Germany: Sensational discovery — fragments of the main Munich synagogue that Hitler ordered demolished in 1938 found in the Isar river. Used in the 1950s to reinforce a weir

Fragments of the Munich’s magnificent main synagogue, which Hitler personally ordered demolished in June 1938, have been found in the Isar river, which runs through the city. 

Construction workers discovered the fragments, which include massive pieces, decorative carving, and a nearly intact stone tablet of the Ten Commandments, while carrying out repair work on a weir in the river.

Material from the destroyed synagogue had been used to reinforce this low dam in the 1950s.

Experts and Jewish community representatives called the find sensational.

Seeing the recovered remains was “was one of the most moving moments in my 30 years of working in Jewish museums,” Bernhard Purin, director of the Munich Jewish Museum, told JHE. Especially moving, he said, was seeing the stone plaque of the Ten Commandments, which had been positioned above the Ark. Less than a quarter of the plaque was missing, he said.

The synagogue was designed by the prominent architect Albert Schmidt and inaugurated in 1887. It was recognised as a major city landmark.

“Anyone who reads the sources can guess the enthusiasm that must have prevailed in Munich in 1887 because of the new [synagogue] building in a prominent position,” the  Munich Merker news site wrote. 

And anyone who knows about this history will also understand what the find that workers made a few days ago on the Isar near the Großhesseloher Bridge means today – for the Jewish community, for Munich’s city history.

Hitler personally ordered the synagogue’s destruction — the first synagogue to be destroyed before the November 1938 Kristallnacht pogroms — to make way for a parking lot. He reportedly called the grand neo-Romanesque building an “eyesore.”

This is how the Jewish Telegraphic Agency JTA reported on the synagogue’s destruction, five months before Kristallnacht:

Chancellor Hitler, after an inspection tour of Munich, yesterday ordered demolition of a synagogue which is one of the most famous landmarks in the city, the Daily Telegraph reported today, adding that the razing of the building had already begun.

The rabbi of the congregation was given a few hours’ notice, the report said, and hundreds of members of the Jewish community worked throughout the night to remove holy scrolls and other property. The correspondent understands that the Nazis offered a small sum for distribution among needy Munich Jews for compensation for the synagogue, which is valuable freehold property.

The synagogue was razed by the Leonard Moll building company, which then stored the tons of rubble until the 1950s, when it was used (along with rubble from bombed out buildings) to reinforce the weir.

Charlotte Knoblauch, the 90-year-old head of the Munich Jewish community, attended services in the synagogue as a young girl. “I really didn’t expect fragments of the old main synagogue to survive, let alone see them,” she told the Munich Merker news site. “It’s all still very unreal.” 

Read the  Munich Merker article