Synagogue Friedrichstraße (Darmstadt)

In 1695 Landgrave Ernst Ludwig gave permission to the Darmstadt Jews to set up a prayer room and hold services. This prayer room was located with Hirtz until 1705, and with the court Jew Benedikt Löw until 1714. In 1735, the Jewish community acquired the house Kleine Ochsengasse 14 and converted it into a synagogue; the inauguration took place in 1737. The synagogue was extensively renovated and expanded in 1842.

The old synagogue was used from 1863/64 only by the liberal religious community as a house of prayer, after the Orthodox group met in their own premises for worship. However, even then the old synagogue was no longer considered up to date. A representative new building was to be erected. Thus, a new Liberal Synagogue was built from 1873 to 1876 according to a design by the city architect Edmund Köhler in a three-year construction period. It was consecrated on February 23, 1876. 

During the November pogrom of 1938, the synagogue was destroyed by SA men through arson. After the riots on the night of November 9-10, all that remained of the synagogue was a burnt-out ruin, which disappeared under the building development of the following years.

In October 2003, during construction work for a new building for the Darmstadt Clinic, parts of the foundation walls of the destroyed Liberal Synagogue were discovered. In 2008, the city council decided to establish a memorial on the foundation walls of the destroyed synagogue. On November 9, 2009, the "Place of Remembrance Liberal Synagogue" was inaugurated.