The Synagogue Project: On the Reconstruction of Synagogues in Germany

The book features designs for new synagogue buildings in Berlin and Hamburg and a series of conversations that explore the architectural representation of Jewish life in Germany today.

Germany is currently experiencing an intense debate about the reconstruction of synagogues that were destroyed under Nazi rule as well as the search for an appropriate architectural expression of Jewish life and culture in the country’s major cities today. This book, which results from a collaboration between the Technical Universities of Darmstadt and Dresden, Hamburg’s HafenCity University, and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, vividly contributes to this discussion.

The Synagogue Project features designs for new synagogues replacing the lost buildings on Berlin’s Fraenkelufer and on Joseph-Carlebach-Platz and Poolstrasse in Hamburg by students at the participating universities. The designs illustrate the search for a structural expression that can provide space for Jewish life and worship in the future. In conversation, members of Jewish communities and Franz-Josef Höing, representing the City of Hamburg’s department of urban development and housing, explain their views on the past and future of synagogues in Hamburg and Berlin. Mirjam Wenzel, director of the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, Salomon Korn, former vice-president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Rabbi Edward van Voolen, and Swiss architect Roger Diener also contribute to the discussion on the history and significance of spaces for Jewish life, culture, and religion in German cities.

Jörg Springer is principal of the Berlin-based firm Springer Architekten. He is also professor of design and complex building theory at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Manuel Aust is an architect and research associate at the chair of design and complex building theory, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.