On September 4, 1960, 15 years after the end of the Second World War, the first new synagogue building in Hamburg after the war was inaugurated. The foundation stone had been laid two years earlier, exactly 20 years after the Reichspogromnacht.
by Vivienne Schumacher
"In remembrance and in remembrance of the dead, as a reminder to the living and as a commandment of genuine humanity for those who are coming" - with these words Max Brauer, then Mayor of Hamburg, lays the foundation stone for the excavation pit on a plot of land on Hohe Weide in the Eimsbüttel district . It's November 9, 1958.
Laying of the foundation stone in memory of the Reich pogrom night
Exactly 20 years earlier, on November 9, 1938, the National Socialists had called for synagogues and Jewish shops to be destroyed. Already in the following night numerous synagogues go up in flames, part of the Jewish population is deported to concentration camps or murdered, Jewish shops and cemeteries are demolished. With the Night of Broken Glass, the persecution of the Jews under the Nazi regime reached a new dimension. In Hamburg alone, the Gestapo arrested at least 879 Jews in this connection, and eight synagogues and four Jewish prayer rooms were destroyed.
A stone as a time capsule
Laying of the foundation stone for the new synagogue on November 9, 1958:Hamburg's Mayor Brauer places contemporary documents in a metal capsule.20 years later, numerous members of the Jewish community and residents of the Hanseatic city came to the laying of the foundation stone. In accordance with tradition, the stone functions as a time capsule:the current issue of the "Allgemeine Wochenzeitung der Juden in Deutschland" and Israeli and German coins are embedded in a metal capsule in the foundation stone. In addition, there is a document read out beforehand by Regional Rabbi Salomonowicz:"May God's blessing rest on this place of worship, God's word fulfill it and charity emanate from it."
In his moving speech, Mayor Brauer speaks, among other things, of the "most painful of all wounds among the places of worship in Hamburg" that would now be closed. "Hamburg gives itself back a part of its dignity when it unites with its Jewish fellow citizens and the Jewish community to create a new, dignified place of worship," emphasizes the mayor.
Day of mourning, day of hope
Excerpt from the document on the laying of the foundation stone of the Jewish synagogue in Hamburg on November 9, 1958.The state act lasts longer than an hour. Seven other speakers took the floor:they spoke of hope and a new beginning, but also of the atrocities committed by National Socialism. Among them is the church representative of the Hamburg State Church, Georg Daur, who expresses his sympathy for the Evangelical-Lutheran community. Auxiliary Bishop Johannes von Rudloff speaks for the Catholic Church. Hendrik George van Dam, General Secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, read out a letter from Federal President Theodor Heuss and emphasized the importance of this day for the Jewish community - also outside of Hamburg.
A deliberate silence ensues when state rabbi Ludwig Salomonowicz takes the floor and recalls the Night of Broken Glass twenty years earlier:"What was more horrific back then:the burning synagogues or the silence of the vox populi (editor's note:voice of the people)? Never the name of the German people has been sullied as it was when the world was supposed to believe that the actions of November 9, 1938 were spontaneously triggered by the German people."
Allotment gardeners have to evacuate colonies
The laying of the foundation stone was preceded by a two-year correspondence between the Jewish community and the Senate. The city of Hamburg ultimately gave the municipality the approximately 2,900 square meter property on the corner of Heymannstrasse and Hohe Weide in Eimsbüttel. All that was due was the usual recognition fee, which other religious communities also have to pay for church building sites:that was 50 German marks a year. The Jewish community was to pay for the eviction costs of the allotment gardeners whose colonies had previously been on the site and who had protested against their eviction.
Service without a place of worship
The synagogue was inaugurated in 1960 with the Torah scrolls.Before the synagogue was built, we prayed together in a living room on Kielortallee. This room was much too small for the parishioners, but it was - apart from the synagogue in Oberstrasse - the only prayer room that had survived the Kristallnacht and the Second World War undamaged. In 1953, the Jewish Trust Corporation transferred ownership of the church on Oberstrasse to Norddeutscher Rundfunk. It could not be used as a synagogue because a number of radio equipment had been installed in the meantime, which could only have been removed at great expense, according to a letter from the Jewish community to the Senate. Today the former synagogue houses the Rolf Liebermann Studio and serves as a concert and event hall for the North German Radio.
Inauguration two years later
Threatened with rust half a century after the inauguration:one of the synagogue windows by the Hamburg artist Herbert Spangenberg.The construction of the new synagogue costs 1.8 million DM. The Jewish community can finance it from the reparations payments from the damage caused by the Reichspogromnacht:The community has 1,563,760 DM for the violent destruction of the synagogue on Bornplatz, the former main synagogue alone to. The construction of the new church will take two years. After the topping-out ceremony on June 16, 1959, the sacred building can finally be inaugurated on September 4, 1960 - the Jewish residents of Hamburg have a community center again.
Extensive renovation after 50 years
Even after the refurbishment, it has retained a prominent place:the Torah in the sanctuary of the prayer room.The Hohe Weide synagogue has been preserved in its original condition for more than 50 years - then it is urgently time for a comprehensive renovation of the building, which is now a listed building. The windows designed by artist Herbert Spangenberg are in danger of collapsing. But the technology, electrical and water lines and especially the prayer room as the central location of the synagogue including the benches need a makeover. In August 2013, the overhauled synagogue can be inaugurated again.
Under permanent police protection
Like other Jewish institutions in Germany, the synagogue in Hohe Weide has been under 24-hour police surveillance since the 1990s, when the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires were targeted by bomb attacks. After the attacks on the synagogue in Halle in October 2019, the police again increased security measures in Hamburg, among other places.
Before the Second World War, around 26,000 members belonged to the Jewish community in Hamburg. At the time the foundation stone was laid, there were around 1,400. The Jewish community in Hamburg now has around 3,500 members again and, as an independent state association, is one of the largest in Germany.