Read here the speech of Professor Erhard Schnurr on 16th September 2018 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of the Synagogue in Leutershausen.
1553 | Since this year there has been written evidence of Jewish life in Leutershausen and Grosssachsen. |
1781 | The Jews of Leutershausen bought the room under the roof of the house at no. 1 Hauptstrasse for 130 guilders and used it as a prayer hall. |
1862 | The Jewish community acquires two pieces of land at the “Schriesheimer Tor” (Schriesheimer gate) for 816 and 411 guilders to build their own synagogue. |
1868 | After setting the cornerstone on May 22th in 1867, the inauguration of the synagogue took place on September 4th, 1868. |
1938 | After most of the Jewish families had left Leutershausen as a result of the Nazi reprisals, the synagogue was sold to the municipality on April 4th. For this reason the synagogue was safed from the Kristallnacht destruction on November 9th. |
1950 | The synagogue, which was used as a hospital and prison camp during the Second World War, is owned by the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization. |
1952 | From 1952 to 1955 the building was owned by the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg. In 1955 it became private property and was subject to different kinds of commercial usage and multiple remodeling of the building. |
1985 | The municipality Hirschberg purchases the building and attaches a memorial stone at its west side on November 9th, 1988. |
1996 | The council commissioned the architectural firm Diesbach & Kopp in Weinheim to dismantle and reconstruct the former synagogue in its original shape as far as possible and to restore it for the purpose of cultural use. |
2001 | The synagogue building is opened to the public as a center for culture and as a meeting place. The ceremony takes place on November 11th in the presence of descendants of former Jewish citizens of Leutershausen. |
2006 | The glass painter John K. Clark from Scotland creates two rose windows for the west and east facade which are set up in April. |
2010 | The house standing next to the synagogue, formerly inhabited by a family named Bickel, is demolished. The resulting square is redesigned. |
2014 | The square is named “Meier-Heller-Platz”. |
2014 | Dedication of the Memorial to the Jewish Holocaust victims from Hirschberg |