Synagogue (Neuenkirchen)
The Neuenkirchen synagogue (now part of Rietberg in the Gütersloh district ) was a Westphalian state synagogue. The Jewish church was consecrated on September 9, 1881, fell on Nov. 9, 1938 during the November pogroms of arson by Nazi victims.
history
The existence of a synagogue for Neuenkirchen was first mentioned in a document in 1758. Ten years later a larger church was built in the east of the town center. A narrow footpath connected the building in a back yard with the main street.
After a village fire destroyed the synagogue and numerous other houses on April 29, 1880, it was decided to build a representative new church on Langen Strasse , the main artery of the town. The contractor Georg Eustermann from Wiedenbrück received the order for the construction of the 150-seat building . On September 9, 1881, the synagogue was consecrated in the presence of the royal district administrator, the Rietberg bailiff, the Neuenkirchen community leader and the local Catholic clergy.
In the late evening hours of November 9, 1938, members of the SA , who were distributed centrally from Rheda to what was then the Wiedenbrück district, set fire to the church with the help of Neuenkirchen sympathizers. After the volunteer fire brigade was prevented from extinguishing the flames, it burned to the ground. The remains were demolished in the ensuing period.
Architecture and furnishings
The synagogue from 1880/81 was a brick building built in the neo-Romanesque style with a rectangular floor plan (12.75 m × 10.25 m). A gable roof spanned the main room. Three arched windows in each of the southern and northern long sides let light into the building. The rectangular portal on the west side of the synagogue was equipped with a round tower around 15 meters high , while an apse protruded from the wall in the east . Inside were u. a. an organ , chandeliers , a Torah shrine and a bima .
Remembering the synagogue
On the initiative of the local Junge Union , a memorial was erected on the site of the former synagogue in 1988, which was unveiled on November 20 of the same year in the presence of the chairman of the Bielefeld Jewish community , the Rietberg mayor and the regional rabbi of North Rhine-Westphalia . A brass plate embedded in the floor also shows the former exterior shape of the synagogue, and dark cobblestones indicate the earlier floor plan.
See also
literature
- Jehuda Barlev: Neuenkirchen, the Jewish community of the county of Rietberg . In: Gütersloher Articles No. 42/43 (June 1976).
- Michael Brocke (ed.): Fire on your sanctuary. Destroyed synagogues in 1938. North Rhine-Westphalia. Developed by the Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History. Bochum 1999
- Günter Birkmann, Hartmut Stratmann, Thomas Kohlpoth: Consider who you are standing in front of. 300 synagogues and their history in Westphalia and Lippe. Essen 1998
- Heimatverein Neuenkirchen and City of Rietberg (ed.): The Jews of the County of Rietberg. Contributions to the Neuenkirchen synagogue community. Rietberg 1997
- Kate Kemper: Indictment. The bitter truth. Warburg 1987.
Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 49.8 " N , 8 ° 26 ′ 36.6" E