Synagoge Rykestraße: The Synagogue in the Courtyard
Why is it significant?
From the pavement of Rykestraße you see only an ordinary apartment house, with a gateway and a police car parked outside. Peer through the gate, though, and at the back of the courtyard a great red brick facade rises with round arches and a tall rose window.
Key Facts
| Place | Synagoge Rykestraße: The Synagogue in the Courtyard |
|---|---|
| Address | Rykestraße 53, 10405 Berlin, Germany |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.53540, 13.41860 |
| Part of Walk | Candles and Courtyards: Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, from 1933 to the Autumn of 1989 |
| Generated | Generated |
From the pavement of Rykestraße you see only an ordinary apartment house, with a gateway and a police car parked outside. Peer through the gate, though, and at the back of the courtyard a great red brick facade rises with round arches and a tall rose window. This is the Synagoge Rykestraße, and it is hiding on purpose.
It was consecrated in 1904, designed by the architect Johann Hoeniger, when Prenzlauer Berg was full of Jewish families who had moved out of the crowded old centre. In those years many Berlin synagogues were built in courtyards, set back from the street, partly because land was expensive and partly so as not to provoke. With room for around two thousand people, it is one of the largest synagogues in Germany.
On the night of the 9th of November 1938, the November pogrom, mobs and SA men set synagogues on fire all over Germany. They broke into this one too, desecrated it and arrested people. But they did not burn it down, because the flames would have spread to the apartment buildings all around, where German neighbours lived. The courtyard that hid the synagogue ended up saving it. Later the building was confiscated and used as a storehouse.
After the war, a tiny surviving community restored it, and in 1953 it was consecrated again. For the decades of the GDR this was the main synagogue of East Berlin, a lonely place with a handful of elderly worshippers and a state that kept a careful eye on it. A thorough restoration finished in 2007 brought back the painted walls and the light, and today the community fills it again on the high holidays.
Notice the police outside. Every Jewish institution in Berlin has them, around the clock. The building survived 1938 by an accident of architecture, and it is protected today by a decision of the state. Walk back to the corner and up Rykestraße to the triangular square at its end, where a bronze woman sits in the middle of a playground.