About this place
On Hans-Sachs-Platz, close to the Spitalbrücke where the Pegnitz slips through the old town, a modest memorial stone with a copper plate and a small relief recalls the Grand Synagogue of Nuremberg. Completed in 1874 to designs by the architect Adolf Wolff, the building rose in the flamboyant Moorish Revival style, its great dome a proud sign that the Jewish community had returned to the heart of a city that had once banished it. In August 1938, months before Kristallnacht, Gauleiter Julius Streicher and mayor Willy Liebel had it destroyed as 'architecturally offensive'. The city never rebuilt on the site, choosing instead to let the empty square itself carry the memory. The memorial ensemble, unveiled in 1988, also honours Leo Katzenberger, a community leader executed in a notorious Nazi show trial.
Key facts
- 1874 year — The Grand Synagogue was completed in the Moorish Revival style by architect Adolf Wolff
- 935 seats — The main hall could hold this many worshippers before its destruction
- 1988 year — The memorial stone was erected fifty years after the synagogue was torn down
📍 Hans-Sachs-Platz 12, 90403, Nürnberg