Neustadtgödens synagogue

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The former synagogue in Neustadtgödens is largely preserved in its original state in East Friesland . The Jewish community of Neustadtgödens had it built in 1852. The building was also used as a place of worship for Jews from neighboring Wilhelmshaven until 1902. Since the end of the 19th century, economic reasons resulted in an increased exodus of Jews (as well as non-Jewish sections of the population) from Neustadtgödens. During the time of National Socialism , the community shrank so much that the number of people attending church services was no longer sufficient. On March 15, 1936, the community gave up the synagogue with a farewell service. The building then went into private ownership and survived the November pogroms of 1938 . Since July 10, 2015, the building has been reopened to the public as a place of remembrance of the former synagogue in Neustadtgödens .

Exterior view of the synagogue
Today's main entrance
Interior after the redesign as a place of remembrance
Interior after the redesign as a place of remembrance

history

Count Burchard Phillip von Frydag, owner of the glory of Gödens , allowed the Jewish residents of Neustadtgödens to set up a synagogue and a cemetery in a letter of protection in 1708 . From 1742 there was a rabbi on site for a time. A synagogue is first mentioned in 1752. Six years later, in 1758, it is said that the church was "on stately ground". A map from 1830 shows the Israelite church . Presumably this is the old synagogue.

In 1852/53 the congregation had their old prayer house demolished and built the synagogue that has been preserved to this day on the same site. This also served the Jews from nearby Wilhelmshaven as a place of worship before they built their own synagogue in 1902. From 1812 to 1922 there was also a school of its own next to the synagogue.

After 1933 the congregation could hardly use the synagogue in Neustadtgödens because it no longer reached the required number of ten male worshipers for a minyan . In the meantime, the church was also showing signs of decay. It is possible that the alleged dilapidation was only a given reason for the National Socialist authorities to be able to order the closure of the building, because "the building and roof later proved to be stable". Nevertheless, the congregation gave the synagogue on March 15, 1936 with a solemn service with the participation of State Rabbi Dr. Samuel E. Blum from Emden (1883–1951).

On June 27, 1938, the community sold the building for 2,500  RM to a carpenter from Wilhelmshaven who, according to a newspaper report, wanted to build apartments there. Another contemporary report states that the building was a paint store. This circumstance should at least protect the building during the November pogrom of 1938. For fear of a major explosion in the densely built-up Kirchstrasse, the National Socialists decided not to burn it down. In this way, the building was preserved and survived the Reichspogromnacht of November 9, 1938 without major damage. What happened to the inventory is still unclear today.

After 1945 the building was used as a residential building. From around 1986 there was a false ceiling in the building for thermal reasons. In 1962 it was bought by the Gödens community at the time and had it fundamentally redesigned. The show facade on the east side was largely destroyed by two truck garage doors broken into the wall. A new false ceiling made of concrete made the upper floor usable as living space. The community then used the building as a fire fighting equipment and residential building until 1986. Between 1986 and 1988, the municipality of Sande, to which the municipality of Gödens has belonged since July 1, 1972, had the building restored with public funds. The municipality invested a total of around DM 270,000  . The interior was completely redesigned. Due to the existing structure of the building, it was largely able to be reconstructed from the outside based on the state of construction of 1852/53 and has since been a valuable architectural and cultural monument "as the only visible (small) urban synagogue in the entire north-west German area".

For financial reasons, however, the community decided not to set up a memorial site. From 1986 to 2001, the Schlieperder Gallery's exhibition room for artist exhibitions and an apartment on the upper floor were located on the ground floor. In 2002 the municipality of Sande sold the former synagogue to a private person from Westphalia. The municipality ruled out the use of the listed house as a restaurant or amusement arcade with an entry in the land register and agreed with the buyer of the property that “the character of the house would be preserved”. The new owner planned to use the building as a residential and exhibition building for antiquarian automobile and train toys.

A notice board on the building has been providing information about the history of the synagogue since 2013. It is privately owned. The ground floor has been accessible for guided tours since July 2015.

exhibition

The synagogue is privately owned. The owners use the upper floor as a holiday home. The ground floor has been open to the public again since July 2015 as part of guided tours through Neustadtgödens. The new show on the ground floor of the building is a cultural project of the Zweckverband Schlossmuseum Jever, the municipality of Sande and the district of Friesland. The costs of the project are borne by the association. As part of the permanent exhibition, reconstruction drawings and historical exterior and interior photos as well as other memorabilia are shown on an area of ​​80 square meters. Information boards, which the initiators create in cooperation with the Jewish community in Oldenburg, explain the history of the house and the local Jewish community from the end of the 17th century to the deportation and murder of the last Jewish residents of Neustadtgödens in 1941/42. Visitors should find out about the equipment and furnishings of the synagogue and be able to see without a reconstruction where the Torah shrine, the lectern or the gallery for the women were. The project partners are planning a cooperation with the secondary schools in the Friesland district and beyond. In addition, the synagogue is to be integrated into the cultural tourism concept of the community of Sande and the district of Friesland and to participate in joint projects in the Oldenburg and East Frisian landscape .

Building description

The Neustadtgödens synagogue was built in the type of a small city synagogue in the classicistic arched style that had just emerged at the time . Presumably, the building designs in the arched style were based on a planning draft by court architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel for small Protestant churches in diaspora communities. In front of the synagogue there is an approximately 5.5 meter wide forecourt in the area of ​​today's entrance, which was once separated from the street by an approximately 1.80 meter high ornamental grille.

The structure is 15.30 meters long, 9.60 meters wide and about ten meters high. At the top it is finished with a gently sloping gable roof. This is hipped on the rear side and ends on the street side in a triangular gable. The facade on the front is framed by two colossal pilasters . Originally there were Hebrew inscriptions in the arches and gable as well as a Star of David as the gable crown on the building. Except for the Star of David, these are no longer preserved today. In the center of the front, where the entrance is today, there were originally two smaller columns connected by a round arch. They marked the area on which the Torah shrine stood in the interior. This is aligned to Jerusalem, i.e. to the east.

When it was used as a synagogue, the building had two entrances: one for men on the west side and one for women on the south side. Both led into an anteroom, from which the believers either entered the main room (men) or the gallery (women). There was also a storage room next to the anteroom. The sandstone slab that has been preserved to this day is located above the men's entrance. It shows the psalm verse ( Ps 118,26  EU ): “Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you who are of the house of the Lord. ”The back wall of the Torah shrine, however, is destroyed. In their place is now the main entrance to the building. On the occasion of the renovation work in 1986, the congregation had the words “You, LORD, stay forever and your name for and for.” Put on the lintel.

The interior is 11.40 meters long and 8.8 meters wide and was originally richly painted. The women's gallery was in the west, the bima in the center of the prayer room. The mikvah was located in a house about 300 meters away on the Staustraße, but was no longer used well before 1919.

literature

Web links

Commons : Synagogue (Neustadtgödens)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Wein: Experience a touch of Jewish history up close ( Memento from July 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: Wilhelmshavener Zeitung of July 10, 2015. Accessed on July 13, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Neustadtgödens synagogue near Alemannia Judaica
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Hartmut Peters: Sande-Neustadtgödens: The synagogue from 1852 and the Jewish community in the Nazi era . Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  4. ↑ a b Werner Vahlenkamp: Neustadtgödens. In: Herbert Obenaus (Ed. In collaboration with David Bankier and Daniel Fraenkel): Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen . Wallstein, Göttingen 2005; ISBN 3-89244-753-5 ; Pp. 1099-1104.
  5. ↑ Jeversches Wochenblatt of January 4, 2003 (quoted here from the pages of the Heimatverein Gödens-Sande. Retrieved on July 3, 2015): Congregation has sold synagogue. Tax advisor from Hagen wants to use the building as a second home and also the exhibition rooms .
  6. ^ Synagogue of Neustadtgödens ›Schlossmuseum Jever. Retrieved January 8, 2018 (German).
  7. ↑ Oliver Braun: Building full of history up to the gable . In Nordwest-Zeitung on July 8, 2015. Accessed July 13, 2015.
  8. ↑ a b c Friesland.de: Five religions in one village: an undestroyed synagogue keeps memories of Jewish life . Retrieved July 8, 2015.
  9. ↑ a b Citizen information of the community Sande: Creation of places of remembrance in the district of Friesland; here: in the synagogue Neustadtgödens . Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  10. ↑ a b Martin Wein: A haven of religious tolerance . In: Weser-Kurier of July 2, 2015. Accessed July 2, 2015.
  11. ^ Enno Meyer: The synagogues of the Oldenburger Land . Oldenburg 1988. ISBN 3-87358-311-9 . P. 127.
  12. ↑ See the floor plan on: Hartmut Peters: Sande-Neustadtgödens: The synagogue from 1852 and the Jewish community in the Nazi era . Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  13. ↑ a b Quoted from: Hartmut Peters: Sande-Neustadtgödens: The synagogue from 1852 and the Jewish community in the Nazi era . Retrieved July 2, 2015.

Coordinates: 53 ° 28 ′ 36.1 ″  N , 7 ° 59 ′ 23.8 ″  E