Reform Synagogue, Plauen

Fritz Landauer

1928–1930

Image of rectangular building with Star of David on side.
This modern synagogue in Plauen (in the Saxony region) was one of the few synagogues built in Germany in the economically turbulent years of the Weimar Republic. Jews and non-Jews contributed funds for its construction and shared space. Built in the style of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), a movement in German art that rejected expressionism for a less subjective approach. In architecture, this trend was known as Neues Bauen (New Building) and featured a plain, practical approach to design and construction. The Plauen synagogue was a largely unadorned white box sitting atop a red, brick base, combining communal and sacred space in one structure. It was destroyed on Kristallnacht (November 10, 1938).

Credits

Virtual reconstruction. Courtesy Technische Universität Darmstadt, Digital Design Unit.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 8.

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Creator Bio

Fritz Landauer

1883–1968

The modernist architect Fritz Landauer was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, and practiced in Munich until forced into exile. One of the few architects working in the international style in southern Germany, he designed important synagogues in Augsburg and Plauen. After settling in London in 1937, he designed the North Western Reform Synagogue, Alyth Gardens, Golders Green, and the Willesden Synagogue, the latter a rare example of a British synagogue influenced by a modernist aesthetic.

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