Danzig - the Great Synagogue

Greetings from Danzig. Published by J. Miesler, Berlin. Posted on 6 April 1901.

The card shows a panoramic view of the Baltic port city of Danzig (which was part of Imperial Germany at the time and is now the Polish city of Gdańsk) with the Great Synagogue visible in the foreground above the “anzi” in Danzig. Designed along neo-Renaissance lines with a smattering of neo-Moorish frills by the non-Jewish duo Hermann Ende (1829–1907) and Wilhelm Böckmann (1832–1902)—they also developed the plans for the (now) Old Synagogue in Wuppertal-Elberfeld (1864/65)—it was inaugurated on 15 September 1887 and clearly made its mark on Danzig’s skyline. At the time, the Danziger Zeitung, the local liberal daily, emphasized how harmoniously the synagogue fit into its environment. While smaller prayer houses in the city were set alight in the November Pogrom of 1938, police officers repulsed the SA men intent on attacking the Great Synagogue. It was subsequently expropriated, however, and demolished in May 1939.

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