The history of the synagogue of the
Portuguese
congregation Neve Shalom in
Hamburg-Altona and
its destruction in 1940 can only be reconstructed in
fragments since only few written and pictorial sources exist. It was consecrated in
1771 in a backyard in what was then
Bäckerstraße
(today: Hoheschulstraße) and continued
to be used by the
High German
Israelite
Congregation from 1887.
Today the entire
area is
developed with apartment buildings; there is no memorial plaque. In addition to pen
and ink drawings from
1916
and
1917
by Ludwig Schwarz and an
undated oil painting by
Martin Peter
Georg Feddersen, all of which show the west façade with the entrance as
a frontal view in the courtyard situation, and a few photographs, only the former
crest of the entrance portal still exists, which was given to the
Altona
Museum: a sculptural crown above the monogram of the Danish
King
Christian
VII, who had permitted the construction of the synagogue in
1770. The 3D model is based on research conducted at the
Bet Tfila Research Center for Jewish
Architecture in Europe at the
Technical University of
Braunschweig,
which made it possible to reconstruct both the building and its interior design. A
1:50 scale model made of wood formed the basis for the creation of this simulation.
Thus the building is not only documented as a virtual reconstruction, but can also
be experienced by the viewer in the present.
Sephardic Synagogue “Bäckerstrasse” 3D Model (translated by Insa Kummer), edited in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History,
<https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-220.en.v1> [December 06, 2024].