Archaeologists have recently uncovered the foundations of the domed synagogue in Leer, Germany, which was destroyed on Kristallnacht, 1938.
The excavations took place in early June, ahead of the beginning of construction on the site of a commercial and residential development.
The synagogue was inaugurated in 1885, when around 300 Jews lived in Leer, which is located in East Friesland, northwest Germany, near the border with the Netherlands. In an article about the inauguration, a newspaper article at the time described the synagogue’s interior as “very dignified and tastefully made.”
The synagogue was torched and burned on Kristallnacht, in November 1938, and the ruins were totally razed soon after. The site remained empty until the 1960s, when a garage and petrol station were built there — a memorial plaque commemorates the destroyed synagogue.
The NDR local radio and TV web site said archaeologists had dug through half a meter of rubble to uncover the synagogue’s foundations and reportedly had discovered the foundation of one of the outer walls at a depth of two meters below the surface. It said they also opened the entrance to the basement and found what possibly could have been the entrance to the mikvah.
The investors in the new residential and commercial complex to be built on the site say that a memorial to the synagogue and destroyed Jewish community will be incorporated into the new building.
City building councillor Carsten Schock was quoted in a news article ahead of the excavations as saying that if such remains of the synagogue were found, “they would be integrated into the building concept.”
The former Jewish school in Leer still exists, and it forms part of a cross-border research project on Jewish Life in the Border Area that also involves the synagogue in Groningen, the Netherlands, some 80 km away, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) INTERREG program.
The goal is the developing of a newly designed permanent exhibition to be housed in the Groningen synagogue, which also still serves a small Jewish community.
Read details of the synagogue’s history and find links and photos, on the Alemannia Judaica web site
See details of the commercial and residential development to be built on the site
See an illustrated 2014 PDF brochure (in German) on 340 years of Jewish history in Leer