Semper Synagogue

This article is about the destroyed synagogue. For the current synagogue in the same location, see New Synagogue (Dresden).

Semper Synagogue
German: Alte Synagoge
File:Louis Thümling nach Hermann Krone - Alte Synagoge in Dresden (1850-70) cropped.png The former Semper Synagogue, in c. 1860
Religion
Affiliation	Judaism (former)
Ecclesiastical or organisational status	Synagogue (1840–1938)
Status	Destroyed
Location
Location	Dresden, Saxony
Country	Germany
Coordinates
Architecture
Architect	Gottfried Semper
Type	Synagogue architecture
Style	Romanesque Revival Moorish Revival
Completed	1840
Destroyed	November 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.

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

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. 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

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

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. According to Harry Frances Mallgrave, most of the ornaments "were painted on the plaster surfaces in imitation of more costly materials."

Eternal light

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

Exterior

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." 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.

Gallery

• 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

• History of the Jews in Germany
• List of Jewish architects
• List of synagogues in Germany (in German)