Synagogue (Ludwigsburg)
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The synagogue in Ludwigsburg was a house of worship that existed from 1884 to 1938.
Jewish community in Ludwigsburg
Jews have been tolerated in Ludwigsburg since the royal seat was founded in the 18th century . The history of the Jewish community in Ludwigsburg began with these merchants, who were under the personal protection of the Duke of Württemberg, and their families. At times, from 1832 to 1849, there was a joint community with Aldingen ; from 1832 the Jewish community of Ludwigsburg belonged to the Stuttgart district rabbinate . Around 1900 the number of Jewish residents in Ludwigsburg reached its highest level with 243 people. In 1933 there were 163 people of the Jewish faith in Ludwigsburg, after the time of the Third Reich there was only a small community.
Previous buildings
In the time of the court Jews of the 18th century, the existence of a prayer room, which was furnished like a synagogue, is mentioned in 1739. This hall can no longer be located. Another mention of a prayer room comes from the year 1817. This too cannot be located with certainty; However, he could have been in the house of Wolf Jordan, as he applied in 1824 to be allowed to set up a heated room and a prayer room without heating in the back building of his property at Mömpelgardstrasse 18, the former Jud Sussschen house. After getting permission to do so, he set up the premises and rented it out to the Israelite community. The room next to the prayer room was used for the children's religious lessons and also served as a living room for the teacher during the non-teaching period. From 1848 the Jordan family no longer asked for rent for the prayer room, in which the Stuttgart liturgy was introduced in 1863 with German prayer, choral singing and harmonium accompaniment .
However, the lease for the prayer room in Mömpelgardstrasse was terminated by an heir on September 1, 1883, and the premises were henceforth used as a warehouse and packing room for military clothing. They later served as a horse stable and hay barn, after the First World War they were demolished.
Apparently they had foreseen the termination of the lease or wanted to give up the premises in Mömpelgardstrasse anyway, because a synagogue building association had been founded in Ludwigsburg as early as 1876. As a temporary solution, the widow of the factory owner Rebekka Elsas made a room at Marstallstrasse 4 available for church services in 1883; in the meantime, a piece of land in the Outer Sea Gardens was bought in December to build the synagogue.
Synagogue construction
The property, acquired in 1883 at a price of 3,348.80 marks, was located on Allee- and Solitudestrasse and comprised 7 ares of 28 m². For the planned new building, foreman Paul Baumgärtner and his son Fritz drew the plans that were approved by the Israelite Higher Church Authority in February 1884. The building, which cost around 35,000 marks, was financed by around 200 community members and a 40-year loan. In addition, a state contribution of 2500 marks was approved. The first groundbreaking took place on March 17, 1884, and the synagogue was inaugurated on December 19 of the same year. The program included a ceremonial move from the provisional prayer room in Marstallstrasse to the new building. Church councilor Moses von Wassermann as district rabbi carried out the inauguration. The building received a new roof covering made of slate in the 1920s and its interior, with the exception of the dome wall, was renovated in 1934, as the 50th anniversary was to be celebrated with dignity. The festival service on December 15, 1934 was held by Rabbi Aron Tänzer from Göppingen .
Destruction by Nazi terror
Four years later, the Ludwigsburg synagogue was destroyed in the November pogrom. On the morning of November 10, 1938, the head of the security service of the Ludwigsburg district prepared the action together with members of the NSDAP . Members of the Hitler Youth transported inventory and cult objects from the synagogue to a city building. In the early afternoon, after the synagogue's round window was smashed, the building was set on fire. The fire brigade limited itself to protecting the neighboring buildings; the synagogue burned down completely within a few minutes. The ruins were blown up on November 14th, and in the following days the remains of the wall above ground were removed and the rubble was sold. Some of the bricks were used to raise the prison walls of the Ludwigsburg prison.
After the destruction of their synagogue, the Jewish community in Ludwigsburg used their community building at Seestrasse 75 (today: Hohenzollernstrasse 3) for meetings. Cantor Samuel Metzger asked the mayor at the beginning of 1939 to be allowed to hold services there. This was possibly allowed until the deportation or forced relocation of the last Jewish residents of Ludwigsburg in 1941. In the months after the destruction, a children's playground was built on the place where the synagogue had stood.
Place of remembrance
In 1952 an architect's proposal was discussed in the local council to build an apartment block over the square; however, this application was rejected. In 1959 a memorial stone was erected. Various plans to destroy the square from the 1960s and 70s (building a bank or the exit of the central bus station) were not implemented - not out of respect for the history of the square, but because the plans developed differently. In 1988 the square was redesigned: the floor plan of the former synagogue was traced using floor slabs; the volume of the destroyed building should be illustrated by ten spherical acacias.
Civic groups from Ludwigsburg have been committed to keeping the square and its history in vivid memories. For example, in November 1998 members of the “Alliance against Xenophobia” put numerous old suitcases on the square on which they had written names, birth and death years and places of death of Jewish men and women from Ludwigsburg in white. With this they reminded of the murder of these people. The design of the suitcases referred to the suitcases with which many Jews were actually transported to the exploitation and murder camps. In these historically guaranteed suitcases, objects that would be needed to build a new home "in the East" were supposed to be taken - this is how people were led to believe that their murder had long been planned.
From 2010 onwards, the "Synagogenplatz Dialogue Working Group" was formed in response to the poor structural condition of the square (the trees planted in 1988 were regularly destroyed because the pedestrian streams heavily compacted the ground, large puddles and black ice formed in rain and snow) the names of the persecuted and murdered Jewish Ludwigsburgs were not mentioned. From an extensive and long-term information and discussion process, around 40 suggestions were obtained by 2013 as to how the square could look in the future. A joint working group made up of the local council, city administration and the “Synagogenplatz Dialogue Working Group” condensed these proposals into a joint draft. The Ludwigsburg municipal council decided on this in November 2013 - with the special feature that of the € 360,000 capped costs for this redevelopment of an urban square, € 120,000 would have to be raised from donations and foundation funds. According to the decision, construction could only begin when half of it was available. Out of the “Working Group Dialog Synagogenplatz”, the “Friends of Synagogenplatz Ludwigsburg” was formed, which protested sharply against the municipal council's funding requirements, but still started collecting donations.
Redesign 2014
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In September 2014, the construction work for this redesign began: the existing trees were removed, the soil should be prepared fundamentally for a functioning drainage. At the edge of the square, to separate it from a neighboring bank building from the 1990s, five larger new trees were planned. The most important design elements: The interior of the former synagogue should be clearly differentiated from the former exterior surfaces by means of a different colored floor covering. An electronic information stele provides information on the history of the Jewish community in Ludwigsburg, its persecution and the history of the square after the end of the Nazi regime. Particularly noticeable; Around two dozen suitcase replicas are to be arranged on the square, which - similar to the suitcases from the 1990s campaign - remind of murdered Jews from Ludwigsburg with their names and dates.
See also
literature
- Joachim Hahn and Jürgen Krüger : Synagogues in Baden-Württemberg , Volume 1: History and Architecture , Konrad Theiss Verlag , Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1843-5 , pp. 129, 132.
- Joachim Hahn and Jürgen Krüger, Synagogues in Baden-Württemberg , Volume 2: Places and Facilities , Konrad Theiss Verlag , Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1843-5 , pp. 301-305, 391, 394, 554.
- Beate Maria Schüssler: The fate of the Jewish citizens of Ludwigsburg during the time of National Socialist persecution. In: Ludwigsburger Geschichtsblätter 30, 1978.
- Werner Heinrichs (Hrsg.): History of the Jewish community Ludwigsburg , 1989.
- Joachim Hahn: Jewish Life in Ludwigsburg , Karlsruhe 1998.
- Albert Sting: Traces of Jewish Life. A tour through Ludwigsburg , Haigerloch 2001.
- Community newspaper JG. 11, No. 17 of December 1, 1934, p. 146.
- Community newspaper JG. 11, No. 19 of January 1, 1935, p. 167 (Article 50 Years of the Synagogue in Ludwigsburg ).
- Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums 1863, issue 5 of January 27, 1863 (introduction of the Stuttgart liturgy).
- Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums 1873, issue 37 of September 9, 1873, p. 605 f.
Web links
- History of the synagogue at Alemannia Judaica
- Website of the Friends' Association Synagogenplatz Ludwigsburg
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 48 ° 53 ′ 34.8 " N , 9 ° 11 ′ 17.6" E