Publication: Die zerstörten Synagogen Wiens (Destroyed Synagogues of Vienna)

Publication: Die zerstörten Synagogen Wiens (Destroyed Synagogues of Vienna)
by Samuel D. Gruber

Martens, Bob / Peter, Herbert: Die zerstörten Synagogen Wiens, Verlag Mandelbaum, 2009

I've been meaning to post about this book for quite a while.  I heard Bob Martens present his impressive work of digital reconstruction of Vienna's destroyed synagogues at a conference in Lviv, Ukraine in 2008.  This book came out the next year, and I've finally been making good use of it.  There is an English version that came out earlier this year but I have not seen it yet.

Vienna, Austria.  Pazmanitengasse Synagogue (Leopoldstadt Synagogue).  Ignaz Reiser, architect ca. 1910. Reconstruction/Photo: Bob Martens

There is a long history of making models of lost synagogues.  Visitors to Temple Beth El in Detroit have seen representation of past homes of the congregations, and visitors to Yeshiva University Museum and Beth Hafusoth in Tel Aviv have encountered more ambitious models of famous synagogues of centuries past. Beginning earlier in the last decade researchers at the Bet Tfila-Research Unit, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany began making wooden models of historic synagogues, a mix of (mostly German) surviving and lost buildings.  These have been exhibited in Berlin and elsewhere, and published in Synagogenarchitektur in Deutschland. Dokumentation zur Ausstellung (2008).  About the same time a growing number of architects began to use computer modeling to ‘reconstruct’ synagogue buildings.  In 2001, Robert Davis published on-line computer-generated models of Texas synagogues; and in 2004 architects at the Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany made very detailed representations of German synagogues (Synagogues in Germany : a virtual reconstruction = [Synagogen in Deutschland : eine virtuelle Rekonstruktion), edited by Darmstadt University of Technology, Department CAD in Architecture, Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Institute for Foreign Cultural Relation.

Vienna, Austria. Mullnergasse Synagogue. Max Fleischer, arch. 1888-89. Reconstruction/Photo: Bob Martens

In Vienna, architects from the Technische Universität Wien led by Bob Martens have taken the recovery quest one step further.  Beginning in 1998 in an ambitious program inspired in part by the 1987 publication by P. Genee of Wiener Synagogen, Martens and his team marshaled documentary, graphic and photographic evidence and created digital reconstructions of twenty-three Vienna synagogues destroyed by the Nazis on Kristallnacht in November 1938.  The project does, however, not cover the approximately 80 additional prayer houses that were in the city.  These were not, for the most part, architecturally distinctive, but more importantly insufficient evidence survives of their appearance to allow reconstruction.  The reconstructions of the architecturally distinctive synagogues have been gathered into an extensively illustrated city guide to this lost heritage.

 Vienna, Austria.  Templegasse Synagogue. Ludwig von Forster, arch. 1854-58. Reconstruction/Photo: Bob Martens

With the help of CAD (computer-aided design) and rapid prototyping a working group based around the authors was able to virtually rebuild the destroyed synagogues.  The reconstructions attempt – mostly successfully – to reconstruct both exterior and interior appearances of the destroyed synagogues.  Like the German wooden models from Braunschweig, these reconstructions make a valiant attempt to recreate interior seating arrangements.  These reconstruction are much more valuable for understanding the full spaces of sanctuary interiors than more other visual aids.  One can better understand entrance and processions routes within the space, and also the relationship between the seating of men and women.

Another great virtue of this work is that all the synagogues are shown in their (often dense) urban context, past and present.  In the guide, historic photographs are contrasted with the virtual reconstructions and accompanied by descriptive texts.  The synagogues were built in a range of historicist and modern styles by many distinguished local architects, several of whom, like Gartner, Stiassny and Fliescher were Jewish.  Several scholars have been looking at Stiassny’s life and work but he has yet to receive the monograph he deserves. 

Austria: Government Agrees to Fund Jewish Cemetery Conservation

Austria: Government Agrees to Fund Jewish Cemetery Conservation
by Samuel D. Gruber

I was in the process of compiling a list of top ten stories for 2009 about Jewish heritage sties when news from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) and the Associated Press that the government has pledged 20 million euro over the next 20 years – at a rate of 1 million euro a year – to help restore the neglected Jewish cemeteries throughout the country.

There are about 70 known Jewish cemeteries in modern-day Austria, of which at least twenty the Jewish Community rates in poor condition. According to a report in the Associated Press, the Jewish Community will match the government grants through funds raised from private and local governmental sources. The decision to fund cemetery conservation and protection comes after nearly a decade of protracted and sometimes acrimonious negotiation about Austrian governmental responsibility for various types of compensation and support to Jewish survivors, the Jewish Community and Jewish heritage sites following the murder and destruction of the Holocaust. In 2001 Austria committed (as part of the so-called Washington agreement) to care for Jewish cemeteries as part of a compensation deal for Nazi crimes, but levels of care were not specified.

Unlike Germany, which during the post-World War II reconstruction period (and ever since) has taken a strong official stance in the need for and appropriateness of government support for Jewish cultural and religious life, Austrian governments (and public opinion) steadfastly denied responsibility, portraying Austria as the first “victim” of Nazi aggression, rather than a willing collaborator in Germany’s war and the Holocaust. Thousands of Austrian Jews fled the country before and immediately after the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938. In all, it is thought that about 65,000 Austrian Jews met their deaths as a result of the Nazi policies.

Raimund Fastenbauer, secretary-general of the Jewish Community Vienna, told The Associated Press he hoped restoration work would begin next year.

While in other countries in Europe local and national monument authorities have sometimes assisted in the care for particularly historic Jewish cemeteries, for the most part governments have spent little - and sometimes nothing - on the care of such sites. Even worse, in many countries of Eastern Europe disputes continue on the definition of what a cemetery is. For Jews, the presence of human remains denotes a cemetery - which remains a sacred space requiring demarcation and care.

For many governments, and culture organizations, cemeteries are only recognized when gravestones are visible. In the case of at least several thousand Jewish cemeteries throughout Europe gravestones have been removed during times of persecution, expulsion, and genocide. Even in case where some gravestones remain, protected site status is often granted only to that small area of a cemetery rather than to the entire acreage where burials exist. Sometimes well-intentioned efforts to fence areas where stones remain results in the de facto sacrifice of more expansive cemetery areas.

The Austrian Jewish Community web site has an extensive page listing all the cemeteries and giving their history, size, location, condition and notes on any current or recent restoration efforts.

For a detailed listing of Jewish heritage sites in Austria, including some cemeteries see:
http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/country/austria/austria1.htm

For lists of Jewish cemeteries, including a database of individual burials throughout the country, museums and currently-functioning synagogues, see the website of the Austrian Jewish community:
www.ikg-wien.at/static/etis/html/start.htm

Austria: Extensive List of Austrian Jewish Heritage Sites Now Online

Vienna: Austria. Display of Judaica at Jewish Museum. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2004

Austria: Extensive List of Austrian Jewish Heritage Sites Now Online

The website www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu has posted an extensive list of Jewish heritage sites in Austria. The Austria pages are divided into three sections: An Introduction, Austria 1 (Vienna), and Austria 2(Outside Vienna).

The site lists museums, collections, libraries, synagogues, cemeteries, memorials and other sites with Jewish associations. I have been providing comprehensive lists to Jewish-Heritage-Europe.eu, and more than twenty countries are now posted. Detailed lists for Bulgaria and Greece will be posted soon. Sharman Kadish and Jon Cannon in the UK also contribute to the writing and editing process.

Austria: Articles of 15 Years of Vienna's Jewish Museum

Austria: Articles on 15 Years of Vienna's Jewish Museum

The Austrian Press Agency has recently published 2 articles celebrating 15 years of Vienna's Jewish Museum:

Vienna‘s Jewish Museum Elated over 1.2 Million in Visitors in Fifteen Years
Austrian Press Agency (APA) (11/17/2008)

Vienna’s Jewish Museum, located in the city’s center, is currently celebrating fifteen years of existence. Since its opening by former mayor Helmut Zilk and his Jerusalem colleague, Teddy Kollek, some 1.2 million visitors have visited the museum. Director Karl Albrecht-Weinberger revealed that the museum has presented some 150 exhibitions. During the course of the anniversary week, apart from special programs, the bicycle of Theodor Herzl can be viewed on the occasion of the anniversary program, which will take place from November 18 – 23. Moreover, there will be special tours, free-of-charge, as well as an evening with Michael Heltau on November 20 who will read from the novel, “Radetzky march” by Joseph Roth

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Fifteen years of Jewish Museum Vienna
Federal Chancellery (12/01/08)

The Jewish Museum situated in Vienna’s city centre is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. The premises in Palais Eskeles were inaugurated on 18 November 1993 by Vienna’s recently deceased former Mayor Helmut Zilk and his counterpart from Jerusalem Teddy Kollek. In his overview of the past on 17 November 2008 Director Karl Albrecht-Weinberger stated that since the opening about 1.2 million visitors had been welcomed to 150 exhibitions.

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