Ehrenfeld Synagogue
The Ehrenfeld Synagogue was a house of worship in the Ehrenfeld district of Cologne , Körnerstraße 93, which was built in 1926 and 1927 according to designs by the architect Robert Stern . During the Reichspogromnacht in 1938, the building was destroyed except for the outer walls.
history
The Ehrenfeld district of Cologne grew rapidly due to strong industrialization in the second half of the 19th century. In 1899 its own synagogue community was founded. The population structure - predominantly blue-collar workers and salaried employees - did not allow a financially strong independent community to continue to exist, so that it was reintegrated into the Cologne synagogue community as early as 1914 . By the mid-1920s, the Jewish population in Ehrenfeld had grown to around 1,100, after which the construction of a synagogue was planned.
The south-western part of the former Koenemann'schen gold strip factory, which was located at Körnerstrasse 93–113 and whose property extended to Wißmannstrasse 24–28, was acquired as the building site. Karl Koenemann had died before the First World War , his widow Christine Koenemann, nee. Coblenzer, initially continued the company together with her sons Harald and Frederick Francis (known as Fred ) Kennedy, who lives in London . After production had ceased, she had the area divided up in May 1919. The newly formed property at Körnerstr. In 93 the Ehrenfeld merchant Peter Winkels and the Cottbus-based bank clerk Johann Winkels bought it, from whom the Cologne synagogue community bought it in 1926.
The drafts for the new building of the synagogue and the conversion of the existing two-story house at Körnerstraße 93 for community purposes were developed by the architect Robert Stern, who also took over the construction management. The construction of the tent dome, located above an octagonal room, one of the most remarkable engineering achievements of its time in Cologne, was in the hands of the construction company "Lincke & Cie", which was led by the government master builder Ernst Lincke and the Jewish civil engineer Adolf Fruchtländer. The foundation stone was laid on October 18, 1926, the dome was erected in the winter of 1926/27 and the synagogue was inaugurated on September 18, 1927 during a ceremony. Their construction costs were 110,000 Reichsmarks.
Presumably as a result of the increasing emigration of parishioners or their rapid impoverishment due to the racist policies of the National Socialists, the synagogue parish tried to sell the building to the Catholic Church as early as the summer of 1938, which, however, turned it down. In the synagogue, as in most other Cologne synagogues, services were held in the liberal rite.
The synagogue had only existed for eleven years when the deliberate destruction of the church began on the morning of November 9, 1938. First, two men in half civilian clothes smashed the interior of the prayer room with axes, before another group demolished the furniture in the neighboring house and set it on fire. Finally, the buildings were destroyed by fire, except for the outer walls. A rapidly assembled crowd watched it inactive.
The last rabbi was Dr. Isidor Caro (born October 6, 1877 in Znin; † August 28, 1943 in Theresienstadt), who had been employed by the Cologne community since 1908. His wife, who was born in Berlin, Klara Caro geb. Beermann (1886–1979), who from 1914 to 1939 was particularly involved in the rehabilitation of women who had committed criminal offenses, was able to leave the camp before the end of the war in February 1945 by being ransomed and emigrated to the USA via Switzerland.
architecture
With the receipt of the house at Körnerstrasse, which was still owned by the previous owner Koenemann and located on the street. 93, which Stern prepared for the cantor , the actual synagogue was moved to the rear of the cantor . This created a forecourt through which access to the church was made through a porch designed as a pillar porch. A garden was laid out behind it. The octagonal prayer room held 250 visitors on the ground floor, which was reserved for men, and a further 150 on the upper floor for women. In addition, on the ground floor there were rooms for the choir, cloakroom and other items.
The interior of the church, which can be called timeless in its architecture, was characterized by a strong, symbolic painting. The biblical words “Constant fire burn on the altar and do not go out”, which were affixed above the Torah shrine , were symbolized by red tones, which gradually became lighter towards the dome, flowing into yellow strips and culminating in an eight-pointed red star at the top.
Gleanings
After the masonry that was left behind during the desecration was laid down in 1939, the property was sold in 1942 or 1943 through the legal successor of the Cologne synagogue community, the Reich Association of Jews in Germany . Due to the war, however, there was no rebuilding. For safety reasons, the remains of the wall were leveled in 1950 and the basement rooms filled. At that time, the owner was the Jewish Trust Corporation , which acted as trustee for formerly Jewish but now “ownerless” real estate. In 1954 she sold the land to the city of Cologne.
In 1988, 50 years after its destruction, a mural depicting motifs from a mosaic from the Beth Alpha synagogue in Israel, based on a design by the graphic artist Brigitte Schulten, was attached to the wall of the house on the left . This was built on, however, when an apartment building with a daycare center was built in 1998 and 1999 on the site that had remained undeveloped and was used as a playground. With any necessary excavation work and the foundations of the synagogue and were mikveh exposed. The new building integrated various design features to commemorate the synagogue, such as a mural and stones embedded in the floor, which symbolize the synagogue's floor plan. However, these cannot be seen from the outside.
High bunker
Contrary to popular belief , the bunker built on the neighboring property in 1942 (Körnerstraße 113 a), after the previous expropriation of the British citizen Fred Kennedy in favor of the “ Führer emergency program ” and on behalf of the Reich Treasury (Aviation), is not located on the synagogue grounds. It has been a listed building since April 25, 1995 (No. 7443).
See also
literature
- Barbara Becker-Jákli : The Jewish Cologne. History and present. A city guide. Emons Verlag, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-89705-873-6 , pp. 309f, 332–338 u. a.
- Wolfram Hagspiel : Cologne and its Jewish architects. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-7616-2294-0 , pp. 400-404.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Wolfram Hagspiel: Cologne and its Jewish architects. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-7616-2294-0 , p. 403.
- ^ Barbara Becker-Jákli: The Jewish Cologne. History and present. A city guide. Emons Verlag, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-89705-873-6 , pp. 229-232.
Coordinates: 50 ° 57 '3.2 " N , 6 ° 55' 28.4" E