Mödling Synagogue

Społeczność żydowska

Jews are recorded in Mödling before 1350, and the medieval community was expelled during the Vienna Gesera of 1420-21, when its synagogue fell to Duke Albrecht V. Settlement resumed in the 1840s. A prayer-house association existed by the 1860s, held its first burial in May 1876 and in 1888 acquired the house at Enzersdorferstraße 6. In 1892 the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Mödling was founded as a community separate from Baden; it called itself a Cultusgemeinde from 1894. Its rabbis were Leo Bardowicz from 1892 to 1925, Wilhelm Reich briefly in 1926, and Albert Schweiger from 1926 to 1938. Presidents included Ignaz Belai (1904-1915), Ernst Moser (1916-1927), Fritz Rosenberg (1934-1935) and Alfred Eisler (1936-1938). Figures for 1938 differ within the same study: a report of May 1938 gives 530 members, while another passage gives 1,012 members in 1938, falling to 35 a year later. The community had its own cemetery, which holds 373 graves, and in 1926 Reiser also converted its administration building.

Architektura i projekt

The synagogue stood on a plot of 816 square metres at Enzersdorferstraße 6, recorded in the land register as house no. 803, 'israelitisches Gotteshaus'. The local building inspection of 8 August 1912 approved the plan for 232 worshippers. Building files and newspaper reports used in Julia Neuruhrer's 2011 study mention a dome with structural calculations, crowned by a lantern, a concrete gallery, and a floor raised 60 cm above street level, with doors opening outward. Besides the main hall the building contained a winter synagogue, an entrance hall, two cloakrooms and two terraces; the main entrance was on the west front. The estimated cost of 140,000 crowns was exceeded, and the congregation appealed to its members and to the communities of Vienna and Baden for help, giving the work to local tradesmen where it could. The only photograph found, taken after the fire, shows a rendered building with a large oval window in its upper wall and the charred ribs of the dome and lantern above. Further detail of the facade, the seating and the ark is unknown.

Życie w synagodze

The synagogue was consecrated on 16 August 1914 by Rabbi Leo Bardowicz, who had served the community since its foundation in 1892 and remained until 1925. The cornerstone document, signed by community officers, had been sealed into the keystone at a ceremony on 16 November 1913. The building had a separate winter synagogue for weekday and cold-season services alongside the domed main hall. After Bardowicz, Wilhelm Reich served briefly in 1926, and Albert Schweiger was rabbi from 1926 until the community was broken up in 1938. In 1926 the community also had its administration building converted by Reiser, the architect of the synagogue. Hostility reached the building well before 1938: in April 1927 stones broke its windows. After the Anschluss, attacks on 17 May and 28 September 1938 damaged the ark, the lighting and the windows. Little else is known about the order of services or the community's institutions.

Zniszczenie

On the morning of 10 November 1938 a crowd that the Nazi local paper, the Mödlinger Nachrichten, called 'outraged national comrades' gathered at the synagogue and smashed its furnishings. A fire, which the paper attributed to a 'short circuit', was put out, but in the afternoon the building burned again; the roof and the dome burned out and the fire brigade only protected the neighbouring houses. According to Neuruhrer, the Nazi district leader (Kreisleiter) Dr. Tavs ordered the firemen to stop work at about 5 p.m., and Max Kuderna, one of the Jews seized that day, said he was tortured in the synagogue's cellar before being sent to Dachau. Fire chief Josef Mayer put the damage at about 4,000 Reichsmarks, charged to the community. In October 1940 the authorities ordered the dangerous ruin demolished within two months, but the community lacked labour and transport, and the city of Vienna bought the plot in June 1941 for 6,000 Reichsmarks. After restitution in 1955 the ruin remained until November 1987, when it was removed; who carried out that demolition is not recorded in the sources read.

Los społeczności

Persecution began immediately after the Anschluss. In the night of 11 to 12 March 1938 Nazi party members carried out house searches and confiscations among Jews and political opponents, and on 27 April Jewish shopkeepers were forced to daub antisemitic slogans on their own shops; one held his First World War bravery medal as he did so. In the night before the pogrom, the Nazi press reported, 'politically suspect' Jews in Mödling and nearby towns were arrested, and Max Kuderna was among those sent to Dachau, where he was held until December. The Kultusgemeinde Mödling was dissolved on 11 April 1939 and its property passed to the Jewish community of Vienna; its registers were handed over in 1940. The city of Vienna acquired the administration building in 1939 and the cemetery in 1940. According to Neuruhrer, almost all of Mödling's Jews were deported in the following years; she names the poet Albert Drach and the physician Dr. Eisler as two who escaped. About a third of the Jews of Lower Austria were deported and murdered. The number of Mödling victims is unknown.

Miejsce dzisiaj

A three-storey residential and office building stands on the plot at Enzersdorferstraße 6, built after the ruin was cleared in 1987. No part of the synagogue is known to survive on the site. A memorial plaque recalls the synagogue there. The Jewish cemetery of Mödling survives; it was restored in 1995-96 by the association Schalom and is maintained by the town. A Gothic doorway believed to come from the medieval synagogue is kept in the Mödling museum.

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