Steeler Street Synagogue (Essen)

Between 1806 and 1808, the Essen community grew rapidly and had a new synagogue built. By the end of the 1860s, the synagogue was already too small and the community decided to construct a new building on the same site. The synagogue was planned by the architect Edmund Körner and was intended to express the integration and recognition of the Jews in the Germany of the second empire. 
It was inaugurated in 1879 and remained the cultural and social center of a community of about 4,500 members for only 25 years. The synagogue was considered liberal in orientation. It had an organ and prayers were recited in German. 

During the November pogrom on the night of November 9-10, 1938, the synagogue was set on fire. The interior of the synagogue was severely damaged. Its exterior remained intact and was not demolished during the war. After the end of the war the synagogue remained unused for several years. In 1960, the city established a museum of industrial design, "the House of Industrial Form," in the old synagogue building. It was not until the early 1980s that the city arranged for the site to be established as the "Old Synagogue." In the following years, the interior was reconstructed and until September 2008, the place understood itself as a meeting center and political documentation forum, where exhibitions, lectures and events were held.

In February 2008  the council of the city of Essen decided to further develop the synagogue as a house of Jewish culture. This house was opened on July 13, 2010.