Old Synagogue (Erfurt)

Old Synagogue, Erfurt
Shown within Germany
Basic information
Location	Erfurt
Geographic coordinates	50°58′43.06″N 11°1′45.43″E / 50.9786278°N 11.0292861°E / 50.9786278; 11.0292861Coordinates: 50°58′43.06″N 11°1′45.43″E / 50.9786278°N 11.0292861°E / 50.9786278; 11.0292861
Affiliation	Judaism
Rite	Nusach Ashkenaz
Country	Germany
Status	Museum
Website	Old Synagogue, Erfurt
Architectural description
Architectural type	Synagogue
Architectural style	Romanesque

The Alte Synagoge (Old Synagogue) in Erfurt, Germany, is one of the best preserved medieval synagogues in Europe, its oldest parts dating back to the late 11th century. Most parts of the building date from around 1250-1320.^[1] It is thought to be the oldest synagogue building intact to its roof still standing in Europe.^[2] In 2015 it was proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Since 2009 it has been used as a museum of local Jewish history. It houses the Erfurt Treasure, a hoard of medieval coins, goldsmiths' work and jewellery found in 1998. ^[3] It also has facsimiles of the Erfurt Hebrew Manuscripts, an important collection of 12th-14th century religious texts that belonged to the medieval Jewish community of Erfurt.^[4]

History and Preservation

Windows on the western façade, c.1270

The oldest parts of the building have been dated by dendrochronology to 1094. There was a second construction phase in the 12th century, from which part of the western wall, with a sandstone double-arched window, has been preserved.^[1]

Around 1270, a larger synagogue incorporating parts of the earlier building was constructed. The western façade, with five lancet windows and a large rosestte window, dates from this time. In the early 1300s, it was extended and another storey was added.^[1]

After the Erfurt Massacre of 1349, in which the Jewish population was murdered and expelled from the city, the synagogue was damaged. The city of Erfurt took ownership of the building and later sold it to a local merchant. It was converted into a warehouse and a vaulted cellar was built underneath. The alterations considerably changed the interior of the building. For the next 500 years it was used for storing goods.^[1][2]

From the 19th century, the building had various uses and had at different periods a ballroom, a restaurant and even two bowling alleys. These changes, and changes to the surrounding buildings, meant that the Old Synagogue, which is on a back lot down a narrow alleyway, was largely forgotten about. Its history wasn't recognised, which helped to protected it during the Nazi period.^[1][2]

It was not until the late 1980s that interest was awakened in the old building. The architectural historian Elmar Altwasser began to research it in 1992. Erfurt City Council bought the property in 1998 and extensively researched and conserved it. ^[1]

"During the conservation, great emphasis was put on the preservation of all traces of use: those dating from synagogal use as well as those from later alterations. Owing to this careful conservation and restoration, medieval as well as younger building phases are still easy to perceive." Permanent Delegation of Germany to UNESCO (2015) Old synagogue and Mikveh in Erfurt ^[1]

In 2007 a rare and particularly well-preserved Jewish ritual bath, a Mikveh, dating from c.1250 was discovered by archeologists not far from the Old Synagogue, near Erfurt's Krämerbrücke (Merchants' Bridge).^[5]The mikveh has been accessible to visitors on guided tours since September 2011.^[6]

In 2015 the Old Synagogue, Mikveh and the 'Stone House', a secular building from c.1250 in Erfurt's medieval city centre which had Jewish owners, were together nominated as a World Heritage Site.^[7] This has been tentatively listed but a final decision has not yet been made.^[1]

Museum

Entrance to the Old Synagogue building from the museum inner courtyard, North-West façade

The Old Synagogue was opened as a museum on 27 October 2009.^[2]

The museum permanently houses the Erfurt Treasure, a hoard of coins, goldsmiths' work and jewellery that is thought to have belonged to Jews who hid them at the time of the Erfurt massacre in 1349. The pieces were found in 1998 in the wall of a house in a medieval Jewish neighbourhood in Erfurt. ^[3]

It also displays facsimiles of the Erfurt Hebrew Manuscripts, a collection of significant religious texts dating from the 12th-14th century. They came into the possession of Erfurt City Council after the Erfurt Massacre, and in the late 17th century ended up in the library of the Lutheran Evangelical Ministry, at Erfurt's former Augustinian Monastery. The Ministry sold them to the Royal Library in Berlin, the present day Berlin State Library, in 1880, where the originals are now kept.^[4]

Erfurt Tosefta

One of the Erfurt Manuscripts is the Tosefta, part of a compilation of oral law, or oral Torah, attributed to Jewish scholars called tannaim, who mostly lived in Palestine from about the year 0 CE until c. 200 CE (0 - 200 AD). Not all scholars agree, but it is generally thought to provide interpretation of unclear sections of the Mishnah, Judaism's primary book of Jewish legal theory.^[8][9]

Tosefta were rarely copied, and the Erfurt Tosefta, from the 12th century, is the oldest of only three known Tosefta manuscripts.^[8].The other two are the Vienna Tosefta, late 13th century, held by the Austrian National Library and the London Tosefta, 15th century, held by the British Library.^[10]

Moses Samuel Zuckermandl (also Zuckermandel) was the first to point out the importance of the Erfurt Tosefta in his seminal study on it published, in German, in 1876.^[8][11]

Other synagogues in Erfurt

The Kleine Synagoge (Small Synagogue) was built in 1840 and was used until 1884. It was restored in 1998 and it is now used as an events venue.^[12] The building features a classically influenced façade and interior.

In 1884 the community constructed the Große Synagoge (Great Synagogue), a magnificent moorish revival building. It was destroyed in the Nazi Kristallnacht riots on the night of the 9th - 10th November 1938.^[13]

In 1947 the site of Great Synagogue, which had been confiscated by the Nazis, was returned to the Jewish community by Erfurt City Council. The Neue Synagoge (New Synagogue), which was built on the site, opened on 31 August 1952.^[14]

It is the New Synagogue which is used for worship by the present day Jewish community in Erfurt.

See also

• History of the Jews in Germany
• Oldest synagogues in the world

External links

• Jewish Past and Present in Erfurt
• Erfurt Collection: Erfurt Hebrew Manuscripts
• Erfurt Tourismus. Old Synagogue and Erfurt Treasure
• Visit Thuringia. Old Synagogue

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alte Synagoge (Erfurt).