Synagogue (Cannstatt)

In 1875, the community acquired Baron von Eichthal's riding school at König-Karl-Straße (then Königsstraße) 49 and had it converted into a synagogue according to plans by the Cannstatt architect Christian Weisslig. Although not a magnificent building like the Stuttgart synagogue of 1861, the project was a sign of identification and commitment for the congregation of just over 250 members at the time.

The community remained independent after the unification of Cannstatt and Stuttgart in 1905; it reached its peak shortly before the turn of the century with almost 500 people.

The Cannstatt Jewish community, which still had 216 members in 1933, no longer existed in 1938. It had returned to the Stuttgart community at the beginning of 1936, so to speak. This was not only a consequence of the emigration of members, but also of the precarious financial situation, as in the Nazi state the communities had to bear all the costs of the growing social welfare burdens themselves. After the November pogrom of 1938, the regime exterminated the remaining German Jews and deported them to forced housing, including in the countryside, before the systematic deportations began on December 1, 1941.

The Israelitische Kultusvereinigung Württembergs (IKVW), newly founded in June 1945, endeavoured to find an appropriate design for the Cannstatt synagogue square. In 1947, the municipal gardening office, in consultation with the IKVW, submitted a plan for a site including a memorial stone, which was to encompass the former site with the synagogue and front garden. However, following the establishment of memorial sites in other cities, the IKVW decided against a memorial stone, as was the case in Stuttgart's Hospitalstrasse.  A short time later, the site came into the possession of the Jewish Restitution Successors Organization, which saw itself as the custodian of those murdered in the Shoah in competition with the new communities. The city was able to acquire the site from them – and laid out a parking lot there.