Synagogue Cologne

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Synagogue in Cologne, Roonstrasse

The Cologne synagogue is located in the Neustadt-Süd district on Roonstraße opposite Rathenauplatz . It is the center of the Cologne synagogue community . The synagogue received international attention during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. during World Youth Day in August 2005. He was the first Catholic head to visit a Jewish church in Germany .

architecture

The building is designed in the neo-Romanesque style. The U-shaped building complex with tuff cladding has a domed central room on a cross-shaped floor plan with a vestibule, which is flanked by four-story accompanying buildings. The main front is characterized by a three-arched portal system (former main entrance) as well as a large gable facade with a centrally arranged rose window, the former central synagogue hall is recognizable on the exterior by a cube with arched windows, pyramid roof and slender corner turrets based on Byzantine models.

history

After the Glockengasse synagogue, which was built in the Moorish style and inaugurated in 1861, did not offer enough space for the growing community, a new building was built for the more liberal members on Roonstraße from 1895-99 by the Cologne architects Emil Schreiterer and Bernhard Below (architects Schreiterer & Below ). The foundation stone was laid on October 23, 1895, and the inauguration took place on March 22, 1899 by Rabbi Abraham Frank . On November 9, 1938 in the were Kristallnacht all seven synagogues in Cologne by the Nazis destroyed or devastated. During the Second World War , the building was damaged by air raids. After the war, Konrad Adenauer campaigned for the synagogue to be restored. The synagogue, which had been restored on the outside with minor changes and simplified on the inside (partly with lead glazing by the art glass factory Lammers & Warzager) was reopened after a two-year construction period under the direction of the architect Helmut Goldschmidt on September 20, 1959. On Christmas Eve of that year, the exterior of the Synagogue desecrated by Nazis , which Chancellor Adenauer made the topic in his New Year's address.

The synagogue today

View of the Torah shrine , the Bima and the Ner Tamid

The synagogue serves as a meeting place and place of worship . The building has a kosher restaurant, library, museum, youth center and ballroom. Further social institutions were relocated to the Jewish welfare center with old people's and nursing home, the former building of the “Israelite Asylum for the Sick and Old Age”, in Ottostraße / Nussbaumerstraße in the Neuehrenfeld district . The prayer room has space for 800 men and 600 women. In the memorial hall, a plaque with the words “Whoever you enter this hall - linger in silent memory of the more than six million innocent sisters and brothers murdered” reminds of the murder of the Jews by the Nazi regime (also known as the “Shoah”). On the outer facade in the middle part is the inscription above the three window arches:

"Not by might and not by strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord of Hosts."

- Zechariah IV, 6.

The Torah scroll from the synagogue in Glockengasse, rescued by the Catholic priest Gustav Meinertz during the November pogroms in 1938 (“Reichskristallnacht”) was exhibited in a showcase in the entrance area until 2007 . After a restoration, the cost of which was borne by the Archdiocese of Cologne in the amount of 12,000 euros, the Torah made in 1902 can now be used again in the liturgy.

Church life

The Jewish-liberal rite (with organ and choir and separation between men and women) was followed in the Roonstraße synagogue until the Shoah . Like all other synagogues (with the exception of the exit congregation Adass Jeschurun ​​under the direction of Emanuel Carlebach ), the synagogue belonged to the unified Jewish congregation . Today the Orthodox rite is practiced here . The present-day community has referred to itself as the “oldest Jewish community north of the Alps” due to historical continuity since the year 321 .

literature

  • Hd .: The new synagogue in Cologne a. Rh. In: Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , Volume 19, No. 51 (July 1, 1899), pp. 306–309.
  • Sabine Simon: Schreiterer & Below - A Cologne architecture office between historicism and modernity . G. Mainz, Aachen 1999, ISBN 3-89653-475-0 , pp. 120-130.
  • The night of Cologne . In: Der Spiegel . No. 1 , 1960 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Synagoge Roonstraße  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments . North Rhine-Westphalia I. Deutscher Kunstverlag 2005, pp. 753–754.
  2. ↑ Cologne synagogue receives Torah back . Vatican Radio , November 10, 2007
  3. ^ Website of the Synagogue Community in Cologne , accessed on November 5, 2016.
  4. ^ Website of the Synagogue Community in Cologne ( memento from October 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on November 5, 2016.

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 55.7 ″  N , 6 ° 56 ′ 12.1 ″  E