Beit Tikwa Synagogue (Bielefeld)

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The new synagogue on Detmolder Strasse

The Beit Tikwa Synagogue ( Biblical Hebrew בַּ֫יִת תִּקְוָה báyiṯ tiqwâ ' , German ' House of Hope ' ) on Detmolder Straße is the home of the Jewish community of Bielefeld . The Jewish house of worship was created through the renovation of the Protestant Paul Gerhardt Church in 2008 and is therefore considered the first synagogue in post-war Germany to emerge from the renovation of a Protestant church.

Building history

The Paul Gerhardt Church during the renovation with the spire removed in April 2008.

In 2005 the evangelical Paul Gerhardt congregation merged with the Neustädter Mariengemeinde. Shortly after the merger, the Bielefeld church district announced that it wanted to sell the Paul Gerhardt Church. The Jewish community took care of the building and quickly came to an agreement with the church district. Against the sale of the church building, the established Citizens' Initiative Paul Gerhardt church with about 80 members. There was also a conflict within the Jewish community of Bielefeld in connection with the acquisition of the church building. The high point of the protest actions on the Protestant side was the occupation of the church by around ten members of the Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche initiative at the end of March 2007. The occupation lasted three months and was ended by the compromise that the congregation had the church building until the 12th September 2007. After the occupation ended and the church was sold to the Jewish community, work on converting it into a synagogue could begin. After almost ten months of construction, the construction work was completed in September 2008.

inauguration

On September 21, 2008, exactly 103 years and one day after the inauguration of the synagogue on Turnerstrasse , the new synagogue was inaugurated. Various prominent personalities from politics and society were present at this ceremony, including Harald Kindermann , who was born in Bielefeld and was the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Israel, and Jürgen Rüttgers, then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia .

architecture

As a result of the renovation, the former church building has changed significantly in appearance. The top of the old church tower was torn down and replaced with a round roof, and there is now an elevator inside the tower. The facade was plastered white and the entrance portal was provided with a generous window front. In contrast to the earlier church building, the synagogue facing Detmolder Strasse is separated by a wall about two meters high. Inside the synagogue there is now a library and various rooms for events. The Torah shrine was donated by Protestant, Catholic and Free Church Christians. The renovation of the building was financed with funds from the municipality, the city of Bielefeld and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The planning was carried out by the architecture office Klaus Beck from Bielefeld.

See also

Web links

Commons : Beit Tikwa Synagogue  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dagmar Giesecke: 21. Elul 5768/21 September 2008: The synagogue on Detmolder Strasse is ceremoniously inaugurated , Bielefeld City Archives . September 1, 2018. Retrieved February 27, 2019. 
  2. ↑ The new synagogue in Bielefeld will be inaugurated on Sunday ( Memento from September 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ As early as 1846, the Jewish community of Obergrombach had acquired the formerly Catholic palace chapel and converted it into the Obergrombach synagogue , and in 1867 Sandhausen's reformed church was converted into the Sandhausen synagogue .
  4. ↑ a b Irith Michelsohn voted out. Opposition prevails: Jewish community has new board. . In: Westfalen-Blatt , February 19, 2008. Retrieved October 10, 2008. 
  5. ↑ Michael Schläger: Central Council examines election in Bielefeld . In: Westfalen-Blatt , March 8, 2008. Retrieved October 10, 2008. 
  6. ^ Jewish demonstration on Stapenhorstrasse . Neue Westfälische, April 2, 2008
  7. ^ Homepage of the citizens' initiative . In: Gemeinnützige Bürgerinitiative Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche , 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2008. 
  8. ^ First church, soon synagogue . In: wdr.de , July 16, 2007. Archived from the original on March 16, 2014. Retrieved on March 18, 2014. 
  9. ↑ Bielefeld: Church occupation ended after compromise ( Memento from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  10. ↑ a b Beginning of a new path. The Jewish synagogue on Detmolder Strasse is ceremoniously inaugurated . In: nw-news.de /huettenweg.de , September 22, 2008. Accessed December 18, 2008. 

Coordinates: 52 ° 0 ′ 30.6 ″  N , 8 ° 32 ′ 36.2 ″  E