Grunewald synagogue

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Relief of the Grunewald synagogue

The Grunewald synagogue was the synagogue for the Jewish believers in the Berlin districts of Grunewald , Schmargendorf and Dahlem . It was in the Schmargendorf area on Franzensbader Strasse. During the Reichspogromnacht it was set on fire by the National Socialists and burned down.

history

Draft drawing of the excursion restaurant from 1892, which became the Grunewald Synagogue in 1923

With the settlement of the Grunewald villa colony at the beginning of the 20th century, many wealthy Jewish citizens also moved to this new settlement area on the edge of the Grunewald . The Jewish services took place in a private building. Shortly after the First World War, the "Synagogue Association Grunewald" was founded with the aim of building a synagogue. The chairman of the association was Willy Abramczyk . In 1923, the association acquired the property on Franzensbader Strasse with the dance and excursion venue "Franzensbader Garten", which was built in 1895. The architects Bruno and Oskar Neubauer converted the building into a synagogue. The former dance hall became a prayer room that offered space for around 400 worshipers. Furthermore, rabbis , club and meeting rooms were set up on the ground floor and apartments on the upper and top floors. On September 9, 1923, the Jewish New Year's Day Rosh Hashanah , the Grunewald synagogue was inaugurated - the Protestant pastor at the time also attended the inauguration ceremony. From 1925 to 1936 Emil Bernhard Cohn was rabbi of the Grunewald synagogue.

On May 5, 1929, the synagogue was taken over by the Berlin Jewish Community . The Grunewalder Synagogue Association still existed and from that time looked after the general interests of the community members.

During the Reichspogromnacht from November 9th to 10th, 1938, the synagogue, like many others, was set on fire by the National Socialists. A note from the building authorities documented the state of destruction in 1940: “ The synagogue section has been completely destroyed apart from the surrounding walls with the high window openings; the wooden structures of the roof and the ceiling are burned and fell inside. Part of the roof and floor space of the two-storey component was destroyed by the fire. The rooms - ground floor and apartments have been cleared, all window panes have been smashed, the window sashes are missing. The property is unused. [...] A restoration of the synagogue part for commercial purposes appears uneconomical, since at most a new construction on the existing foundation would be possible. The fire ruin has a very disruptive effect on the street scene and thus represents a disfigurement that is particularly damaging to the general public. ”In fact, the ruin was removed in 1941. However, the property was only used again after the Second World War and a house was built on in the 1950s.

Bus stop designed as a memorial site
Memorial plaque on the former site of the synagogue

A bronze memorial plaque with the text "Here a Jewish house of God, the Grunewald synagogue, was destroyed by ignorance on November 9, 1938" was attached to the newly built house . This was replaced on November 9, 1988 by a larger and more detailed, also bronze memorial plaque, which also contains a relief of the former synagogue. 15 years later, on September 12, 2003, the nearby bus stop was redesigned as a memorial site with two posters on the initiative of Wall AG . The posters were created in collaboration with the Topography of Terror Foundation . The inauguration of the memorial site by Hans Wall took place in the presence of Alexander Brenner (chairman of the Jewish community in Berlin), Andreas Nachama (managing director of the Topography of Terror Foundation) and Monika Thiemen (district mayor of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf ). In the past, the memorial plaques were repeatedly the target of anti-Semitic graffiti.

See also

literature

  • Erika Bucholtz, Andreas Nachama: Grunewald Synagogue Memorial Site . Hentrich & Hentrich Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-942271-46-2 .
  • Berlin Museum (Hrsg.): Synagogues in Berlin - On the history of a destroyed architecture . Part 2: The Association Synagogues . Verlag Willmuth Arenhövel, Berlin 1983, pp. 43-46.
  • Karl-Heinz Metzger: Churches, mosques and synagogues in Wilmersdorf . Ed .: District Office Wilmersdorf of Berlin. Wilhelm Möller KG, Berlin 1986, pp. 62-64.

supporting documents

  1. Quoted from Kiezspaziergang on November 13, 2004 from Roseneck to KWA-Stift am Hohenzollerndamm with District Councilor Joachim Krüger
  2. Memorial site for the Grunewald Synagogue / Inauguration of the second Wall AG stop project ( Memento of November 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Wall AG press release of September 12, 2003
  3. ^ Dpa report: Again graffiti on memorial plaques for synagogue ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dokmz.wordpress.com

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 28 '56 "  N , 13 ° 17' 9.9"  E