Synagogue (Ettenheim)

Ettenheim synagogue (before 1938), photo at the Baden-Württemberg State Archives

The former synagogue in Ettenheim , a town in the Ortenau district in Baden-Württemberg , was built in 1880/81 at Alleestraße 22 and was devastated during the National Socialist era in 1938.

history

The Jewish community of Ettenheim owned a prayer room in a Jewish private house in the 18th century . A first synagogue has been mentioned since 1816, which was located in a house on Friedrichstrasse.

Since this synagogue had become dilapidated , planning of a new building began in 1879. The city council and the citizens' committee approved a grant of 600 marks . The vocational school teacher Wendelin Ederle designed the construction plans for the new synagogue . The inauguration of the synagogue took place on February 25, 1881. After 1925, church services were rarely held because, due to the move to larger cities, the minimum number of ten men of religious age ( minyan ) required for worship could no longer be achieved.

November pogrom 1938

During the November pogrom on November 10, 1938, the synagogue was looted by SA men with the participation of NSDAP members from Ettenheim , who then also demolished the nearby Altdorf synagogue and destroyed the interior.

On December 23, 1938, the synagogue was sold to the neighboring tannery , which converted it into a residential and commercial building in 1939.

architecture

The synagogue in Ettenheim had a portal with a round arch on its main facade , which was supported by two pairs of columns. The whole building was provided with many arched windows that gave the interior a lot of daylight. Above the portal, on the first floor, was the classroom. The gable was filled with a large rose window and cornices ran around the building. Classicist and neo-Romanesque style elements shaped the representative building.

The following inscription was written on the portal in Hebrew and German: Open the gates of salvation for me, I will go in and thank the Lord . ( Psalm 118 : 19).

Commemoration

A memorial plaque is still not in place today. The rosette of the synagogue was preserved and is used as a fountain surround in the cemetery in Ettenheimmünster . The Torah shrine curtain ( parochet ) and colored window panes of the synagogue are in the Ettenheim City Archives .

literature

The fate and history of the Jewish communities Ettenheim, Altdorf, Kippenheim, Schmieheim, Rust, Orschweier. A memorial book . Edited by the historical association for Mittelbaden eV - member group Ettenheim 1988 (excerpts from: [1] ).
Joachim Hahn and Jürgen Krüger: Synagogues in Baden-Württemberg . Volume 2: Joachim Hahn: Places and Facilities . Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1843-5 , pp. 119–121 ( Memorial book of the synagogues in Germany . Volume 4).