Berlin - New Synagogue

(Local Name: Neue Synagoge Berlin) Built in 1857-59 in the Moorish-Byzantine style to a design by Eduard Knoblauch and completed by F. A. Stüler in 1866, the New Synagogue in Berlin's Mitte district was the place of worship for the largest Jewish community in Germany. The King of Prussia numbered among the 3,000 worshippers present at its inauguration on Sept. 5, 1866. During the infamous "Kristallnacht" of Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis plundered and desecrated the synagogue. The building was burned to the ground in a bombing raid in 1943.

On Sept. 5, 1991, the 125th anniversary of its inauguration and after years of restoration work, the completion of the new facade was celebrated. The gilded dome, over 50 m/160ft high, is a new feature of the Berlin skyline. It is hoped that the interior will be refurbished by 1995. In that year the "Centrum Judaicum" will be able to function fully once again. The center will comprise the New Synagogue with church, memorial and museum, the Jewish Center, a scientific center for the co-ordination, research and publication of scientific and cultural achievements of German Jews, the Jewish Community library and archives and the department caring for the Weissensee Cemetery, Europe's largest Jewish cemetery.

Surroundings

The district around Oranienburger Strasse down to the Scheunenviertel behind Alexanderplatz was the hub of the Jewish community in Berlin. All the rabbis lived in Oranienburger Strasse.

Coming from the U-Bahn station, the visitor's attention will be drawn to a half-ruined house on the right at the beginning of Oranienburger Strasse. It was built between 1907 and 1909 as a kind of shopping center. Today it houses another cultural center for the arts and functions, which was founded by the local house owners themselves.

The present Tucholskystrasse used to be called Artilleriestrasse. On house No. 9 can still be seen two cornucopias and the head of the Lion of Judah. This was once the College of Jewish Science, where Leo Bach was the last to teach up to 1942. House No. 40 is the center of the orthodox "Adass Jisroel" community, and has a library and kosher restaurant.

Beyond the synagogue, Krausnickstrasse leads to Grosse Hamburger Strasse. On the right lies an area of land planted with trees. This is Berlin's first Jewish cemetery, where Moses Mendelssohn is buried. There is a plaque in memory of the Jewish Old People's Home which was used by the Nazis in 1941 as a collection center for Berlin Jews before transporting them to extermination camps. No 27 Grosse Hamburger Strasse was the Jewish Boys' School which Moses Mendelssohn helped to found. Diagonally opposite lies St Hedwig Hospital, Berlin's first Catholic hospital founded in 1844.

Sophienstrasse leads off Grosse Hamburger Strasse. It has been rebuilt in the style of a street dating from the end of the 19th C., with a lot of small workshops. From 1864-1905 the house at Sophienstrasse No. 15 was the meeting place of the Union of Skilled Trades, which had been founded in 1844. After 1905 it found new accommodation at Sophienstrasse Nos. 17/18. From Sophienstrasse Schönhauser Allee leads into Münzstrasse, in the very heart of the Scheunenviertel.