Jewish Cultural sites throughout Germany

Interior of the Leipzig synagogue. DPA photo

The German National Tourist Board publishes a comprehensive brochure on Jewish sites throughout Germany called “Germany for the Jewish Traveler.” A free copy of this publication can be ordered from their office in New York at:

German National Tourist Office
122 East 42nd Street, 52nd Floor
New York, N.Y. 10168-0072
USA
T: (001 212) 661 72 00
F: (001 212) 661 71 74
E-Mail: gntonyc@d-z-t.com

New Jewish Community Center in Munich

Photo of Munich's main synagogue on Lenbachplatz, ci. 1930, below, an architectural model for the planned Jewish community center, daycare, school to be built on Jakobsplazt. DPA photo

Bavaria’s capital Munich in southern Germany is home to the country’s second-largest Jewish population – a surprising fact when one considers the historical ties between the city and the rise of Adolf Hitler and its close proximity to Dachau, the site of the first concentration camp built under the Nazi Regime. A major influx of Russian Jews of German ancestry has led to a growth in the community’s population to more than 9,000. A museum, a cultural and community center, as well as a new synagogue will be built on a prominent site at Jakobsplatz in the Old City and is set to be completed by 2007.

But the Jewish Community Center in Munich is a prime example of the continued threat that Germany’s Jewish people face from a small group of right-wing extremists. Just two months before Federal President Johannes Rau helped lay the first stone of the building’s foundation, police foiled plans made by such a group to bomb the event, which took place on the 65th anniversary of Kristallnacht in 2003.

Nevertheless, the community center is an important sign of reconciliation between the local Jews and the city, where American forces could find only seven Jews alive at the end of World War II. And despite the current threat from a handful of right-wing groups, organizers are committed to establishing the Jewish Community Center as a “meeting place of the cultures.”

Dresden Synagogue

More than 60 years since it was burnt to the ground in a Nazi pogrom, Dresden's synagogue has once again opened its doors for worship. It is the first synagogue to have been built in the former East Germany since World War.

With its striking cubic design, it has assumed its permanent spot in Dresden’s skyline. President of Germany's Jewish Community, Paul Spiegel called the building a concrete expression of Jews' desire to stay in Germany.

The original synagogue, razed by the Nazi pogrom in 1938, was built by the city’s favorite architectural son, Gottfried Semper, who also designed the famous Semper Opera.

And while little remains of the first synagogue in Dresden, a local firefighter, Alfred Neugebauer, managed to save the building’s original Star of David by hiding it in his home. Today, it holds a prominent spot at the entrance to the building.

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