Synagogue Architecture after the Holocaust in Germany - Contextualizing the Wiesbaden Synagogue and its Art Works by Egon Altdorf

24/04/2018

Synagogue Architecture after the Holocaust in Germany - Contextualizing the Wiesbaden Synagogue and its Art Works by Egon Altdorf
The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ
Tuesday 24th April 2018 - 6.30pm 
 
Led by: Dr Ulrich Knufinke

Ulrich Knufinke studied German literature, philosophy, and linguistics (Magister Artium) and architecture (Diplom-Ingenieur) at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. Ph.-D. (Dr.-Ingenieur) in 2005. Ulrich specializes in the history of sacred architecture and the architecture of minorities. As a freelancer, he has curated several exhibitions on cultural history and has published on the history of architecture, town planning, and on the intersections between art, literature, and architecture. His last book “Schwäbische Moscheen” on mosque architecture in south-west Germany, was published in 2017.

Ulrich will talk about the history of synagogue architecture after 1945 in Germany. Although it was not obvious, that Jewish life would develop in Germany after the Holocaust at all, since the 1950s quite a high number of modern synagogues and Jewish community centres were erected in West Germany. Jewish as well as non-Jewish architects and artists designed these buildings and their interiors very carefully, making visible a new approach to Jewish traditions and often very individual artistic ideas of “remembrance” of the Holocaust.

One example is the synagogue of Wiesbaden, inaugurated in 1966. Here, the non-Jewish artist Egon Altdorf together with a Jewish and a non-Jewish architect designed a modern Jewish house of worship in the sense of a “Gesamtkunstwerk”. The lecture will examine the Wiesbaden synagogue as an example of German post-war sacred architecture and as an extraordinary work of art, mostly neglected by now.  

Members price:  £8.00     Non members:  £12.00 (includes a glass of  wine)

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