Passauer/ Religionsverein Westen Synagogue

In 1894, when Jews were moving into new residential areas in Schoeneberg (then a town near Berlin) in increasing numbers, they founded a synagogue association called the Religionsverein Westen, or “the Religious Association in the West”. The association built a synagogue at 2 Passauer Strasse and inaugurated it in 1906. One of the architectural features of the Passauer synagogue, which had a women’s gallery and a seating capacity of 300, was its transversal, rectangular edifice, built in the style of a rounded arch with Romanesque and Renaissance elements. The congregation observed Orthodox rites, and services were conducted daily. The synagogue was renovated in 1910 and again in 1923: a stair tower and a rabbi’s room were added to the building, and the Torah alcove was enlarged. In 1926, the Passauer synagogue’s congregation had 320 members and maintained a school for religious studies. Rabbi Hartwig Carlebach served the congregation until 1932, when he was replaced by Rabbi Alexander Altmann, the head of the school. In 1937 the synagogue (independent until then) was taken over by the official Jewish Community of Berlin, whose purpose was to oversee Jewish community and religious life in the whole city. Nazis looted and destroyed the Passauer synagogue on Pogrom Night (November 1938). The building suffered additional damage during World War II, after which, in the 1950s, its ruins were torn down. At the site, which is now the parking lot of Berlin’s famous KaDeWe department store, a memorial plaque has been unveiled.

Heidemarie Wawrzyn

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ Germansynagogues.com

Notes

Sources: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust, Shmuel Spector [Ed.], [publisher] Yad Vashem and the New York University Press, 2001., Führer durch die Jüdische Gemeindeverwaltung und Wohlfahrtspflege in Deutschland 1923-1933, Andreas Nachama, Simon Hermann [Eds.], [publisher] Edition Hentrich, 1995., Synagogen in Berlin: Zur Geschichte einer zerstörten Architektur, Rolf Bothe [Ed.], [publisher] Willmürth Arenhövel, 1983., Guide to Jewish Berlin: History and the Present, Vera Bendt, Nicola Galliner Thomas Jersch, Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, Carolin Hilker-Siebenhaar [Ed.], [Publisher] Verlag Nicolai, 1987.; www.luise-berlin.de

Details

Date Added	Jan 22, 2020
Category	Synagogue
Country	DE
State	Berlin
City	Berlin
Exhibits	Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany

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Passauer/ Religionsverein Westen Synagogue

Heidemarie Wawrzyn

Copyright: Pogrom Night 1938 - A Memorial to the Destroyed Synagogues of Germany/ Germansynagogues.com

Notes

Details

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