Guntersblum Synagogue

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The Guntersblum Synagogue was a synagogue in the old Jewish quarter of the Rhenish Hessian community of Guntersblum . Today it is located on the property of the Guntersblumer Domhof and is used as a farm building by the winery of the same name . The property is now a cultural monument.

history

The former Guntersblum Jewish School in today's Viehgasse
The main entrance to the former Guntersblum synagogue

Not much is known about how the Guntersblum Synagogue was built. All we know is that the building was probably used as a farm building in its early days. In 1744, the Guntersblums Jewish community finally acquired the property and converted the building into a synagogue. A Jewish “ house of prayer ”, a “ Jewish school ” or a “ synagogue ” is named in documents. From 1769 to 1770 the synagogue was rebuilt. In 1839 a Jewish school was added to the synagogue. Finally, on January 16, 1844, a letter from the Guntersblum Jewish community to the Guntersblum local board gave rise to the first calls for the complete renovation and enlargement of the synagogue. After nothing changed in the condition of the synagogue at first, the Israelite community board complained nine years later on October 10, 1853 in a letter to the Guntersblum local board again about the poor condition of their synagogue. Above all, the letter criticized the damp and dark character of the church service room, which meant that it was very uncomfortable in the synagogue both in summer and especially in winter. In addition, the building had no real windows and was threatened with collapse. The Guntersblum Jewish community is now said to have 160 members.

Subsequently, the synagogue was completely renovated from 1860 to 1862 and the interior was rebuilt. Among other things, a generous donation from Mayer Carl von Rothschild helped . New elements were now on the property, the large, two-sided running women's gallery with an additional input via a staircase from the outside, new benches, an elaborately designed entrance , a porch in the synagogue with leather paneled doors, a new Parochet with light blue cassette painting , a large window , two or three new chandeliers in the service room and a new floor made of red sandstone slabs in the synagogue. In addition, there was now an oven in the synagogue and external plastering, which was rare for the time . At the beginning of October 1862 the new Guntersblum synagogue was finally inaugurated on the occasion of Yom Kippur . In total, the renovation of the synagogue cost the Guntersblum's Jewish community around 11,667 guilders .

During the time of National Socialism , the Jewish community of Guntersblums lost ownership of the synagogue at the end of 1937 and with it the right of passage. As a result, the Jewish community bought a small triangular area in front of the synagogue portal, through which the Jewish women could now use the stairs to reach the gallery of the building. Now the Guntersblum synagogue could only be entered via the Jewish school immediately to the north. The last Jewish service finally took place on Yom Kippur 1938, i.e. on October 5, 1938. Now the synagogue was badly destroyed by the National Socialists . On December 28, 1938, the neighbor Georg Friedrich Schmitt, who also prevented the arson attack on the synagogue during the November 1938 pogroms on November 10, 1938, bought the property. After the Second World War , the roof of the synagogue, which had been damaged during enemy attacks, was repaired. The property has been a listed building since 1984 . About ten years later, in 1996, the property was renovated. Furthermore, the portal inscription was renewed in 1999. Above the main entrance to the synagogue is translated from Hebrew into German: "This is the gate to the Eternal, the righteous will enter there." ( Psalm 118, 20) In addition, a chronogram in the inscription contains the year 530 after small counting, the means without counting the millennia. The Guntersblum synagogue was set up according to the Jewish calendar in the year 5530, which corresponds to the years 1769/1770 according to the Christian calendar.

location

The former Guntersblum Synagogue is located on the grounds of the Domhof in the center of Guntersblum. In addition, a few meters west of the synagogue are the Guntersblum Catholic Church, the Homburger Hof and the Leiningen Castle . In addition, the Protestant church is only a few hundred meters northwest, and only a few hundred meters north is the second Guntersblum Palace, today's Schmitt Estate and the former Deutschherrenhof . Furthermore, the Guntersblumer Kellerweg , the Polysche Hof and the Julianenbrunnen are only a few hundred meters to the west.

investment

The former synagogue is now in the courtyard of the cathedral courtyard. Adjacent in the courtyard are a garden, a barn and some buildings for the operation of the Domhof winery of the same name today. There is also a residential building for the property owners on the property. The former Guntersblum Synagogue is connected to the north by the former local Jewish school with a women's bath and numerous residential buildings of different owners, to the east by further residential buildings and Guntersblum's main street (one of Guntersblum's main streets ), to the south by residential buildings in the cathedral courtyard and further bounded by other residential buildings and the Guntersblumer Promenade as well as in a westerly direction by Bleichstraße , the former Alsheimer-Straße to Alsheim .

Todays use

After the Guntersblum Jewish community lost its synagogue during the Nazi era in 1938, the property again passed to other owners in the post-war period . As a result, the owners of the cathedral courtyard at the time bought the former synagogue, rebuilt it and integrated it into their business. The former synagogue on the cathedral courtyard with its current address at Bleichstrasse 12 is now used as a wine warehouse and press house for the operation of a winery of the same name.

See also

literature

  • Guntersblum story (s). Volume 2, pp. 85-93.
  • Dieter Michaelis: The Jewish community Guntersblum. From the beginning to the destruction by National Socialism. Guntersblum 1998.

Web links

Commons : Guntersblum Synagogue  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Source: Informational directory of cultural monuments Rhineland-Palatinate for the Mainz-Bingen district as a PDF file, p. 22 f.
  2. a b Information on the Alemannia Judaica website
  3. Guntersblumer Geschichte (n) , Volume 2, P. 90
  4. Guntersblumer Geschichte (n) , Volume 2, p. 92
  5. Guntersblumer Geschichte (n) , Volume 2, p. 88
  6. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: A completely normal pogrom: November 1938 in a German village . Ed .: Klett-Cotta. 2018, ISBN 978-3-608-98104-9 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 47 ′ 44.3 "  N , 8 ° 20 ′ 51.1"  E