The synagogue in the street “Kottbusser Ufer“, today “Fraenkelufer“, in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district was built according to plans and under the direction of the master builder of the Jewish Community of Berlin, Alexander Beer. The Orthodox synagogue was inaugurated on September 17th, 1916. As early as 1930 the synagogue was smeared with swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans. In the November pogroms of November 9th to 10th, 1938, the main building was gutted and the outbuildings were badly damaged. After further damage during Allied air raids the main synagogue was demolished in 1958/1959. A complete reconstruction is being planned (Details >>>).
The synagogue complex also included a youth synagogue in an outbuilding which was damaged during the pogroms but where services took place up to October 1942, when the Nazis finally destroyed Jewish life in Germany and occupied areas. Immediately after the war, it was the first synagogue in Berlin to be restored and reopened in time for Rosh Hashanah in September 1945. This is mainly thanks to the initiative of the American soldier Harry Nowalsky. The Jewish Hungarian-American war photographer Robert Capa immortalised this special moment in a series of pictures for Life magazine (Details >>>). Today it is a conservative synagogue tending to the orthodox.
I am particularly attached the the Fraenkelufer Synagogue as it was the Shul I attended when living in Berlin between 2010 and 2013.
Multi layer colour linocut edition of 6
Print size: 34 x 27 cm, paper size: 57 x 38 cm.
Paper: Canson Edition 250 gsm, 100% cotton, pH neutral and archival
Alexander Beer designed the synagogue in the neoclassical style. With its threefold façade, elegant wing and portico (the latter of which was designed in the style of the Levetzowstrasse synagogue) the Kottbuser Ufer synagogue was one of the most impressive buildings in the Kreuzberg area. With over 2000 seats, this synagogue was one of the largest in Berlin. In addition to the main prayer hall, the building complex also had a weekday synagogue, a youth synagogue, a wedding hall, meeting rooms and and living quarters. In 1925 the Jewish community opened a kindergarten and after-school care center and in the following years a youth home and a holiday playground on the site. Twice a week there was also an afternoon religious school.
After Rabbi Julius Jakobovits emigrated to Great Britain, where his son Immanuel Jakobovits later became Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Georg Kantorowski, the first female Rabbi Regina Jonas and Rabbi Martin Riesenburger occasionally officiated in the synagogue up to 1942.
On the initiative of the SPD Politician Raed Saleh, of Palestinian extraction, the Förderverein Jüdisches Zentrum Synagoge Fraenkelufer is pursuing plans for a reconstruction of the main synagogue. The laying of the foundation stone is planned for 2023, 85 years after the destruction in the night of the pogrom. Completion is planned for the 110th anniversary of the synagogue in 2026.
Thank you!!1