Windecken synagogue

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The synagogue Windecken was until 1938 the synagogue of the Jewish community in Windecken , now a district of Nidderau in Main-Kinzig-Kreis in Hesse .

history

On August 5, 1288, King Rudolf von Habsburg granted Ulrich I von Hanau town and market rights for Windecken as the first place in his rule Hanau . Up until the 15th century, Windecken assumed a “capital city function” for the Hanau rulership. It is believed that the first Jewish community in Windecken came into being during this boom. At that time it was the largest in the Hanau rulership. Nothing is known about their synagogue. In a plague pogrom in 1348/49, the Jews from Windecken were murdered or expelled.

From 1411 onwards, Jews are again recorded in Windecken. In 1429 a synagogue ("Judenschule") is attested. In 1498 a “new synagogue” is called, the one that was used until 1938. The old synagogue was demolished in 1512. In 1590 the synagogue - the last that was still used for worship services in the County of Hanau-Münzenberg at the time - was closed by order of the custodial government (1580–1596) for Count Philipp Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg , which resulted in the expulsion of the Jews from the County should prepare. However, under the independent government of Count Philipp Ludwig II, from the end of the 16th century, the synagogue was reopened in 1603.

The number of Jewish residents rose after the Thirty Years' War at the latest , in which Windecken was badly destroyed. The Jewish quarter was in the southeast corner of the old town. The synagogue and a schoolhouse with a mikveh were also located there . The Jewish cemetery was to the west, outside the city ​​wall . The number of Jewish residents peaked in 1850 with 192 residents - 11.2% of the population. Subsequently, the number of residents decreased due to emigration to the surrounding, industrializing cities. In 1933 the proportion of the Jewish population had fallen to 44 people (2.1% of the total population). At least 23 of them died during the Nazi era . In 1939, persecution by the Nazi state resulted in only six Jewish residents living in Windecken.

Building

building

The late Gothic synagogue, built in 1481, was located at (today's) Synagogenstrasse 18. It was already a valuable cultural monument due to its age and was one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Germany. Structural details, however, are only sparsely passed down. According to the drawings that have been preserved, it was structurally changed after its construction. The window shapes, as handed down in later architectural drawings, seem to come from the time after the Thirty Years War. The synagogue offered space for 66 men and 34 women. The Torah shrine was located in a niche in the east wall of the building, which was built on the outside. The women's gallery was on the west wall of the interior . In the room below was the municipal archive, which contained documents and manuscripts that went back to the Middle Ages.

Until it was destroyed in 1938, the synagogue had a rich set of historically valuable cult items: Torah jewelry, shrines, curtains, cult ceilings, and more. Up until 1937, worship was held on every Sabbath .

destruction

During the November pogrom of 1938 , the Nazis first tried to set fire to the synagogue on November 9th. The local police officer withdrew after consulting the SA . When the arson failed, the SA and other National Socialists gathered in front of the synagogue on the afternoon of November 10, 1938 , smashed the windows, stole inventory and devastated the interior. They tried again to start a fire. A neighbor prevented that, whereupon the mob began to tear down the synagogue. The next day the building was filled with bales of straw that were poured with gasoline and set on fire. It burned all night. A large crowd watched. In the days that followed, the rubble was cleared away, the property leveled and the costs imposed on the Jewish community. In April 1940, the city appropriated the property and in 1943 had a fire extinguishing pond built here .

Commemoration

Investigations by the public prosecutor at the Hanau district court after the war against the arsonists were discontinued on October 27, 1945 due to a lack of evidence. The extinguishing water pond was now superfluous and the plot on which the synagogue had stood was built on in 1950 with a residential building. In November 1985 a memorial plaque was placed near the site of the former synagogue. In 1986 the house from the 1950s was demolished, revealing the foundations of the synagogue. In 1988, a Methodist church was built on the property .

See also

literature

  • Monica Kingreen: Jewish country life in Windecken, Ostheim and Heldenbergen . Hanau 1994.
  • Study Group German Resistance (Ed.): Local history guide to sites of resistance and persecution 1933-1945 . Vol. 1/1. Hessen I: Darmstadt district. 1995, pp. 219f.
  • Ernst Julius Zimmermann : Hanau city and country. Cultural history and chronicle of a Franconian weatherwave city and former county . Reprint of the 3rd extended edition, Hanau 1919. LXXXVI, Verlag Peters, Hanau 1978. ISBN 3-87627-243-2

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ It was about Counts Johann VI., The Elder, of Nassau-Dillenburg (1536–1606), Ludwig I of Sayn-Wittgenstein (1568–1607) and Philipp V of Hanau-Lichtenberg (1541–1599).
  2. ↑ Their inscription reads: In memory of the dead - In remembrance of the living. The synagogue, built in 1481, the Jewish bath, the parish hall and the school of the Jews from Windecken and Ostheim stood at this point . The synagogue - known as a museum and jewel of Hessian Jewry - was burned down and destroyed on November 9, 1938. The Jewish community had three killed in World War I: Sigmund Jacob, Siegfried Katz and Joseph Wolf. The last chairman of the Jewish community was Salli Reichenberg, who was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd class for his military service during the First World War. In the twenties Windecken had 2 Jewish city councilors: Moritz Müller and Felix Schuster. Robbed of their livelihoods by the National Socialist dictatorship, many Jewish citizens emigrated. Not all of them were able to save their lives by fleeing their homeland. The last remaining Jewish citizens in Windecken, including Salli Reichenberg, were deported to concentration camps and murdered there. We mourn the suffering of all Windecker and Ostheimer Jews. Shalom - Shalom.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zimmermann, p. 480.
  2. ↑ Zimmermann, p. 481; Alemannia Judaica.
  3. ↑ Alemannia Judaica; Kingreen, p. 74.
  4. ↑ Zimmermann, p. 501.
  5. ↑ On the details: Kingreen, p. 46ff.
  6. ↑ Kingreen, pp. 779f.
  7. ^ Alemannia Judaica.
  8. ↑ So the memorial plaque at the former location of the synagogue.
  9. ↑ Kingreen, pp. 72, 79.
  10. ↑ See Kingreen, pp. 75f.
  11. ↑ See corresponding illustrations in Alemannia Judaica; Kingreen, p. 77.
  12. ^ Alemannia Judaica.
  13. ↑ See Kingreen, pp. 76, 79.
  14. ^ Alemannia Judaica.
  15. ↑ Kingreen, p. 132.
  16. ↑ Kingreen, p. 132.
  17. ^ Alemannia Judaica.

Coordinates: 50 ° 13 ′ 21.7 ″  N , 8 ° 52 ′ 55.3 ″  E