Kassel Synagogue

As a synagogue Kassel several different houses of worship of the Jewish Community Kassel are referred to in the story.

History to 1830

The tradition describes the beginnings of a synagogue in the Middle Ages ( 1398 ) as a Jewish synagogue. Your site was in the former Jewish quarter between the banks and the monastery of Fulda Ahnaberg. In the immediate vicinity there was the medieval Jewish cemetery. In 1754 a modern synagogue was built, however, had the form of a residential building. In 1775, land was purchased for a new synagogue, and the architect Heinrich Christoph Jussow designed the building in 1781. The construction, however, was never realized. Due to the ramshackle buildings the former synagogue was closed in 1827 because of the danger of collapse. The only public prayer room, in the Jewish school ( Israelite School Institute ) was much too small to accommodate the congregation. Therefore, the services were held in private homes.

New planning

Because of this tight situation, it was decided in 1828 by the parish council to build a new synagogue. The offered plot of land by the government at the corner of Lower King Street and Bremer Straße was adopted as the building site. First, the chief master builder August Schuchardt was entrusted with the planning, and he created 1830-1832 a number of designs. Since none of these designs has been accepted by the community, the head of the construction office Conrad Bromeis Kassel was tasked with planning. This Established 1831 in front of their own design, but was not accepted. Even the suggestion of the Landgrave's court architect Julius Eugen Ruhl in 1834 did not meet with acceptance.

New in 1839

Only one member of the community, the architect Albrecht Rosengarten, who studied under Schuchardt, succeeded in a design that was accepted by the community. He foresaw a galleried basilica with a barrel vault. A porch was planned to the west, and the facade was flanked by two stair towers. The church was eventually built on the site Lower King Street 84 and inaugurated on August 8, 1839. The architectural style was in the period following model for many other synagogues in Germany.

National Socialism and destruction

On November 7, 1938, the synagogue, as part of the November pogroms, desecrated by the Nazis and destroyed parts of the interiors and the rituals on the forecourt by arson. The Orthodox Jewish community center in the Great Rose Road 22 was also devastated. Already on 11 November 1938, the demolition of the Synagagoge was decided by the city council. Today, in place of the synagogue is attached with the inscription a plaque:

" Here stood the synagogue was completed in 1839 the Kassel Jewish community, which included 1933 members in May 2301. Many had already fled when, on 7 November 1938, activists invaded the NSDAP in the synagogue and the Torah shrine departed, prayer wheels and cult objects on fire. The city council had the undamaged building after " wear down" shortly to build a parking lot there. The community was shattered. "

Period after 1945

In the period after the end of National Socialism, the first Jewish religious services in a refugee camp ( camp hares corner) were held and from 1952/1953 then in a newly decorated prayer hall in the Heubnerstraße. As this was too small from the 1960s, the construction of a synagogue with community center was approved. The construction was begun in 1964 on a plot in Bremer Street. This was inaugurated on 12 December 1965. In the community hall was now room for 100 people. In the basement business and guest rooms have been furnished.

Plaque on the ruined synagogue

In the 1990s, the old synagogue was too small for the growing Jewish community in Kassel. Therefore, a new building was decided upon and the Frankfurt architect Alfred Jacoby entrusted with the implementation. In Bremer street a new synagogue was built. The facade is curved, plastered white, and has partially stained wooden walls. It was inaugurated on 28 May 2000. Its construction was financed in part by the Hessian state government, the city of Kassel, North Hesse counties, the Evangelical Church, the diocese of Fulda, the National Association of Jewish communities in Hesse and by private donations.

Synagogue building in 2010