Geisa synagogue

The Geisa synagogue was located in the town of Geisa in what is now the Wartburg district in Thuringia .

history

There is evidence of a synagogue in Geisa since the first half of the nineteenth century; before that there was probably already a prayer room. This synagogue was destroyed in the major fire in downtown Geisa on June 23, 1858, which destroyed large parts of the buildings in the market and adjacent streets.

In 1861/62 a new synagogue was built on the site of its predecessor with the help of donations. At that time 180 Jews lived in Geisa, that was almost eleven percent of the population. The new building was a brick building with a large flight of stairs and a large round dome and was inaugurated on September 5, 1862. The building was largely destroyed by arson on November 9, 1938 and the ruins were demolished in 1940. The number of Jewish community members had declined since 1895, and at the end of 1942 there was no more religious community.

Commemoration

On November 9, 1988, a memorial plaque was unveiled at the former location of the synagogue. Another memorial plaque has been on the building of the former Jewish school since 1989, it is dedicated to the Geisa Jew Moritz Goldschmidt , who together with Adalbert Geheeb devoted himself to researching the flowering plants of the Rhön in Geisa .

See also

• Jewish cemetery (Geisa)
• List of synagogues destroyed in the German Reich from 1933 to 1945

Web links

• Schwierz, Israel: Evidence of the Jewish past in Thuringia (PDF file; 23.77 MB), page 126 ff.
• alemannia-judaica.de

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 45.7 "  N , 9 ° 56 ′ 57.5"  E