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Synagogues:
in Beneckestraße and "Synag." Synagoge vor dem Dammtor in Bieberstraße.
The Neue Dammtor-Synagoge (New Dammtor Synagogue), a conservative religious association, was
built by the architects Schlepps and Rzekonski, and officially inaugerated on 15.08.1895.
The synagogue goes back to one in a house in Jungfernstieg opened by Dr. Joseph Isaacsohn of
the "Newe Schalaum" (place of peace) on 9.09.1879. This synagogue had places for 180 men and
90 women. It had to be closed in 1887 as the fire regulations could not be adhered to.
The signatories to this appeal were: At the first meeting in 1893 a committee was elected to undertake the establishment of a synagogue "with a respectful religious service and in accordance with the requirements of the present day". It was fortunate that the community of heirs of I. H. A. Schulz agreed to build a synagogue, at their cost, on their land in Beneckestraße. All that was required was a guarantee of a ten year lease on the synagogue. There was no problem finding guarantors for the lease of the building and money for the furnishings. The synagogue had places for 500 people.
The statutes of the synagogue stipulated that the religious services were to be held according to
orthodox ritual, but with the omission of the Pijutim, i.e. prayers added to the
service on the sabbath and during festivals in orthodox ritual. No musical instrument was to be used
but a good four-part choir was to be employed. A particular emphasis was placed upon
absolute silence during services. It was also desired that a good cantor and preacher
be acquired. Also, later negotiations with the Tempel-Verband (Temple Society), a liberal religious association, led to nothing. The New Dammtor Synagogue finally remained independent because it adhered to the wishes of its founder: to hold respectful religious services without being long-draw-out but also without reforms.
The New Dammtor Synagogue was also a synagogue built in a courtyard to the rear of buildings fronting the street. In addition it was almost entirely built-in on all four sides. The architects only had the possibility of constructing a kind of façade on the north side of the building. The vestibule was reached through a narrow corridor from which two doors led to the male preserve. The almemar, i.e. the raised platform on which the reading desk stands, was not situated precisely in the east, as in orthodox custom.
A colourfully glazed dome spanned the room which was bordered on three sides by the women's gallery. The circa 30 cm high grill of the women's gallery contrasted with the completely closed women's gallery of orthodox synagogues. The interior was in the Moorish or oriental style. The horseshoe-shaped canopy of the shrine and the copious ornament were examples of this style. This was the first synagogue in Hamburg to display this style externally: horseshoe-arches framed the side doors and an oriental style dome towered above the entrance of the building. The dome itself was ringed by four smaller domed towers. The colourful brick pattern also gave the building an oriental character. As the lease of the New Dammtor Synagogue expired in 1905 the guarators instructed the board to transact a new lease with the owners of the property. On 28.03.1912 the "Neue Dammtor-Synagoge zu Hamburg" Society was registered in the official register of societies and associations at the Hamburg County Court.
The purpose of the society was to maintain and cultivate the Jewish religion, to hold Jewish religious
services, and to establish the requisit synagogues for Jews living in Hamburg and its environs. The society was administered by a board, an administrative committee, a committee of representatives, and a general meeting. The board, which was empowered to represent the society legally and generally, was made up of 3 members. The administrative committee, which managed the business of the society, was made up of 7 members, 3 of whom constituted the board. Members whose children, being minors, practiced another faith, or whose sons had not been circumcised, or who themselves had entered into a mixed marriage could not be members of the administrative committee. The committee of representatives, which was constituted to participate in the internal administration, was made up of 11 members. Members of this committee were elected for a period of 3 years by active society members above the age of 31. The general meeting was a meeting of active members of the society. Members of the first administrative committee were: Wolf Peine, chairman, Martin Fränkel, Meyer Seehoff, secretary, Eduard Bleier, Georg Rothenberg, treasurer, Rudolf Levy and Philip Goldschmidt. The first rabbi of the New Dammtor Synagogue, from 1895 to 1903, was Dr. Max Grunwald. He then held office in various synagogues in Vienna, and was able to emigrate to his son in Jerusalem in 1938. Dr. Grunwald was also an historian, in particular a folklorist. He wrote the history of the Jewish communities in which he worked.
Regarding Hamburg he published:
Dr. Abraham Löwenthal (1868-1928) succeeded Dr. Grunwald as rabbi of the New Dammtor Synagogue. He held the post from 1903 to 1917. He then held office in Berlin until his death in 1928. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the New Dammtor Synagogue both Dr. Max Grunwald and Dr. Abraham Löwenthal returned to Hamburg to be honoured by Martin Fränkel who had been chairman of the board during their periods of office. He thanked Dr. Grunwald for his devoted work. Every community member remembered him with pleasure. Dr. Löwenthal considered it important to acquire friends both inside and outside the community. He succeeded in this with his conciliatory manner and understanding that he also had for other religious thought.
When Dr. Löwenthal moved to Berlin in 1917 an arrangement was made with the Israelitische Tempel-Verband (Israelite Temple Association), i.e. the liberal religious society, that their rabbis should serve in the New Dammtor Synagogue, in the manner prescribed by the latter. Members of the New Dammtor Synagogue were to volantarily transfer 10% of the community tax to the Temple Association. The two rabbis were to be paid for their services in the New Dammtor Synagogue from this money. However, as a money transfer to the Temple Association could only be made by their own members this meant that the members of the New Dammtor Synagogue simultaneously acquired membership of the Temple Association without involving additional monetary commitments. From 1917 onward the two preachers of the Israelite Temple Association (the Israelite Temple Association used the title preacher instead of rabbi), Dr. David Leimdörfer and Dr. Jacob Sonderling also served in the New Dammtor Synagogue. Dr. Sonderling held his post in the (Second) Temple in Poolstraße in the Neustadt district of Hamburg from 1908 onward. He was army rabbi during the First World War and after the war described the horror. He emigrated to the USA in 1921. A synagogue attender later related that the sermons of both preachers were well structured and were masterpieces of oratory. Many members of the Synagogue Society also attended the New Dammtor Synagogue to experience these sermons.
The preachers of the Temple Association also held the so-called girls' confirmation in the New Dammtor Synagogue. The girls, clothed in white with a floral head decoration, were led onto the almemar where they read a verse from a section of the Torah. In addition they held a short talk giving an explanation of Jewish ethics and law. Finally, the rabbi gave his confirmation sermon. Following the death of Dr. Leimdörfer (1851-1922) the New Dammtor Synagogue again elected a rabbi. Dr. Paul Holzer (1892-1961) served from 1923 to 1938. Dr. Holzer, with his wife Grete, were particularly committed to youth work. Dr. Holzer, from 1937 onward, also gave spiritual welfare to Jewish prisoners awaiting trial and those serving prison sentences. Dr. Holzer and his wife emigrated to England in 1938. After the war Dr. Holzer once again served as rabbi, from 1946 to 1954, in Hamburg.
The difficult negotiations for recognition of the New Dammtor Synagogue as a religious organization took place during Dr. Holzer's initial years of office. Prior to this the Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeinde (German Israelite Community) only recognised the Synagoge-Verband and Tempel-Verband. The New Dammtor Synagogue initially applied to be recognised as a new, independent religious organization in 1910. They indicated that they had 341 community tax paying members and that a total of 300 such members were sufficient. On 22.01.1923 the New Dammtor Synagogue had a membership of 430 male members and again requested recognition by the Jewish community. The Temple Association had no objections to recognizing the New Dammtor Synagogue. The Jewish community opposed this reqest with the wish that the New Dammtor Synagogue combine with the orthodox Synagoge-Verband. This proposal was unanimously rejected by the New Dammtor Synagogue. The Jewish community then suggested that negotiations take place between the rabbis of the two synagogues. Chief-Rabbi Dr. Samuel Spitzer of the Synagogue Association refused to enter the New Dammtor Synagogue with its current ritual. The Pijutim were omitted which the Schulchan Aruch (Jewish law and ritual) did not allow. On 14.01.1924 the New Dammtor Synagogue finally announced that they could not accept the result of the negotiations between the two rabbis and regarded the unification negotiotions as having failed. On 5.02.1924 the Synagogue Association pointed out that throughout Germany there were not more than 2 Jewish religious lines of thought. Only a conservative and a liberal wing were recognized. The harm already inflicted upon Judaism by fragmentation would intensify "immeasurably" if further factions were allowed. Finally, on 28.03.1924 the Jewish community recognised the New Dammtor Synagogue as a religious organization with, however, qualifications. The Synagogue Association demanded a so-called safety contract with the Jewish community and an amendment to their statutes, and the appointment of a court of arbitration.
A fundamental renovation and extension of the New Dammtor Synagogue was long overdue. This took place in 1927. Instead of abiding by the resolved renovation work the men responsible for the supervision of the work decided on a complete conversion. By the time the administration realized what had taken place it was too late to intervene. The final cost was six times as high as initially approved. The Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeinde assumed ownership of the buildings in Beneckestraße in spring 1928 as the New Dammtor Synagogue was unable to pay for the cost of the conversion. The New Dammtor Synagogue now had the obligation of maintaining the synagogue and of allowing all Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeinde members to participate in their religious services.
Henry Chassel was chairman of the administrative committee from 1929 to
1937 and in accordance with the statutes also chairman of the board of the
New Dammtor Synagogue.
The New Dammtor Synagogue also had a religious school. This was located in the Helene Lange-Oberrealschule between 1929 and 1932, and in the Jewish community Girls' School, at No. 33 Johnsallee between 1933 and 1937, with a branch at No. 5 Haynstraße, in the Eppendorf district, between 1934 and 1935. Rabbi Dr. Holzer was director and teacher of the religious school. The teachers were Josef Heinemann, also Torah reader, Grete Holzer and Hermann Lieber, also chief cantor. On the night of the Reich-wide Pogrom Night of 9/10 November 1938 the Hamburger Tageblatt newspaper reported that antisemitic demonstrations had also taken place in Hamburg the day before. On the basis of a rumour that "additional" weapons were hidden in synagogues demonstrators had "opened" several synagogues. These demonstrations also affected the Beneckestraße Synagogue. The Beneckestraße Synagogue was not completely devastated internally.
Brückheimer, in the Brückheimer Collection of the Yad Vashem Archives, relates: "Few were
involved". The Torah silver was seized but the Torah rolls were "hardly damaged". Nothing was
vandalized inside the buildings at No. 2 and No. 6 Beneckestraße. The Beneckestraße Synagogue played an important role after the 1938 pogrom. Dr. Plaut relates that it was the only synagogue in the German Reich to be rebuilt after the Pogrom Night of 9/10 November 1938. Dr. Plaut managed this with donations that he collected. Religious services were held, which were later prohibited. The services were continued despite the prohibition. Look-outs were posted and the services were never discovered or betrayed. Religious services were held regularly every morning and evening until the end of January 1944. But, on 19.10.1939 Gestapo Regional Headquarters Hamburg informed the Hansestadt Hamburg that the Beneckestraße Synagogue at No. 4 Beneckestraße, and the synagogue at No. 38 Marcusstraße, in the Neustadt district, that had not been destroyed were still in use by Jews for the holding of religious services. On the occasion of the inaugeration of the "common synagogue for our community", the chief-rabbi of the Synagogue Association, Dr. Joseph Carlebach wrote to Dr. Plaut on 17.02.1939 thanking him for the beautiful building he had presented to the community. He wished to honour him with the crown of a "worthy name" and membership of the Chawerim ("companion", an honorary title for a scholar). From February 1939 the orthodox Chief-Rabbi Dr. Joseph Carlebach of the destroyed Bornplatz Synagogue led orthodox religious services in the Beneckestraße Synagogue, which would never have been possible previously. Prior to this the almemar was moved to the centre and the womens' gallery was equipped with a grille. Even a mikveh was built in the cellar of the synagogue. The Beneckestraße Synagogue was also the only synagogue in Hamburg in which religious services were held up until 1943. In the spring of 1939 the three Hamburg religious associations had to discontinue their work. The Deutsch-Israelitische Gemeinde then assumed responsibility for the religious life of the community. The Synagoge Association and New Dammtor Synagogue dissolved themselves. The Temple Association technically continued to exist due to legal grounds connected with the land registry office.
In 1941 the Gestapo informed the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich Organization of Jews in Germany) that the funds of the Jewish religious communities were no longer allowed to be employed for the maintenance of Jewish religious life. This included the salaries paid to the rabbis, which could now only be met by voluntary donations.
When Chief-Rabbi Joseph Carlebach was deported to Riga on 6.12.1941,
Dr. Nathan Max Nathan succeeded him as syndic and spiritual leader of the Jewish community,
until his deportation to Theresienstadt on 19.07.1942. The Beneckestraße Synagogue and the other community buildings in Beneckestraße were destoyed in an air-raid in July 1943.
Today the place where the former Nos. 2, 6 and 4 Beneckestraße once stood is a green area within the University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park campus, between No. 1 Allende-Platz and No. 48 Grindelallee. Beneckestraße no longer exists.
A memorial stone and plaque adjacent to the pathway between No. 1 Allende-Platz and
No. 48 Grindelallee reads:
Rabbinner Dr. Max Grunwald amtierte hier
Nach Schändung am 9. November 1938
German text: Dipl.-Pol. Wilhelm Mosel, Deutsch-Jüdische Gesellschaft, Hamburg.
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