichtenfels and had them storm and devastate the small synagogue there.
The religious objects of rather low material value such as the Torah scrolls, prayer books and priestly robes were thrown into the Mühlbach; The art and valuables, mainly made of precious metals, were brought to the city administration. Encouraged in part by a teacher, the devastated synagogue was further damaged by schoolchildren on the morning of November 10th and was visited by the local population. Due to the close development in the surrounding area, the synagogue was not set on fire as is usual elsewhere. On November 10, 1938, the synagogue building was forcibly passed into the possession of the city of Burgkunstadt as an alleged "donation", which was recorded in a contract on November 17, 1938, in which "[the] religious community [...] on all Claim [waived]. ”Two days later, NSDAP formations began demolishing the synagogue building. In the Lichtenfelser Tagblatt of November 12, 1938, the events of the past few days were cynically commented as follows:
“[...] The synagogue, the old Jewish school and the Jewish barn in Auffahrtstrasse became the property of the city of Burgkunstadt on Friday. The buildings will serve more useful purposes in the future. This Saturday afternoon at 2 a.m. the party formations will already begin with the demolition of the synagogue and thus erase a sad point from the cityscape forever. One will probably not go wrong in assuming that no Burgkunstadter will miss this memorable act. Anyone who wants to lend a hand will be welcome. It is also very welcome that with the disappearance of the synagogue, the narrowest part of the street will experience a considerable expansion. "
The property, which was also passed into municipal ownership, was given a green space and an alternative area for road traffic a little later.
Since 1945 - reappraisal, memorial and remembrance
_-_Gedenkstelle_(2019).jpg)
_-_Gedenkstein.jpg)
The small stones on the top of the memorial stone represent a Jewish tradition of memory for the deceased victims from the time of National Socialism.
The judicial processing of the destruction of the synagogues of Alten- and Burgkunstadt took place at the Lichtenfels District Court . In the main hearing on July 25, 1946, some underage perpetrators were initially sentenced to four months' imprisonment. The former Burgkunstadter NSDAP local group leader Dr. Wendelin Kolb, the former mayor Dr. Leo Feuersinger and two former SA members were sentenced in a subsequent trial on January 16, 1947 to one and a half years in prison for damage to property that was harmful to the community . The prison sentences, which were sometimes perceived as too mild, often met with criticism from the population.
In 1950 the city of Burgkunstadt had to pay a restitution to the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization for the Jewish schoolhouse and synagogue totaling DM 11,500 plus 6.5% interest pa . With interest and compound interest over 12 years, the total was around DM 25,000. Adjusted for purchasing power and inflation, this corresponds to a total of € 67,800 (as of 2019).
After the canalization of the Burgkunstadter Mühlbach , the site of the former synagogue was opened up to pedestrians around 1970 with a sandstone staircase from the south. A memorial stone was erected on the square in 1987. It is a granite boulder with the inscription "The Victims of Violence 1933–1945" in large brass letters. Underneath, on a bronze plate, you can read “The synagogue stood here, destroyed in the pogrom night of 1938 and demolished in the same year” .
In the course of the second half of the 20th century, several commemorative events have taken place on the synagogue site. These were initiated, among others, by the Association of Interest Group Synagoge Altenkunstadt, founded in 1988, and the Altenkunstadter theologian and local researcher Josef Motschmann , who died in 2016 , who had dealt intensively with Jewish history in the Altenkunstadt and Burgkunstadt area. As in 2013, on the 75th anniversary, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the destruction of the synagogue on November 11, 2018, a larger memorial ceremony took place at the former location of the synagogue. The memorial ceremony was initiated by the local Protestant parish and the Catholic parish. In addition to a joint address by the clergy of both denominations, prayers were also given for the victims and Jewish songs were sung together with the Protestant church and flute choir.
Architecture and building history
Dating the building
Only a few structural details have survived for the synagogue building. In an appraisal report by the Landbauamt Lichtenfels dated December 10, 1955, in which an assessment of the destroyed synagogue was attempted, it says: “Plan or other documents about the size and condition [of the Burgkunstadter synagogue] are not available either at the municipality, the district administration or anywhere else [...]. ” Nevertheless, based on various indications, the building could be estimated to be over 300 years old, which could be the same as the one mentioned in 1657. However, a major renovation or new building in the second half of the 18th century is likely. This is due to the architectural style and the great similarities in the proportions of the building and the facade to the Altenkunstadter synagogue built in 1726 . Apart from the report by the Lichtenfels Land Building Authority, only brief descriptions of the synagogue from a newspaper report from 1851 and from the Munich art historian Theodor Harburger from 1928 have survived.
Building description
Outside
The synagogue was a gable-independent sandstone cuboid building with a tiled half -hipped roof . The building extended over around 130 m² with external dimensions of around 7.5 and 9.5 m × 13.5 m, whereby it was not an exactly rectangular, but slightly warped floor plan. In the south it reached directly to the Mühlbach and in the north it bordered directly on the road. A converted attic was located above the ground floor, which was up to approx. 5 m high. The building corners were provided with a distinctive corner cuboid.
The south facade was structured by a protruding cornice and three regular window axes on both floors. On the stone ground floor, eight-part, double-leaf lattice windows with four-part skylight were installed last . They were part of the prayer room. The windows with protruding frames with straight parapets and lintels stand out from the facade. Above the straight lintel, there was an older lintel, slightly tapering in the middle, which indicated that the windows were previously different and slightly higher. The three windows in the plastered half-timbered gable were also divided eightfold, but without a skylight or protrusion in the facade. They illuminated the school, lounge and living rooms that were presumably on the upper floor.
The north facade was completely plastered, at least last, and only had three windows on the upper floor. These were divided into twelve and had a slightly rounded arch in the lintel. The frames did not protrude from the facade; nor the cornice, which was clearly visible. In the ground floor, which was only about 3 m high on this side for topographical reasons, double-leaf wooden doors were attached on both sides , which were provided with slightly protruding sandstone frames and apex stones. The existence of two front doors is due to religious reasons, as one was used as an entrance for the male parishioners and one as a women's entrance.
The east and west facades were also at least partially plastered and otherwise connected directly to the neighboring buildings.
Inside
In the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums of November 10, 1851, the interior of the synagogue was described as "[...] appropriately and attractively [...]", but also as "[..]" due to its location on the Mühlbach and in the row of houses. .] moist and dark [...] ”. The prayer room in the southern part of the building was reached by first descending three steps after the men's entrance into a small anteroom and from there another four steps. The women's gallery could either be reached directly or via this anteroom and extended over three sides of the prayer room.
The furnishings were last in the style of the Empire , but kept simple. It probably came from the period around 1825–1830, after the Jewish community had previously complained about the condition of the interior. The interior design can be basically adopted in accordance with the Jewish customs of Western Europe. In front of the Torah shrine in the center of the west side of the prayer room (looking towards the east, towards Jerusalem) was the Almemor with the Hebrew inscription "דע לפני מי אתה עומד"( ta lifne mi ato omed , dt .: "Know who you are standing in front of" ) was appropriate. The majority of the room was taken up by the seating or benches for the men. The women could take a seat on the three-wing gallery on the south, east and north sides of the prayer room. A large crystal chandelier hung in the center of the prayer room .
On October 15, 1928, Theodor Harburger took a picture of a silver Torah shield showing a Torah crown flanked by two lions on twisted columns . The approximately 23 × 25 cm large, artistically designed metal relief plate was made by master silversmith Johann Conrad Weiß in Nuremberg in the first half of the 18th century. Other sacred art objects from the Burgkunstadter synagogue, as well as the whereabouts of the Torah shield, are unknown.
literature
- Klaus-Dieter Alicke: Lexicon of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area. 3 volumes. Gütersloher Verlagshaus , Gütersloh 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-08035-2 . ( Online edition )
- Karl-Heinz-Goldfuß, Günter Amman: "Know who you are standing in front of ...!" - Memories of the youth of the Jewish citizen of Burgkunstadt, Siegmund Oppenheimer , City of Burgkunstadt (ed.), Burgkunstadt 2005.
- Angela Hager, Hans-Christof Haas: Burgkunstadt In: Wolfgang Kraus, Berndt Hamm, Meier Schwarz (eds.): More than stones ... Synagogue memorial volume Bavaria. Volume I. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2007, ISBN 978-3-89870-411-3 , pp. 106–111.
- Theodor Harburger: The inventory of Jewish art and cultural monuments in Bavaria - Volume 2: Adelsdorf - Leutershausen , Jewish Museum Franconia - Fürth & Schnaiitach (ed.), Fürth 1998, pp. 117-130.
- Josef Motschmann: The suffering of the Jews on the Upper Main - from the end of the Jewish communities in Lichtenfels, Burgkunstadt and Altenkunstadt in the years 1933–1942 . SPD district association Lichtenfels (publisher), Lichtenfels 1983.
- Hans Pfreundner: Materials on the history of Jews in and around Burgkunstadt Burgkunstadt 1989, supplement to the annual report of the Burgkunstadt grammar school 1988/89.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Hager (2007), p. 106
- ^ Johann Baptist Müller: Häuserbuch , Stadt Burgkunstadt 1982, o. P.
- ↑ Wenzel Maximilian Widenka: "See, there are jackals to destroy the vineyard, the vineyard of Israel": Emancipation and confessionalization in Franconian rural Jewry in the first half of the 19th century . 1st edition. University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-86309-656-4 , pp. 141 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Burgkunstadt with Weidnitz (Lichtenfels district) - Jüdische Geschichte / Synagoge , alemannia-judaica.de, accessed on August 7, 2019
- ↑ Hager (2007), p. 108
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Hager (2007), p. 109
- ↑ The six days of the November Pogrom 1938 , welt.de, accessed on August 7, 2019
- ↑ a b Pfreundner (1989), p. 10
- ^ Edith Raim: Justice between dictatorship and democracy: Reconstruction and prosecution of Nazi crimes in West Germany 1945-1949 . 1st edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-73565-9 , p. 911 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search). Full text excerpt, p. 109f.
- ↑ Inflation and purchasing power calculator, lawyerdb.de, accessed on December 28, 2017
- ↑ 75 years of the Reichspogromnacht , christuskirche.info, accessed on August 7, 2019
- ↑ Commemoration of the victims of the pogrom night: Jewish songs also intoned (November 11, 2018) , obermain.de, accessed on August 7, 2019
- ↑ a b Hager (2007), p. 110
- ↑ Goldfuß (2004), p. 32
- ↑ Harburger (1998), p. 117