Wroniecka 11a / ul. Stawna
Greater Poland Voivodeship
61-763 Poznań
Poland
On September 5, 1907, the synagogue of the German-assimilated Orthodox Jewish community in Poznan, built by the Berlin architects Cremer & Wolffenstein in Moorish-Oriental style, was inaugurated. It offered space for 600 seated and 100 standing places for men and - on two side galleries - space for 600 women. At the time, 5,324 Jews lived in the city of Poznan, which corresponded to around 3.8% of the city's population. The building, which was built by the Jewish community for around 850,000 Reichsmark, was unusually imposing.
After the Great Polish Uprising (1918-1919), Poznan became Polish again and 1,047 Jews from Poznan emigrated to the German Reich of the Weimar Republic. As a result, the building was little used in the interwar period.
During the German National Socialist invasion of Poland (September 1, 1939), the Wehrmacht occupied Poznan on September 10, 1939. September 1939 and declared the city the capital of the newly created ‚Reichsgau Wartheland‘.
The last religious acts took place on September 9, 1939. The synagogue building was initially to be demolished. On April 15, 1940, the dome and decorations were removed by the German occupying forces and the brick walls were plastered over soon afterwards. The two round towers facing the street disappeared. A 25-meter pool was built into the interior, and an indoor swimming pool was created for the soldiers of the Wehrmacht. The city council of Poznań took over the building after the war and continued to use it as a public indoor swimming pool until 2002. In 1989, a bronze memorial plaque was attached to the building, which was stolen in 1997 and replaced by a marble plaque. The land and building were returned to the Association of Jewish Confessional Communities of the Republic of Poland (ZGWŻ) on May 6, 2002.
Since 2002, the question of the use of the former synagogue has been unresolved. With only around 50 members, the current Jewish community is too small to maintain the building. The building is increasingly in danger of falling into disrepair.
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