Steglitz synagogue
The Steglitz Synagogue , also called Wolfenstein House, was the synagogue in Steglitz , which has belonged to Berlin since 1920 . During the Reichspogromnacht it was devastated by the National Socialists , but not set on fire. The building, located in a backyard, has been preserved and is a listed building , but is not open to the public. The Spiegelwand memorial on Hermann-Ehlers-Platz in front of the former synagogue commemorates them and the expulsion and extermination of Berlin's Jews during the Nazi era .
history
Already in the middle of the 19th century, the Wolfenstein family was granted permission to settle in Steglitz. In 1871, the merchant Moses Wolfenstein (1838–1907) acquired the property at Bergstrasse 22 (today: Düppelstrasse 41), where he had a house with a clothing store built by the local master mason Karl Kuhligk. In 1878 14 Jewish families from Steglitz founded the religious association of Jewish fellow believers in Steglitz under Wolfenstein's chairmanship. In the first few years, the association used various rooms in the village for its meetings and services, before Wolfenstein had a former stable building on its property converted into a small synagogue by the builder Johann Sinnig . The congregation held its services according to the conservative rite .
After Wolfenstein's death on April 8, 1907, the psychiatrist James Fraenkel took over the presidency of the community. After the First World War , the congregation continued to grow, and in the early 1930s it had 4,000 members.
During the Reichspogromnacht from November 9th to 10th, 1938, the synagogue was ransacked and looted by the National Socialists. However, it was not set on fire because it was located in a densely built-up area and, among other things, there was a carpentry shop in the neighborhood. The last head of the community, Kurt Wolfenstein, was able to escape to the USA with his family and thereby secure the Torah scrolls from the synagogue. In 1939 the community was forced to sell the property. The commercial building in the front part of the property was destroyed in a bomb attack in 1943, but the synagogue building was only slightly damaged.
After the Second World War , the building was initially used as a storage room. A frieze with two lions on both sides and a plaque in Hebrew with the ten commandments remind of its use as a synagogue .
Moses Wolfenstein recalls since 1966 of around 500 meters away Wolfensteindamm . Plans from the late 1980s envisaged the demolition of the synagogue for the construction of a shopping mall. The Haus Wolfenstein association protested against these plans. He succeeded in placing the building under monument protection in 1989 . It was renovated in the early 1990s. However, plans to set up a center for Jewish culture and an international meeting place in this house failed. After the construction of the front building, the synagogue building is located in a backyard that is not open to the public.
Mirror wall
In 1995, after lengthy political disputes, a memorial known as the Spiegelwand was inaugurated on Hermann-Ehlers-Platz in front of the property where the synagogue was located . Previously, the members of the CDU , FDP and Republicans , who together formed a majority in the Steglitz district parliament , spoke out against the monument. It could only be built after the then Berlin building senator Wolfgang Nagel ( SPD ) took over the proceedings.
The mirror wall was designed by Joachim von Rosenberg and Wolfgang Göschel with the help of the historian Hans-Norbert Burkert. The wall is nine meters long and 3.50 meters high, its length corresponds to that of the synagogue. Inscriptions on the wall recall the history of the synagogue and contain the names of Jewish citizens deported from Berlin in 1758. The photo by Abraham Pisarek from 1935 shows his children Ruth and Georg with the Hanukkah candlestick . A text by Robert Kempner can be read on the wall . Kempner was a Jewish citizen from Steglitz and later a prosecutor in the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals .
"Their professions were taken from them, their property stolen, they were not allowed to keep a canary, attend concerts or cinemas, their human rights and human dignity were trampled in the dust until they were deported to concentration camps and taken to the gas chambers."
See also
literature
- Ulrich Eckhardt , Andreas Nachama , Heinz Knobloch : Jewish Places in Berlin , Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-89479-165-0 , pp. 179–180.
Web links
- Steglitz synagogue at anders-berlin.de
- Entry in the Berlin state monument list ;
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Steglitz Synagogue on anders-berlin.de, accessed on November 20, 2014.
- ^ A b c d e f Ulrich Eckhardt , Andreas Nachama , Heinz Knobloch : Jüdische Orte in Berlin , Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-89479-165-0 , pp. 179-180.
- ^ Horst Seferens: Spiegelwand Berlin-Steglitz . Photos: Florian Bolk. Stadtwandel-Verl., Berlin 2005.
- ↑ Memorial sites for the victims of National Socialism. Volume 2 . Series of publications by the Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn, 2000, p. 168 f
- ^ A b Ruth Gross: Inauguration of the mirror wall on Hermann-Ehlers-Platz Berlin-Steglitz on June 7, 1995 , in: Abraham Pisarek : Jüdisches Leben in Berlin, 1933–1941 = Jewish life in Berlin. Photographs by Abraham Pisarek . Edited and with an essay by Joachim Schlör. Translated into English: Jane Michael. Ed. Braus, Berlin 2012, p. 189 f
Coordinates: 52 ° 27 ′ 26.2 " N , 13 ° 19 ′ 20.6" E