Commemoration of the destroyed Great Synagogue in Düsseldorf
The Great Synagogue on Kasernenstraße in Düsseldorf was first desecrated and then set on fire on November 10, 1938 in the course of the National Socialist November pogroms. The ruins were demolished just a few days later. To this day, nothing remains of the synagogue. A memorial plaque has stood on the site since 1946. The building of a media company was later erected on the burnt ground.
The light installation by Mischa Kuball missing link_ commemorates the large building of the Jewish community. Completed in 1904 in neo-Romanesque style, the synagogue was a cultural center of Jewish life in Düsseldorf and that is not to be forgotten. The attempt to extinguish Jewish life in the heart of Europe was not only a Babarian crime during the National Socialist era, but the loss of Jewish culture in Europe can still be felt today.
On the large canvas of missing link_, the architectural design of the Great Synagogue can be seen in section and refers to the historicity of the Jewish place of worship. A broad band of glistening light falls onto the asphalt of the street.
In addition to the installation on the façade of the media company, a newly developed app provides information, historical images and eyewitness accounts.
Mischa Kuball’s work gives the history of the site a new visibility and offers a resonating space for commemoration and coming together.
Mischa Kuball explains: “Despite the memorial plaque, many people still don’t know that the synagogue stood there. But that was where the Jews had their central place, in the middle of society! I didn’t just want to mark the place, I also wanted to fill it with content. My installation makes the synagogue visible again, directly on the façade of the building that stands on the site today, and also on the street, which gives an impression of its former dimensions with a wide white strip of light. The idea is to offer the city a more dignified place for remembrance beyond the light installation. We are also developing an app in which you can find out, for example, that the fire department did not arrive on the night of November 10, 1938, because there was an order not to intervene. Or that the architect of the synagogue was chosen by the Jewish community because he had already built many Catholic churches – they wanted to connect with Christian society in this way.”
The project is a cooperation with the Jewish Community of Düsseldorf, the City of Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Memorial and Remembrance Center.
Photos / credits :
Mischa Kuball | missing link_ | 2023 | ehemalige Große Synagoge, Düsseldorf Kasernenstrasse 67 | © Foto: Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf 2023 |
Die Grosse Synagoge Düsseldorf erbaut 1902-1904 nach dem Entwurf von Joseph Kleesattl © Foto: Archiv der Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf. Blick von der Ecke Carl-Theodor-Straße in die Kasernenstraße. Linkes Bild: Synagoge und Schauspielhaus, rechtes Bild: Bürogebäude. Foto: Landesbildstelle; Datum: 1927; Signatur: 5-8-2-004090_0001; Standort: 51.2197, 6.7756
09.11.2023 > Ministerin für Kultur und Wissenschaft NRW, Ina Brandes, OB der Stadt Düsseldorf, Stephan Keller mit dem Künstler Mischa Kuball © Foto Archiv Mischa Kuball, Düsseldorf 2023
Termin: since November 9, 2023
Adresse: since November 9, 2023 Kasernenstraße on the corner of Siegfried-Klein-Straße, Düsseldorf