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Semper Synagogue

Coordinates: 51°03′09″N 13°44′48″E / 51.0524°N 13.7468°E / 51.0524; 13.7468
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This article is about the destroyed synagogue. For the current synagogue in the same location, see New Synagogue (Dresden).
Semper Synagogue
German: Alte Synagoge
The former Semper Synagogue, in c. 1860
Religion
AffiliationJudaism (former)
Ecclesiastical or organisational statusSynagogue (1840–1938)
StatusDestroyed
Location
LocationDresden, Saxony
CountryGermany
Semper Synagogue is located in Saxony
Semper Synagogue
Location of the former synagogue in Saxony
Geographic coordinates51°03′09″N 13°44′48″E / 51.0524°N 13.7468°E / 51.0524; 13.7468
Architecture
Architect(s)Gottfried Semper
TypeSynagogue architecture
Style
Completed1840
DestroyedNovember 9, 1938
(on Kristallnacht)

The Semper Synagogue, also known as the Dresden Synagogue or Old Synagogue (German: Alte Synagoge), was a Jewish synagogue, located in Dresden, in the Saxony region of Germany. Designed by Gottfried Semper and built from 1838 to 1840 in the Romanesque Revival and Moorish Revival styles, the synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis on November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht.[1]

The New Synagogue, inaugurated in 2001, was erected adjacent to the site of the former Semper Synagogue where a monument showing a six branch menorah stands in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.

History and destruction

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The synagogue was destroyed in 1938 on Kristallnacht. Nazis burned down the synagogue on the night of 9 November 1938. A few days after the burning, the ruins were carried away "professionally" and the bill to cover these costs was handed to the Jewish congregation. A film made by the "Technischen Hilfswerk" documented the efficient removal of the building.[2] All that remained of the synagogue was the Semper-designed Star of David, which Alfred Neugebauer, a fireman, removed from the burning rooftop, hid and returned to the congregation in 1949.

Architecture

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Semper was the first architect to borrow the Moorish iconography for a synagogue. His countless imitators and followers include Semper's student Otto Simonson, who would construct the magnificent Moorish Revival Leipzig synagogue in 1855, and Adolf Wolff, who built the Great Synagogue of Łódź and synagogues in Nürnberg, Stuttgart, Helbronn and Ulm. Many other architects of the late 19th century followed the style of this synagogue.

Interior

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While the exterior was Romanesque Revival, its interior featured the richly ornamented style that was to become the hallmark of Moorish Revival architecture. The elaborate Arabic-style interior had a two-tiered balcony supported by columns copied from the Alhambra. The arches and balcony fronts were richly worked with intricate polychrome foliate and lattice designs in the Moorish style.[3] According to Harry Frances Mallgrave, most of the ornaments "were painted on the plaster surfaces in imitation of more costly materials."[4]

Eternal light

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The interior design included furnishings - all designed by Semper, who considered each project as a Gesamtkunstwerk.[5] For the synagogue he created a Ner Tamid - silver lamp of eternal light, placed before the Torah scrolls,[6] which caught Richard Wagner and his wife Cosima's fancy. They gave a great deal of effort to procure a copy of this lamp.[7][8]

Exterior

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The synagogue was situated along the old city ramparts, along the river, some five hundred meters from the new theatre (known as the Semperoper) that Gottfried Semper was constructing at the same time he built the synagogue. The building was purposely designed to be modest, as Chief Rabbi Dr Zacharias Frankel said at the opening ceremony: "we were not driven by the desire to brag with an opulent building; rather we wanted to find an appropriate place of worship, (...) where we show ourselves before God in devout communion."[9] The synagogue was a plain cube structure, built in a Romanesque style with a humble vestibule and twin towers that marked the entrance to the building.

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  • The Star of David finial from the Semper Synagogue, installed on the New Synagogue
    The Star of David finial from the Semper Synagogue, installed on the New Synagogue
  • Interior of the synagogue in 1898
    Interior of the synagogue in 1898
  • Monument to the destruction of the synagogue on Kristallnacht
    Monument to the destruction of the synagogue on Kristallnacht

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Efron, John M. German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic.
  2. ^ Ellrich, Hartmut (2008). "Der historische Reiseführer". Dresden 1933-1945 (in German). Links Verlag. pp. 4–7.
  3. ^ Meek, Harold Alan (1995). The Synagogue. London: Phaidon. p. 188includes photo of interior{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  4. ^ Gottfried Semper: Architect of the nineteenth century. Yale: Hatty Frances Mallgrave. 1996. p. 100.
  5. ^ von Orelli Messerli, Barbara (2010). Gottfried Semper, die Entwürfe zur dekorativen Kunst (in German). Petersberg.
  6. ^ Gottfried Semper ... Der Stil in den technischen u. tektonischen (in German). Künsten.
  7. ^ Eisler, Colin (2004). Wagner's Three Synagogues. Vol. 25. Artibus et Historiae.
  8. ^ Pessen, Eytan (2013). Zusammenhängende Reliquien, eine Geschichte über Richard Wagner und Gottfried Semper (in German) (Spielzeit 2012-2013 & 2013-2014 ed.). Semperoper Dresden, Erchien in Wagnerjahr. pp. 1–22.
  9. ^ Frankel, Zacharias (1840). Speech by Dr. Frankel (Speech). Königlichen Hofbuchdruckerei (in German). Dresden: Die Heiligung des Gotteshauses.
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