Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue
The Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue was the synagogue for Jewish believers in the Berlin district of Wilmersdorf . It was located on the Prinzregentenstrasse 69/70 property. Only eight years after the opening ceremony on 16 September 1930 was designed by Alexander Beer built church during the November pogroms in 1938 by Nazis set on fire and burned down. A reconstruction after the Second World War did not take place, on the other hand, by mutual agreement between the Jewish community and the city of Berlin, the ruins were completely removed in 1958.
Sometimes the name Synagoge Wilmersdorf is used for the church , which is not historically documented.
history
As early as 1913, the Berlin Jewish community had acquired the property on Prinzregentenstrasse with the aim of building a synagogue there. Due to the First World War, however, it did not go beyond a few preparatory measures. The plans for the construction of a new synagogue were resumed in 1920 and from 1922 onwards the architect Alexander Beer was assigned. This envisaged a building in the course of the building line and at eaves height , which was to be followed by an elongated prayer hall shortly before the rear of the buildings on Babelsberger Strasse. The weekday synagogue, wedding hall and apartments were to be housed in the development on Prinzregentenstrasse.
Due to the new building regulations , which were issued in 1925, the building police made the granting of a building permit dependent on the affected house owners on Babelsberger Strasse approving the plans. Since this approval could only have been obtained with considerable restrictions, the municipality decided in 1928 to have Beer's planning fundamentally changed. Instead of the elongated prayer hall, a round, domed central building has now been arranged behind the building along the Prinzregentenstrasse. In this way, the necessary distances to neighboring buildings could be achieved with the same area. The construction was carried out from 1928 to 1930 based on these drafts.
In addition to the building police difficulties, there was a dispute within the Jewish community as to whether the synagogue should be furnished according to the orthodox or liberal rite . Finally, the liberal-minded community members prevailed, which among other things led to the installation of an organ (made by the organ building company GF Steinmeyer & Co. ). The gender segregation prescribed by the Orthodox rite was also lifted in the Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue. In order to be able to use the church for profane purposes, Beer had provided an iron curtain that could be lowered into the floor, with which the apse with the Torah shrine could be separated from the prayer room.
On September 16, 1930, the synagogue, which offered space for 2,300 worshipers, was inaugurated. The opening was under the influence of the Reichstag election held two days earlier , in which the NSDAP had won 107 seats. The chairman of the community council at the time, Georg Kareski , said, among other things, in his celebratory speech: “Unfortunately, at this moment it is not possible to indulge in thoughts of pride and joy. Decisions of the last time in particular cast their shadow over today's celebration. We do not yet know what effects these decisions will have on our position and our lives. ”( Jüdische Rundschau, September 19, 1930 ) Rabbi Leo Baeck held the festive sermon that followed . The Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue remained the only new construction of a community synagogue in Berlin during the Weimar Republic .
When Jews in Berlin were banned from participating in public life in 1933, the synagogue on Prinzregentenstrasse increasingly developed into a Jewish cultural center. Concerts and other events were held regularly to support Jewish artists.
The synagogue was burned down during the November pogroms in 1938. The main property office described the degree of destruction in an official correspondence: “The synagogue was badly destroyed by fire; the front building is also burned out, the roof is damaged and z. T. open. [...] The sidewalk and part of the roadway in front of the building are closed because parts of the wall threaten to fall from the roof and building. ”( Landesarchiv Berlin , A Rep. 209, Acc. 1114b ) The Jewish community was then asked to secure the ruin, for which she also had to bear the costs.
In 1941 the Jewish community was forced to sell the property on Prinzregentenstrasse to the city of Berlin for a tenth of its value . In 1938 the value of the property was fixed at 1,559,300 marks , the purchase price in 1941 was 160,000 marks. However, the ruins were never torn down during the Nazi era .
After the Second World War , the Jewish Trust Corporation , based in London, obtained restitution of the property through legal action in 1955 . In 1956 the property came into legal possession of the city as part of a contract between the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization or the Jewish Trust Corporation and the city of Berlin. The ruin was now dismantled in 1958 with great technical difficulties. Two workers were killed when the dome fragments were blown up.
After the site had been cleared, the city left the site to the Allgemeine Blindenverein Berlin , which in 1959 built 70 apartments for the blind with donations from the German Class Lottery Berlin . A plaque unveiled on November 9, 1988 commemorates the former synagogue on Prinzregentenstrasse on these houses. Before that there was a smaller plaque in the same place.
Interior
An essential element of the Jewish worship service is the presence of the Holy of Holies on the dais with the surrounding facilities such as pillars, sacrificial boxes and free-standing parapets. All these elements of equipment for the synagogue in Prinzregentenstraße left the church in the workshops of the company North German marble works Hans Kostner & Gottschalk from Berlin-Weissensee , make Schönstraße 10-15. Specifically, the following stonemasonry and sculptural work are mentioned:
- the holy of holies, made of Franconian limestone blue bench with parts of Famosa marble ,
- Steps and floor coverings in German yellow flowered marble and in Famosa marble,
- Free-standing parapets in the first and second dais and the pulpit porch made of Famosa marble,
- lateral radiator cladding and plinth also made of Famosa marble
- Pillar cladding and side walls on both sides of the sanctuary made of (grayish) Napoleon marble ,
- four pillars for sacrificial boxes on the stairs to the galleries made of Franconian limestone Blue Bank .
- For the types of marble see also the list of marbles
See also
literature
- Alexander Beer : New construction of the Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue in Berlin . In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 64, No. 73/74 (September 10, 1930), pp. 521–525 ( digitized version ).
- Lotte Pulvermacher : The new synagogue on Prinzregentenstrasse in Berlin . In: Bayerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung , 6th year, issue 19 (October 1, 1930), p. 304 ( digitized version ).
- Berlin Museum (Hrsg.): Synagogues in Berlin - On the history of a destroyed architecture . Part 1: The Congregational Synagogues . Verlag Willmuth Arenhövel, Berlin 1983, pp. 148-155.
- Karl-Heinz Metzger: Churches, mosques and synagogues in Wilmersdorf . Ed .: District Office Wilmersdorf of Berlin. Wilhelm Möller KG, Berlin 1986, pp. 101-104.
Web links
- Post-war photo of the synagogue before its demolition
- Synagogue Wilmersdorf in the district lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted in synagogues in Berlin - On the history of a destroyed architecture , part 2, p. 92
- ↑ Quoted in synagogues in Berlin - On the history of a destroyed architecture , part 2, p. 90
- ↑ Berlin Museum (ed.): Synagogues in Berlin - On the history of a destroyed architecture . Part 2, p. 92
- ↑ Alexander Beer: New construction of the synagogue on Prinzregentenstrasse . In: Gemeindeblatt der Jüdischen Gemeinde zu Berlin , 20. Jg. 1930, Issue 9, pp. 401–404. (A copy is available in the Pankow Museum, archive)
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 '5.2 " N , 13 ° 20' 1.7" E