Revealed architecture: sacred and secular Jewish buildings in East Prussia

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Kamila Lenartowicz
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Art History
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 417449092

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

The presence of the Jewish population in East Prussia was characterized in public above all by the buildings erected in connection with the Jewish rite: synagogues, ritual bathhouses and cemetery buildings. This was the most pronounced part of that presence for it formed a visual part of the urban and small-town space. With the exception of the areas of Memel and the administrative district of West Prussia, which were separated from East Prussia after 1920, there are 58 “synagogues” in the remaining 32 administrative districts. In this case, however, the term “synagogues” also includes prayer rooms in private premises. Of the buildings that have survived iconographically, 28 can be classified as synagogue buildings – it means buildings that were designed and erected exclusively as synagogues. These differed significantly in their architectural design. Some of the synagogues, for example in Insterburg (built 1865 in Moorish style, not preserved) were built in a style that was alien to the usual surroundings and attracted the attention of passers-by. The majority, however, with their brick façades and withdrawn details (the Ten Commandments plaque is repeated as a symbolic feature), blended in with the architecture of the side streets, where in most cases they found their place. In some places, as in Neidenburg (built 1884, not preserved,) the buildings were unrecognizable as synagogues. The architectural design of the ritual bathhouses and cemetery buildings remained, as far as the iconographic material allowed to conclude, in the local style. The synagogue building research carried out contributes to three areas of research. Firstly, and quite obviously, it contributes to the historiography of East Prussia by supplementing not only the history of the local building stock, but also that of the Jews as inhabitants of this province. Secondly, due to the predominantly rural topography of the province, it complements the building history of rural synagogues as a building type. This type is rarely treated analytically, mostly because of the small size of the buildings and their secondary artistic execution. Thirdly, and this point seems to set the framework for further research, the project, which emerged from a series of micro-studies on individual buildings and, inevitably, on the Jewish communities in East Prussia, provides knowledge not only about the buildings themselves, but above all about the process of their creation, also in an administrative sense. As part of the project, it was possible to examine the freedom provisions of the Emancipation Edict of 1812 and the Law on the Conditions of the Jews of 1847, as the administrative procedure in connection with the construction of Jewish ritual buildings in the Prussian province and thus the attitude and behavior of the Prussian authorities towards Jews as builders were analyzed.

Publications

• Jüdische Architektur in Ostpreußen/Jewish Architecture in East Prussia. Informationen der Bet Tfila – Forschungsstelle für jüdische Architektur in Europa. Nr. 23 (2019)
  Lenartowicz, Kamila
  
• Nothing Out of the Ordinary: The Life of Salomon Marcus. The Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, 67(1), 3-19.
  Lenartowicz, Kamila
  
• Synagogenarchitektur in Ostpreußen. Koldewey- Gesellschaft, 52. Tagung für Ausgrabungswissenschaft und Bauforschung vom 25. bis 29. Mai 2022 in Straßburg.
  Lenartowicz, Kamila & Przystawik, Mirko
  
• Jewish Built Heritage in the Former East Prussia. Tagung “Jewish or Common Heritage? (Dis-)appropriation of Synagogue Architecture in East-Central Europe since 1945” vom 12. bis 14. September 2023 in Warschau
  Lenartowicz, Kamila
  
• Former Synagogue in Barczewo as an Example of the Challenges of Rural Synagogues, in: Henschel, Christhardt; Leiserowitz Ruth; Lenartowicz Kamila, Menter, Neele, Światowy, Zuzanna (Hg.):Jewish or Common Heritage? (Dis-)appropriation of Synagogue Architecture in East-Central Europe since 1945, Schriftenreihe des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Warschau, Warschau, 2024.
  Lenartowicz, Kamila:
  
• Jewish or Common Heritage? (Dis-)appropriation of Synagogue Architecture in East-Central Europe since 1945, Einzelveröffentlichungen des Deutschen Historischen Instituts Warschau, Warschau, 2024
  Henschel, Christhardt; Leiserowitz Ruth; Lenartowicz Kamila, Menter, Neele & Światowy, Zuzanna
  
• Ostpreußische Synagogenbauforschung. Nachwirkung und Befunde, in: Koldewey Gesellschaft (Hg.), Bericht der Tagungen für Ausgrabungswissenschaft und Bauforschung, Bd.52, Dresden 2024, S. 183-189
  Lenartowicz, Kamila & Przystawik, Mirko
  
• Rekonstruieren für die Zukunft? Digitale 3D- Rekonstruktionen von Synagogen als Beispiel für einen zukunftsweisenden Umgang mit gebautem jüdischen Kulturerbe in Ostmitteleuropa, in: Copernico. Onlineportal Geschichte und kulturelles Erbe im östlichen Europa
  Lutteroth, Jan & Lenartowicz, Kamila