WATCH: New 3D digital reconstruction of pre-WWII Breslau Synagogue
The synagogue, designed by Edwin Oppler, was built between 1865 and 1872 and stood until the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938.
By ALEX WINSTONThe New Synagogue, Breslau, in a drawing by Robert Geissler.(photo credit: WIKIPEDIA/DIGITAL LIBRARY OF THE SILESIAN VOIVODESHIP)
Synagogues long destroyed or fallen into ruin are being brought back to life thanks to the art of digital reconstructing.The latest addition to the collection is a new 3D digital reconstruction of the New Synagogue in what was once Breslau, Germany.Now Wrocław in Poland after changing hands at the end of World War II, the New Synagogue was once the second largest synagogue in the German Empire and regarded as a major center of Reform Judaism in Breslau.The synagogue, designed by Edwin Oppler, was built between 1865 and 1872 and stood until the Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938.The digital reconstruction is part of a project of the Institute of Architecture, part of Hochschule Mainz university, and is named “The New Synagogue in the Context of Three Religious Communities. Digital Reconstruction and Documentation of the Breslau/Wrocław Synagogue."The stunning video shows the New Synagogue as it once looked, its massive domed roof dominating the skyline of Breslau, and includes text telling the story of the synagogue.The project's website also goes into more detail regarding the building of the synagogue, including illustrations and other works of Oppler, who built several grand synagogues throughout Germany.Once one of the largest Jewish communities in Germany, during World War II almost all of the city's 10,000 Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps and after the war the city was transferred to Poland under the terms of the Potsdam Conference.
