Online Archive of Jewish Communities

The so-called New Synagogue in Oranienburger Straße, which can already be spotted from the S-Bahn with its 50m high golden dome, was once the largest Jewish house of worship in Germany. It had several thousand seats and was considered the most magnificent synagogue in Berlin. The synagogue was built according to the designs of architects Eduard Knoblauch and August Stüler and was finally completed in 1866 after seven years of construction. While the liberal house of worship was relatively spared until 1940, it was almost completely burned out after a bombing raid in November 1943.

The synagogue in Pestalozzistrasse, built in 1911/12, is a liberal Jewish house of worship. First intended and used as a private synagogue, it became the property of the Jewish community as an association synagogue in 1919. It is still located in the backyard today and thus remained largely unscathed during the Nazi period. Misappropriated, it was eventually used until the end of the war as a horse stable and laundry, among other things. Shortly after the end of the war, the first restoration work began, so that in 1947 it could once again function as one of the first Berlin synagogues.

The present synagogue Worms goes back to the synagogue built in 1034. From this first building the founder's inscription has been preserved - today it is built into the outer wall next to the main portal. The synagogue was built as a hall with two columns (two naves) and a bima in the center. It was the first building of this type and set the trend for later synagogue buildings. In the same way synagogues were built in Regensburg (1210/1220), Prague (1260s), Vienna (1294) and Krakow (15th century)

At first there was probably a prayer room. In 1725 a synagogue could be built. For more than 200 years it was the center of Jewish community life in the village. It was a building with a size of 13,8 m x 9,8 m with a hipped roof. In the men's prayer room it had last 90 seats, on the presumably three-sided circumferential women's gallery it had 50 seats. 

At the beginning of the 19th century, Jews living in Schifferstadt first attended the synagogue in Speyer, then in Böhl. Since 1826 there was a prayer hall available. It had been furnished by the Jewish families together and equipped with the necessary rituals. The location of this first prayer hall is unknown. It sufficed for the purposes of the community for about 25 years. 

The synagogue in Rülzheim was built in 1832/33 by the well-known synagogue architect August von Voit (Bavarian court architect). He also designed the plans of the synagogues in Herxheim, Ingenheim, Kallstadt, Kirchheimbolanden and Speyer. In Rülzheim, it is a late classicist, flat-roofed, two-story hall building with a flat gable roof.

Already in the Middle Ages there was a prayer room or a synagogue (called 1313). 
 
In the 18th century a prayer hall may have been established again. Until 1855 this was in a building in the Keutelstraße. In the middle of the 19th century, the construction of a new synagogue had become urgently necessary due to the rapidly increasing number of Jewish residents. The community was able to acquire a plot of land "Im Entenpfuhl" in 1854 and presumably began building a new synagogue in the same year. 1855 took place the consecration of the synagogue.  

A prayer room was possibly already present since 1815. The location is no longer known. A Jewish prayer room in Rheingönheim is documented in writing in 1859. 
   
On May 15, 1873, the Rheingönheim civic community sold a house at Hauptstraße 67 to the Jewish religious community. The community set up a prayer room and a teacher's apartment in the newly built house. The prayer room was located in the front rooms on the first floor. The teacher's apartment included a living room and kitchen on the first floor and three bedrooms on the 1st floor.  
 

The exact location of the medieval synagogue (called 1435) is not known. It was probably located in the area of the then Judengasse, where today the Theaterstraße could run.   
  
There was also a synagogue in the 17th century (mentioned in 1684), which was probably destroyed in the great town fire of 1689.   
  
In the 18th century (1742) is mentioned in a council protocol of the city a "Chanteur à la Synagogue". According to this, there was also a prayer room or synagogue at that time.   

In the 18th century, a private prayer room existed in the house of a Jewish family, presumably in the Goldmann house at Schlossstraße 33. According to a report from 1820 the prayer room had become much too small in the meantime in view of the strong growth of the community.