New Synagogue (Hanover)

What a contrast to the synagogue of 1827, which was still hidden in a backyard: In 1870, the New Synagogue by the eminent Jewish architect Edwin Oppler was inaugurated on an open square in Hanover's Neustadt. In its size and the chosen architectural style, the new building expressed a growing self-confidence and the belief that as Jews they had arrived in German society on an equal footing. For, Oppler said, "The Romanesque style is German through and through."

The Jewish community had made significant inroads in Hanover in the 19th century. Since the enactment of freedom of settlement in the Kingdom of Hanover in 1842, its members were free to choose their place of residence for the first time, and through births and influxes from rural communities their numbers grew from 668 (1852) to 1936 (1871), and on the eve of World War I to 5155 (1910). The Jewish community of Hanover was now one of the 10 large communities of the German Reich. And the fact that the small Guelph royal seat had developed into an important industrial metropolis was due in no small part to Jewish bankers, inventors and entrepreneurs.

Since 1858, the community had been soliciting donations for the project, especially among its wealthy members, and had established a building commission. A short time later, the congregation members decided in favor of Oppler's proposed design of a "German" synagogue as a central building, under whose high dome the almemor as a reading desk was the focal point of the service, surrounded by 650 seats for men on the first floor and 450 seats in the women's galleries. Dispensing with an organ, a large synagogue choir operated. On September 15, 1870, the Torah scrolls were solemnly carried the short distance across Bergstrasse from the Old Synagogue to the New Synagogue. From then on, this formed the religious center of Hanoverian Jewry - until the pogrom night of November 9/10, 1938.