Arnsberg synagogue
The Arnsberg synagogue was built in 1852/53 and devastated in the course of the November pogroms in 1938 . The synagogue building in Arnsberg was rebuilt during and after the Second World War and is now used as a residential building .
Emergence
After a settlement ban for Jews had existed up to the transition of Arnsberg from the Electoral Cologne Duchy of Westphalia to the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt , a Jewish community formed in the first decades of the 19th century.
As early as 1825 there was talk of a synagogue and a Jewish school. These were probably located in rented premises. A year later, the municipality's board of directors applied to the district administrator to build a synagogue with a classroom. It was hoped for a collection in the Jewish communities of the administrative district of Arnsberg for the financing . This first attempt failed because of the skepticism of the Jewish headmaster in Werl , who considered it more necessary to employ a Jewish teacher before building a synagogue. The still young congregation was unable to do this and the Jewish children attended Christian schools.
According to a report from 1835, the services continued to take place in rented premises. After all, the community had now hired a cantor . Before 1839 the community had bought the former Hüsersche house on Schlossstrasse. The school, synagogue and teacher's apartment were housed there. It was a relatively small half-timbered building with a rectangular floor plan and two floors.
The building fell victim to the city fire of 1847. A new building outside the fire-endangered old town but also the reconstruction at the old location proved to be difficult due to the poor financial situation of the community. In a statement by the district administrator to the district president from 1849, it was said that the community would number around 100 souls, but that there were only twenty men of full age among them. Only 16 of them would be able to make contributions to cult and school. Only one would be wealthy, seven would have a moderate income, the rest would be “poor”. So far, the community has barely been able to raise the running costs of 250 thalers a year. Also because the community itself was always ready to donate to charitable causes, the approval of a house collection among the Jewish residents of the province of Westphalia was advocated. It is not known whether this happened. The community apparently managed to get the necessary funds, partially financed by the Sparkasse Arnsberg .
The new building was carried out on Schlossstrasse (today number 15). The property initially remained in the possession of the Jewish merchants Grüneberg, Goldberg, Bellerstein, Neuwahl and Amberg until 1886. Only then did it become the property of the municipality. The new building took place in 1852/53. The inauguration festivities took place on June 24th and 25th, 1853 on the Klosterberg and in the hall of the town hall .
Building description
The original building plot was expanded to include parts of the neighboring properties. The synagogue hall faced north-south. To the west the hall had three large arched windows . There must have already been a women ' s gallery in the northern part of the hall . In the north of the building, a wing was added at right angles in the direction of Schlossstrasse, which contained the classroom for the Jewish school and above that the teacher's apartment.
In 1879, as the community grew, it was decided to create more seats with a new side stage. This was not enough, so that an extension was decided in 1885. The existing hall was extended by a window axis. A bay window was added to the south wall to accommodate the Torah shrine .
The hall now had a length of 12.70 m, a width of 5.70 m and a height of about 5.60 m. The women's gallery was about 2.70 m high and about 3 m wide. The entrance was in the east under the gallery. This had a beautiful carved balustrade. There were about three or four rows of benches in the gallery. To the right and left of the niche with the Torah shrine were small stained-glass arched windows. Above it was a small oculi also with stained glass. In the west were the four large arched windows. According to contemporary reports, there was also a wall and ceiling painting.
Furnishing
In front of the Torah shrine, the lectern of the prayer leader was on a podium and surrounded by a railing. To the right of it was a small pulpit. The approximately fifty seats for men in several rows of benches consisted of desks. A chandelier and wall sconces lit up the room.
The congregation had about seven Torah scrolls with Torah sheaths . This also included torah jewelry made of silver. The furnishings also included: four silver-plated metal candlesticks , a silver kiddush cup , a silver etrog box , a ner tamid , a Hanukkia candlestick , a shofar horn , three sets of parochets (Torah curtains) and a chuppah (wedding canopy). A harmonium was added later. Many of the items of equipment were probably donations from wealthy community members. Nothing is known precisely about her whereabouts after 1938.
The End
Although the Jewish community declined after the First World War and the synagogue was used less intensively, it remained the center of Jewish life in Arnsberg. As early as 1934, drunks had broken into the building and stained the prayer room with their feces. On November 10, 1938, screaming National Socialists , young people from Arnsberg and foreigners broke into the synagogue, destroyed furniture and fittings, broke open the Torah shrine and threw the scrolls on the street. The perpetrators lit a fire in the prayer room and fed it with the furnishings. In view of the risk of fire in the densely built-up old town, residents protested, so the flames had to be extinguished. The interior was so thoroughly devastated that it could no longer be used for church services.
Subsequent use
The Arnsberg city council decided in 1939 to “buy” the building from the community. Before this came about, the community had sold the building to the National Socialist Air Corps (NSFK). The purchase price was 3,000 marks, although the unit value had been set at 18,800 marks in 1935. It is not known to what extent there was compulsion behind the sale.
The NSFK local group Arnsberg had the building rebuilt: the prayer room was divided, a workshop and an apartment were set up. After the Second World War, the former synagogue was initially administered by the Jewish Trust Corporation . They sold the building in 1954. In the following year, it was so heavily converted for residential purposes that today there is no longer any indication of its former use.
On the other side of the street, on the wall below the former Jesuit mission, a plaque commemorates the history of the synagogue.
See also
literature
- Michael Gosmann: The synagogue on Schloßstraße . In: Michael Gosmann (Ed.): Jews in Arnsberg . A documentation (= urban history series of publications on the city of Arnsberg ). tape 18 . City of Arnsberg, Arnsberg 1991, ISBN 3-928394-05-3 , p. 69-76 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 23 '55.3 " N , 8 ° 3' 47.2" E