Synagogue Meiningen

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The synagogue around 1895
Monument to the destroyed synagogue

The Synagogue Meiningen was from its inauguration in 1883 until the National Socialist November pogrom on 9/10. November 1938 the religious center of the Jewish community in the southern Thuringian town of Meiningen . It also served as the main synagogue and seat of the land rabbis of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen .

Building

The Meiningen synagogue was built from 1881 to 1883 in the Moorish-Byzantine architectural style and inaugurated on April 14, 1883 by land rabbi Moritz Dessauer (1842–1895). The architect was the ducal master builder Ernst Abesser. The striking, richly decorated stone building was located at the junction of Mauergasse / Pulverrasenweg in the southwest of the old town directly on the Mühlgraben, a tributary of the Werra . Today's powder lawn path was called "Synagogenweg" when the church was in existence. The synagogue cost around 80,000 marks , housed, among other things, an organ from the Schlimmbach & Sohn workshop ( Würzburg ) and offered 340 seats.

history

In the Middle Ages , the town of Meiningen, which is part of the Würzburg monastery, has been proven to have Jewish citizens from 1242 onwards. The synagogue built at this time was located in the present place by the chapel . It was devastated during the persecution of the Jews at the time of the Black Death (plague pogrom) on April 10, 1349. Most of the Jews were killed on that day, the rest were burned on July 17, 1349. From 1384 the citizens of Meiningen used the synagogue as a Christian atonement chapel until it was demolished in the 16th century. From the 15th century Jews lived in Meiningen again until all Jews were expelled from the city in 1566. From then on, the Jewish families mainly settled in the neighboring communities of Drei 30 and Walldorf, three or four kilometers away .

From 1840 Jews were allowed to move to Meiningen again, who then founded the Meiningen Israelitische Kultusgemeinde in 1866 . In 1871 Meiningen became the seat of the state rabbinate of Saxony-Meiningen and the city had 316 Jewish citizens. The rented prayer room no longer met the requirements of the growing Jewish community and the new synagogue was built from 1881 to 1883. The inauguration was attended by, among others, the Meiningen Duke Georg II , his wife Helene Freifrau von Heldburg , Princess Marie, other members of the Meiningen court, the Lord Mayor as well as numerous high-ranking state officials and representatives of the Meiningen government, economy and culture. Rabbis of the church were from the inauguration until 1895 the country rabbi Moritz Dessauer and from 1896 to 1938 the country rabbi Leo Fränkel (1867–1942).

After 53 years, the focus of Jewish life in Meiningen and the surrounding area, whose congregation grew to almost 500 members, 293 of them in Meiningen (1925), the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde held its last service in the synagogue in 1936. Late in the evening of November 9, 1938, SA and SS units stormed the synagogue, looted it and destroyed the entire interior including the organ as well as all doors and windows. There was no arson because of the close neighboring buildings. At the end of 1938 the Jewish community had to sell the property with the synagogue. In 1939 the building was completely demolished and the square has not been built up to the present day. From 1946 to 1948, the Meiningen and Gotha regional courts brought some of the actors involved in the destruction of the synagogue and the mistreatment of Jewish citizens to account. In 1988 a memorial was erected on the site of the former synagogue, and at the end of 1992 a park with a monumental character, at which a memorial event takes place every year on November 9th.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lexicon on the history of the city of Meiningen Bielsteinverlag, Meiningen 2008, p. 127.
  2. ↑ a b Christoph Gann: The November pogrom in Meiningen. In: Meininger Heimatklänge. Episode 94 (from November 9, 2010).
  3. ↑ a b c Synagogues in Thuringia on alemannia-judaica .de, accessed November 12, 2010.
  4. ↑ Christoph Gann: Legal processing of the pogrom night of November 9, 1938 in Meiningen after 1945. Thuringia, Blätter zur Landeskunde 2011 (90). State Center for Political Education Thuringia.
  5. ^ AND: Memory of Synagogue . In: New Germany . Suhl July 18, 1992, p. 3 .

Web links

Commons : Synagoge Meiningen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 33 ′ 56.2 ″  N , 10 ° 24 ′ 48.5 ″  E