Location Rottweil, Germany Ecclesiastical or organizational status leased Architectural type residential Opened 1820 | Affiliation unknown Architect(s) unknown Architectural style Classicism District Rottweil | |
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Einweihung der neuen synagoge rottweil
The old Synagogue Rottweil in Rottweil county in Baden-Württemberg, was established in 1861. The desecrated Synagogue is located in Kameralamtsgasse 6, former Judengasse, close to Kapellenkirche (German) and next to Bischöfliches Konvikt (German) and gymnasium. The construction of a new synagogue in Rottweil began in march 2016.
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History
There is no proof of a synagogue in 14th century, even though there was a Jewish community. In 1349, Black death led to slaughters from Jews in Rottweil as well as everywhere in Europe. Judengasse and Judenschule (“Jews’ school”, that is to say, synagogue) are documented in 1355, a Judenbad (mikvah) before 1838. In 1806, a younger Jewish community in Rottweil was founded as a branch of Mühringen. In 1924 the Israelitische Gemeinde Rottweil, the Jewish community, became independent.
In 1813 Jews in Rottweil asked Frederick I of Württemberg for the profaned church St John the Baptist in order to establish a synagogue there. The church was part of the former Kommende of Knights Hospitaller. In 1861, the Synagogenbauverein acquired the building from the former mayor Dr. Rapp and furnished it with a prayer room the same year. In 1865, the jewish commune in Rottweil bought the building. A description is given by Dr. Michael Silberstein in 1875. It was completely renovated in the 1920s. In the Kristallnacht 1938, the prayer room was demolished by members of the SA. They also burned the Torah on the street. The memorial plaques with the names of jewish soldiers in the first world war were destroyed.
Due to a forced confiscation in December 1938, the Israelitische Kirchengemeinde in Rottweil sold the synagoge, including a teacher's apartment, to Wilhelm Ziefle, a businessman in Rottweil. A jewish merchant, Wilhelm Wälder, was allowed to stay until 1939.
His wife Emilie Wälder was an eyewitness and depicted the happenings in the Kristallnacht, the extent of the devastation in the synagogue, the temporary arrest of her husband in the Dachau concentration camp, as well as the daily fear of being deported when it became known that the jews in the region were deported to the Gurs internment camp in southern France since fall 1940. Wilhelm/William and Emilie Wälder (widow Rosinus, born Reinheimer) were able to emigrate in may 1941 to the US.
After 1945 the building was hired out. The prayers room was renovated from 1979 to 1981. During the renovation, the remains of paintings were found, e. g. Die Palme des Gerechten (Ps 92,13).
Today the prayers room is used as a driving school.
On March 20, 2016 a foundation stone ceremony for a new Synagogue building was held in Rottweil. According to the words of Rami Suleiman, Oberratsvorsitzender of the Israelitische Religionsgemeinschaft Baden, the foundation stone comes from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and represents something extraordinary: it came from the very place where Solomon's Temple stood until its destruction. The Stone was framed into the wall in such a way that it can be touched by the members of the Jewish Community. It symbolizes the connection to Israel and reminds the members of the Community of the place of refuge in times of peril.