Olomouc synagogue

Photograph from 1938

inside view

The Synagogue of Olomouc , ( Czech : Synagoga v Olomouci ; German also Israelitischer Tempel ) was located on what was then Maria-Theresia-Platz in the Moravian city of Olomouc . It was built between 1895 and 1897 by the Austrian architect Jakob Gartner . In March 1939 it was destroyed during the attack by the German Wehrmacht .

history

The Olomouc Synagogue on a postcard (early 20th century)

German-language postcard from 1899 (here referred to as "Temple")

In the late 1850s the Olomouc Jewish "Izraelitische Cultusverein" was founded. The performance of regular services in rented halls in 1859 was thanks to the efforts of Hermann Zweig and the Jewish scholar and physicist Adolf Brecher. The services were officially approved by the authorities in 1860. In 1892 the “Cultusverein” was established as the Olomouc Jewish Community . At this point the idea of building a synagogue came up. In 1894 the community acquired a plot of land at Theresientor . The new synagogue was designed by Jakob Gartner (1861–1921), built by the construction company Aulegk & Zapletal and inaugurated on April 11, 1897 by Rabbi Berthold Oppenheim , the community's first rabbi . A two-story house with apartments and offices for administrative tasks was built adjacent to the synagogue. In 1904 the city of Olomouc had 21,933 inhabitants, 1,676 of whom were Jewish.

After the invasion of the Wehrmacht, the synagogue was attacked and set on fire by local fanatical fascists on the night of March 15-16, 1939 . They prevented the city fire brigade from extinguishing, so that the synagogue burned down. What was left of the building in terms of ornaments and furnishings was looted. The rubble was cleared in the winter of 1939/40 and by 1941 the area was converted into a grass-covered park. In 1955 a monument to Lenin and Stalin was erected there, which was removed in 1990. Today there is a parking lot at the site; A memorial plaque was placed on a neighboring building of Palacký University .

Virtual reconstruction

As part of his diploma thesis at the Vienna University of Technology , Robert Kazimierz Wieczorek created a virtual reconstruction of the synagogue in 2011.