German Chancellor Friedrich Merz appeared to fight back tears as he spoke at a ceremony rededicating a synagogue destroyed in the Holocaust.
Speaking at the opening yesterday of the Reichenbachstrasse Synagogue in Munich, which was devastated during the Kristallnacht pogroms against the Jews of November 1938, Merz got emotional as he recalled the atrocities the Nazis committed against Jews.
“Jewish life in Germany will one day get by without police protection again,” Merz declared. “We must not get used to the fact that this has been necessary for decades. I declare war on all forms of old and new antisemitism in Germany on behalf of the entire federal government of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
The Reichenbachstrasse Synagogue was built by architect Gustav Meyerstein in 1931, designed in the Bauhaus and New Objectivity style. It originally featured amber-colored marble around the Torah shrine, turquoise blue on the walls, and a Pompeian red design in the foyer.
After the Kristallnacht riots of November 9 and 10, 1938, the Nazis turned the Reichenbachstrasse Synagogue into a workshop and warehouse. After the war ended, Jewish survivors made minor repairs and consecrated it in 1947 as the main synagogue of Munich, a role it served until the Ohel Jakob Synagogue was opened in 2007.
Led by German entrepreneur and journalist Rachel Salamander, the synagogue has now been faithfully restored in a minimalist style, with simple wooden benches, colored walls and stained glass windows. It will serve as a cultural space as well as a functioning synagogue.