Creator Bio

Alois Breier

1885–1948

Born into a Roman Catholic family in Vöslau (today Bad Vöslau, Austria), Alois Breier studied at the Technische Hochschule of Vienna from 1903 to 1908. In 1910, he began doctoral studies under the supervision of the noted art historian Josef Neuwirth (1855–1934) and the architecture historian Max von Ferstel (1859–1936). Between 1910 and 1913, Breier traveled throughout Galicia to document wooden synagogues, a unique genre of Jewish vernacular architecture that developed as early as the fifteenth century. Once common in Eastern European Jewish communities, almost all wooden synagogues were destroyed during the First and Second World Wars, leaving only photographs like those made by Breier to document their existence. In 1934, he published a book in German, later translated into English, on this subject. In 1937, Breier donated his original works to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

Primary Source

The Bimah at the Wooden Synagogue, Kamionka Strumiłowa

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The wooden synagogue in Kamionka Strumiłowa was built in the late seventeenth century. Its walls were covered in colorful paintings and, as in most wooden synagogues, the bimah occupied a central…

Primary Source

Jabłonów Wooden Synagogue

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The wooden synagogue in Jabłonów was built in the second half of the seventeenth century. Its walls were covered in colorful paintings. It was burned down at the beginning of World War I by Russian…