Albrecht Rosengarten (alsoAlbert Rosengarten, 5 January 1809 – 15 August 1893)[1][2] was among the first Jewish Germans permitted to train and practice as an architect and the first to design synagogues.[3][4] His work was a major influence on theRundbogenstil design of synagogues inCentral Europe and abroad in the second half of the nineteenth century.
He was born to Julie (née Gans) and Abraham Rosengarten, a carpet manufacturer inKassel. As a boy he displayed an aptitude for drawing, and he received his first training at a private drawing school. He enrolled from 1826 to 1829 at theKassel Art Academy under the direction of Johann Heinrich Wolff, an advocate ofNéo-Grec architecture who was firmly opposed to the newRundbogenstil (rounded-arch style) championed at this time byHeinrich Hübsch, director of the building authority ofKarlsruhe in theGrand Duchy of Baden. Rosengarten was accepted as an apprentice at the Kassel building authority in 1827–29, beginning his employment in the civil service of theElectorate of Hesse. He was awarded a prize at the Kassel Art Academy and in 1829–30 made his first study trip to Rome. Upon his return to Hesse, he was again employed at the Kassel building authority, now as an assistant to the director. In all, Rosengarten worked for twelve years in the civil service of theElectorate of Hesse, broadening his expertise through study trips to Paris (withHenri Labrouste) in 1839 and, for a second time, to Rome in 1841. Rosengarten, who never married, moved in 1842 toHamburg, where he designed a number of buildings. He died inWiesbaden.
Between 1830 and 1834, Kassel's Jewish community considered and rejected numerous designs for a new synagogue submitted by the foremost architects of Hesse, all of them Rosengarten's civil service superiors. His proposal for a building in theRundbogenstil was finally accepted. Rosengarten had come to regard thebasilica of classical antiquity as the prototype and thus the common root for Jews and Christians, and he considered the alliedRundbogenstil most suitable for synagogues. In doing so, he rejected both theneo-Gothic style because of its all too obvious connection with Christianity and theneo-Egyptian style because of its association with slavery. He likewise spurnedneo-Classical copying of Greco-Roman temples.
The synagogue stood in Untere Königstrasse and was consecrated on 8 August 1839 after three years of construction.[5] A large building with two-stories and three aisles, it provided space for around 800 members of the congregation. In accordance with the wishes of Kassel's Jewish community, it conveyed a sense of self-confidence and pride without standing out too much from its surroundings. With its unadorned façade, neo-Romanesque round arches, and yellowish-white quarry stone, it blended harmoniously into the cityscape.
With this building, Rosengarten created a new style in synagogue construction, characterized by the desire to signify Jewish integration in architectural terms. He published his views and plans in theWiener Allgemeine Bauzeitung in 1840, and many contemporary architects took note. Beyond his work on the Kassel synagogue, he achieved renown as the designer of the synagogue inGudensberg in northern Hesse (1840–1843) as well as three synagogues built in brick shell construction (including the Kohlhöfen Synagogue inHamburg). Since most of the synagogues Rosengarten designed were destroyed in theKristallnacht of 1938, the synagogue inGudensberg in northern Hesse is probably one of the few synagogues by him, if not the only one, that has survived.
Rosengarten's work in Kassel influenced the design of new synagogues built inFrankfurt am Main (Schützenstrasse, 1853) andMannheim (1855). His influence was also evident in theAustro-Hungarian Empire. The synagogues inPohořelice (1855),Brno (1855) andJihlava (1863) in Moravia adopted theRundbogenstil, as did the New Synagogue inGliwice (1861), the Great Synagogue inPlzeň (1861), and theLinz Synagogue (1877).
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