Bayreuth synagogue

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Bayreuth Synagogue in Münzgasse, on the right the Margravial Opera House

The Bayreuth Synagogue is the house of prayer for the Israelite Community in the Upper Franconian district capital of Bayreuth . It is located at Münzgasse 2, based on the Margravial Opera House. The house is the oldest baroque synagogue in Germany that is still in use.

history

prehistory

The first people of the Jewish faith settled in Bayreuth in the middle of the 13th century. Almost 300 years later, in 1515, the Jewish population was expelled again. Only individual Jews were later allowed to move in, mostly for business reasons.

Today's Jewish community came into being in 1759. Margrave Friedrich III. employed several Jews in his court, including a court painter as well as some court factors and court agents. In 1759 he gave his “court and coin supplier” Moses Seckel permission to settle 10 Jewish families, to found a community and to build a synagogue.

Main story 1759-1936

For the construction of the synagogue, the community founder Moses Seckel and his brother David bought "the old Comoedien and Redouten House" for 8520 Rhenish guilders , the forerunner of the Margravial Opera House immediately adjacent . He had it converted into a baroque-style church at his own expense. After almost a year of construction, the Bayreuth synagogue was inaugurated on March 15, 1760 (Sabbath Para 5520).

For the time being, the richly decorated synagogue remained in the private property of Moses Seckel, who had made it available to the community free of charge. Only after Seckel's death did the synagogue become the property of the community at the request of the brother and legal heir. In the following decades and centuries the community grew steadily, but never had more than 100 families. After lengthy negotiations with the city of Bayreuth, the Jewish cemetery was put into use in 1787 through a new municipal constitution.

For many years the Bayreuth synagogue was under the district rabbinate of Baiersdorf and only had one vice rabbi . In 1829 Joseph Aub became the first district rabbi of the Bayreuth district rabbinate, which was newly founded after the Bavarian Jewish edict of 1813 .

Third Reich

The view from the east shows the small distance to the Margravial Opera House

In the course of the November pogroms on the night of November 9th to 10th, 1938, the synagogue was devastated. Thanks to the close proximity to the Margravial Opera House, it was not set on fire.

After 1945

State 2012 before the renovation, entrance to Münzgasse

In the 1960s, the building was poorly restored and rebuilt and re-inaugurated on April 1, 1967. On August 16, 2013, the mikveh , a ritual immersion bath, was inaugurated in the garden of the synagogue . The water reaches the water basin via an artesian well from a depth of 70 m without a pump.

The building was then rebuilt and largely gutted. The entrance has been moved back from the street side to the west side. Arched windows were also installed there. These existed until 1965 and had to be replaced by rectangular windows at the urging of the Bavarian Palace and Garden Administration. The synagogue was able to reopen in spring 2018.

Now, initially for museum purposes, the former margravial mint opposite , which served as the IWALEWA house from 1981 to 2013 , is to be used. The exhibition there is said to include the fully preserved archive of the community from 1760 to 1933. The building intended as the cultural center of the Jewish community temporarily replaced the synagogue while it was being renovated.

Geniza

During renovation work in 2009, a geniza , old scrolls and other religious objects that had been taken out of use were found in a cavity in the synagogue's attic . In January 2010, the find was professionally salvaged by the Veitshöchheim Genisaprojekt and inventoried in the following months. Since July 2014, the entire holdings of the Bayreuth Genisa can be viewed in an online presentation.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Nordbayerischer Kurier of January 21, 2014, p. 13
  2. ↑ a b c d e Overview of the history of the Bayreuth Synagogue , alemannia-judaica.de, accessed on September 11, 2011
  3. ↑ Bernd Mayer: Bayreuth as it was, p. 122
  4. ↑ Bernd Mayer: Bayreuth. The last 50 years, p. 45
  5. ↑ Bernd Mayer: Bayreuth in the twentieth century , p. 119.
  6. ↑ Inauguration of the mikveh , kirchenkreis-bayreuth.de, accessed on January 21, 2014
  7. ↑ http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/bayreuth_synagoge_neu.htm alemannia-judaica accessed on May 18, 2018
  8. ↑ https://www.kurier.de/inhalt.die-sanierung-des-geschichtstraechtigen-gebaeudes-kom-schnell-voran-spende-der-katholischen-kirche-fuer-die-einrichtungen-bayreuther-synagoge-bau-dem -time-schedule-ahead.d8b23a35-66a2-409c-8bbe-22bfd2a95fe4.html Nordbayerischer Kurier, accessed on May 18, 2019
  9. ↑ Bayreuther - Geniza-Fund presented in Bayreuther Synagoge , ad-hoc-news.de, published on December 16, 2009, accessed on September 11, 2011

Web links

Commons : Synagoge Bayreuth  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 56 ′ 40.5 "  N , 11 ° 34 ′ 43.7"  E