The 'Fasanenstrasse Synagogue' () was a
liberal Jewish Synagogue in
Berlin,
Germany. It was located on the
posh Fasanenstrasse, close to
Zoo Station.

Interior of the Fasanenstrasse synagogue after Kristallnacht, November 1938
The Fasanenstrasse Synagogue was built between 1910 and 1912 and was large enough to accommodate 1,720 worshippers. A scholar of
Progressive Judaism rabbi Leo Baeck was one of its leaders. Its main cantor for many years was
Magnus Davidsohn and Richard Altmann (who was blind) was its organist.
Kaiser Wilhelm presented the synagogue with a ceremonial marriage hall, dedicated to the Jews of Germany, and, as Magnus Davidsohn's daughter, Ilse Stanley, describes in her book ''The Unforgotten'', visited the temple upon its opening in 1912.
The synagogue functioned for only twenty four years. The
Nazis forced it to close in 1936. The synagogue was destroyed during the
Kristallnacht pogrom on
November 10,
1938. In 1943, the remains of the building were destroyed during an Allied air raid on Berlin.
After
the Holocaust, most of a few Jews who returned to Berlin were immigrants from the
Eastern Europe. The grounds of the former Fasanenstrasse synagogue were chosen for the building of a new Jewish Community Center of Berlin. In 1957, the Mayor of Berlin
Willy Brandt attended the ceremony of laying its
corner stone. The old ruins were removed, but a few surviving elements, such as the main portal, were kept for the decoration of the new building. It was designed by the architects Knoblauch and Heisse of Essen in the modern style of the 1950s.
The building of the Jewish Community Center () in Berlin was inaugurated on
September 27,
1959.
External links
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The Fasanenstrasse Synagogue, Berlin, Germany Beit Hatefutsot Jewish Museum of the Diaspora
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New Jewish Museum Berlin tells tales of past, present that unfold 2,000-year history of Jews in Germany by Alexandra Wall, September 14, 2001
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The Jewish Site of Berlin Jüdisches Gemeindehaus Fasanenstrasse