Jewish architects and Jewish architecture in the Federal Republic of Germany, the GDR and Austria after 1945

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Alexandra Klei
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390770318

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

Within the framework of the project, the possibilities and limits of ‚Jewish Building’ between 1945 and 1989 in the Federal Republic and in the GDR were investigated in an architecturalhistorical study. The concept of ‚Jewish Building’ encompasses various aspects: the life and work of Jewish architects, the Jewish communities as builders, the buildings erected for Jewish use, and finally, their reception by the non-Jewish public, among others, in the context of opening ceremonies, in daily newspapers, or publications. The study pursues the question as to the architectural, urban, and public spaces in which Jewish life managed to develop after the Shoah in both German states. The project focused on Jewish construction projects: synagogues, community centers, retirement homes, youth centers, cemetery buildings, as well as monuments that are related to the sites of destroyed synagogues. Categories include both plans actually realized and unrealized for new buildings as well as – much more frequently – conversions of existing buildings by the communities. While the majority of construction projects in the GDR were completed in the 1950s, a history of Jewish building activity in the Federal Republic of Germany can be traced over the entire period under investigation. Against this background, a selection was made to cover projects built at different times and under different conditions. The study involves not only the concrete construction history, but also questions about the visibility of Jewish life, the attribution of meaning, possible appropriations of architecture, references to Jewish history, but also restoration, “restitutions,” and the handling of former synagogue properties and preserved community buildings. Overall, the role of the non-Jewish society in the re-establishment of Jewish life was thus (also) included in the study.

Publications

• Vorwort. In: Edina Meyer-Maril: Der Architekt Rudolf Reuven Trostler. Sechzig Jahre zwischen Wien und Jerusalem. Tel Aviv/Yafo 2000, S. 7-10.
  Alexandra Klei
  
• Nicht realisierte Synagogen – Die Planungen des Architekten Hermann Zvi Guttmann in Wien. In: David. Jüdische Kulturzeitschrift. April 2019, S. 68-71
  Alexandra Klei
  
• Synagogen in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Geschichte, Erinnerung und Architektur. Hrsg. von werkraum bild und sinn e.V. Berlin: Eigenverlag 2019
  Alexandra Klei
  
• “Jewish Building” in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic after the Holocaust. Possibilities, Limits, Spaces. Arts, 9(1), 38.
  Klei, Alexandra
  
• Am Ort erinnern. Die sefardische Synagoge in der Altonaer Bäckerstraße, in: Hamburger Schlüsseldokumente zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte, 18.01.2021
  Alexandra Klei
  
• Deutschlands größter jüdischer Architekt entwarf ein ikonisches Bauwerk für den größten jüdischen Wissenschaftler. In: Leo Baeck Institute – New York, Berlin: Shared History Project. 1700 Jahre Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland. 08.07.2021
  Alexandra Klei
  
• Entwurfspläne für das jüdische Altenheim. In: Hamburger Schlüsseldokumente zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte, 14.06.2021
  Alexandra Klei
  
• Erich Mendelssohns Leben für Architektur und Musik. In: Leo Baeck Institute – New York, Berlin: Shared History Project. 1700 Jahre Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland. 08.07.2021
  Alexandra Klei
  
• Jewish Spaces and the Holocaust [Special Issue], Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung 15 (2021)
  Alexandra Klei & Annika Wienert
  
• Relations and Disruptions. Jewish Architects in Postwar Germany. In: Andreas Brämer, Ulrich Knufinke, Katrin Keßler, Mirko Przystawik (Hrsg.): Jewish Architects - Jewish Architecture? Petersberg: Michael Imhof 2021, S. 181-187
  Alexandra Klei
  
• Von der Wiedergutmachung zum Kampf gegen Antisemitismus. Bedeutungszuschreibungen für Synagogen in Deutschland nach 1945. In: kritische berichte 3: Rassismus in der Architektur / Racism in Architecture. 2021, S. 93-107
  Alexandra Klei
  
• Auf der Suche nach Kontinuität. Überlegungen zur Rekonstruktion zerstörter Synagogen. In: Jüdische Geschichte & Kultur. Magazin des Dubnow-Instituts. Heft 6. Berlin: Metropol 2023, S. 36-40
  Alexandra Klei
  
• ‚Jüdisches Bauen‘ zwischen 1945 und 1989 in der Bundesrepublik und der DDR. Möglichkeiten, Grenzen, Räume. (AT). Berlin: neofelis
  Alexandra Klei