Synagogue (Tübingen)

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The Tübingen synagogue around 1885

The synagogue in Tübingen was located at Gartenstrasse 33 on Österberg in Tübingen . The synagogue of the Jewish community in Tübingen was inaugurated on December 8, 1882 and destroyed on the night of November 9-10, 1938 as part of the Reichspogromnacht . It was the successor to a medieval synagogue, which probably stood between the buildings at Judengasse 2 and 4.

architecture

The synagogue was 14.07 m long and 8.85 m wide. It was partly built from materials that came from the previous building in Wankheim . The east-west oriented longitudinal building had both classicistic and Moorish form elements, although references to the Renaissance and Romanesque were also recognizable. Inside was the women's gallery, which was customary at the time - in conservative communities the women sat separately - and the ceiling of the prayer room was painted with blue stars on a white background.

Originally the facade of the synagogue was decorated with richly colored decorations, as a photo from around 1885 shows. The exterior view was changed, however, because in a picture from around 1930, the building is presented simply with light-colored plaster.

History of the synagogue

City map of the city of Tübingen with the synagogue from around 1900

A first medieval synagogue probably stood in Judengasse alongside other Jewish institutions such as the community center . The first mention of Jews in Tübingen comes from the year 1335. There is no evidence of the persecution of Jews in Tübingen during the plague in 1348/49, but in 1477 all Jews were evacuated from the city by the university's founder, Count Eberhard im Barte instructed.

After that, in 1848, it was possible for Jews to resettle in the city for the first time. After Leopold Hirsch, who came from Wankheim, several Jewish families soon settled in Tübingen. They initially used the facilities of the community in Wankheim as long as they existed. Construction of the synagogue in Tübingen began at the end of 1881. After the seat of the Jewish community, which consisted of residents of Tübingen, Wankheim and Reutlingen, had been relocated from Wankheim to Tübingen in the spring of 1882, the solemn farewell service took place in Wankheim on April 8, 1882, at which the district rabbi Silberstein gave the sermon. Immediately afterwards, the Wankheim synagogue was demolished. Some parts were then used in the construction of the synagogue in Tübingen, which was erected at Gartenstrasse 33 under the direction of Oberamtsbaumeister Riekert . The dedication ceremony took place on December 8th and 9th, 1882, the Hanukkah festival. Rabbi Silberstein delivered the sermon again. After him, only two other rabbis and six cantors were supposed to preach in the Tübingen synagogue.

In 1886 Tübingen already had 106 Jewish inhabitants, in 1910 there were 139. In 1928 there was an attack on the Tübingen synagogue: a large window was destroyed by stones being thrown. One of the stones also broke through the wickerwork of a chair inside the structure. The Tübingen synagogue was thoroughly renovated in autumn 1932 on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The solemn sermon on December 25, 1932 was held by senior teacher Josef Wochenmark, and the district rabbi Abraham Schweizer spoke. In 1933 there were still 90 Jewish residents in Tübingen, of whom at least 18 fell victim to the murder of Jews in the Third Reich .

The Tübingen synagogue was demolished and burned down on the night of the Reichspogromnacht on the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938: at midnight ten men - including the mayor and the NSDAP district leader - and a woman plundered the synagogue and threw the Torah scrolls into the Neckar . In the early hours of the morning the building was set on fire. SA men prevented a neighbor from calling the fire brigade, which appeared late and did not prevent the synagogue from being burned out. The Jewish community later had to pay for the ruins to be removed.

History of the property after the synagogue was destroyed

The rubble of the synagogue was auctioned off by the city administration with total proceeds of 86 RM as building material and the unusable rubble in the Neckar bed was disposed of. The site was leveled by the building authority and then planted by the city nursery. In December 1940 the city bought the property for 3,965 RM, well below its value at the time.

The synagogue square with the monument in today's design

In 1949 the purchase was canceled and the property, as the Jewish community in Tübingen no longer existed, was returned to the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Württemberg in Stuttgart . The religious community sold the property to a private citizen in Tübingen in order to obtain funding for the integration of Jewish survivors. The new owner built a house on the property in the 1950s. On November 9, 1978 , a memorial stone was inaugurated at the so-called Lützelbrunnen on the property of the then Lord Mayor of the city, Eugen Schmid. The following text was carved on the fountain trough:

The synagogue of the Tübingen Jewish community stood here. It was on the night of 9./10. November 1938 burned down like many others in Germany.

As there was great criticism of the text because it was viewed as trivializing, a second sentence was added:

In memory of the persecution and murder of fellow Jewish citizens from 1933 to 1945.

In 1998, construction work began on a large residential complex on the former synagogue square. The foundations of the former synagogue were unexpectedly found . Construction was initially discontinued. There was an intensive public discussion on how to deal with the square and its design. After increased protests, the foundations were integrated in the basement of the new residential building. However, these preserved remains of the synagogue are not open to the public.

Ultimately, the declared goal was to commemorate the fate of the Tübingen Jews with an artistically designed monument (next to the new residential complex) and thus to set a clear signal against forgetting. The monument, which is mainly financed by the citizens of Tübingen, was designed by Jörg Weinbrenner, the Nürtingen Architects' Association and the sculptor Gert Riel from Remshalden. It was initiated by the citizens' initiative “Project Group Monument Synagogenplatz” in cooperation with the university town of Tübingen. The inauguration was on November 9th, 2000. There are also photos and explanatory texts about the synagogue and the Tübingen Jews inside the memorial.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Description of the synagogue at www.alemannia-judaica.de
  2. ^ Joachim Hahn, Jürgen Krüger: Synagogues in Baden-Württemberg. Volume 1: History and Architecture. Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1843-5 , p. 220.
  3. ^ A b Joachim Hahn, Jürgen Krüger: Synagogues in Baden-Württemberg . Vol. 2: Places and memories . Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1843-5 , pp. 481-484.
  4. ↑ a b c Homepage of the city of Tübingen - city tours
  5. ^ Wilhelm Böhringer: In 1887 the last Jewish woman moved away . In: "Tübinger Blätter" 61, 1974, pp. 13-19
  6. ↑ Homepage of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer community on local history 1938-2000 ( Memento from September 10, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Article on Cityinfonetz.de from January 1998 ( Memento from July 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

literature

  • Beate Schmid, Dagmar Tonn: Witnesses made of glass. Archaeological finds from the former synagogue at Gartenstrasse 33 in Tübingen. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. News bulletin of the state monument preservation. Vol. 48 Issue 3, 2019, ISSN  0342-0027 , pp. 177–180, ( PDF; 9.9 MB ).
  • History workshop Tübingen (Ed.): Destroyed hopes. Ways of the Tübingen Jews (= contributions to the history of Tübingen. Volume 8). Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1216-3 .
  • Benigna Schönhagen : Tübingen under the swastika. A university town in the time of National Socialism (= contributions to the history of Tübingen. Volume 4). Theiss, Tübingen 1991, ISBN 3-8062-0838-7 , pp. 287-301.
  • Utz Jeggle (ed.); Ute Bechdolf: National Socialism in the Tübingen district. A local lore. 2nd Edition. Tübingen Association for Folklore, Tübingen 1989, ISBN 3-925340-57-2 .
  • Lilli Zapf : The Tübingen Jews. A documentation. Katzmann, Tübingen 1978, (5th edition, unchanged reprint with a new foreword). University town of Tübingen - Department of Art and Culture, Tübingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-941818-38-5 .

Web links

Coordinates: 48 ° 31 '8.5 "  N , 9 ° 3' 51.3"  E