Berlin · Prenzlauer Berg · Germany

Synagoge Rykestraße

synagoguehistoricarchitecturegoogle verified

easy

9/10

best: afternoon

historic, reflective, cultural

A local would say...

It survived Kristallnacht by accident — surrounded by non-Jewish neighbours the SA didn't want to burn.

Berlin's largest synagogue, a rambling red-brick neo-Romanesque pile built in 1904 that survived Kristallnacht — probably because torching it would have endangered the adjacent non-Jewish residential building. The Nazis still desecrated it and used it as a munitions depot and horse stable. After the war it served East Berlin's tiny Jewish congregation and has been restored to beauty.