ehemalige Synagoge

The ehemalige Synagoge in Constance marks the site of a synagogue built for the city’s Jewish community. Local architect and city master builder Holzmann designed the building. Its inauguration brought together representatives of civic authorities and Christian churches. A mechanical organ once stood inside the synagogue.

Fire damaged the interior before architect Fritz Nathan repaired the building. SS men burned the synagogue during the November pogroms. Demolition removed the ruins, while a memorial stone later preserved fragments of the building on the site. A commemorative plaque marks the original location. Another nearby memorial recalls the deportation of Jewish residents from Constance to Gurs.

A commercial building occupies the former property and houses the Dr Erich Bloch and Lebenheim Library and a mikveh. Jewish worship returned to the site after the war. An independent Constance community later expanded its facilities as Jewish refugees arrived from the former Soviet Union. A new synagogue stands near the former site. It combines a large prayer room, a women’s gallery, liberal prayer space, community rooms, a kitchen and a mikveh. Together, these places connect Jewish memory, destruction and renewed religious life in Constance.