The synagogue in Konstanz, the district town of the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, was built in 1882/1883 and destroyed during the November pogroms in 1938. This first synagogue was on Sigismundstrasse. A new building was inaugurated in 2019. The Jewish community of Konstanz tried to build a synagogue from 1872. The property at Sigismundstrasse 19 was purchased from the Konstanz Hospital Foundation and, thanks to numerous donations and a loan, the financing was secured. The synagogue was built according to the plans of the architect and city builder Holzmann from Constance. The inauguration, attended by numerous representatives of the state and municipal authorities and the Christian churches, took place on September 28, 1883.
From 1946 to 1960, a memorial stone made from fragments of the synagogue, which is now in the Jewish cemetery, commemorated the property. Today a plaque commemorates the first synagogue. In addition, a few steps from their location is a memorial in memory of the deportation of 108 Jews from Konstanz in 1940 to Gurs in the French Pyrenees as part of the Wagner-Bürckel campaign.
During the time of National Socialism, the synagogue was set on fire on November 1, 1936 and the Torah shrine, the organ and four compartments in the synagogue stalls, in which the prayer robes and books were kept, were burned. The plaster on the inside walls and the chairs were damaged by the heat. After the synagogue was repaired in 1937 by the architect Fritz Nathan, it was set on fire by SS men under the leadership of Walter Stein during the Night of the Reichspogromnacht from November 9th to 10th, 1938. The Constance fire brigade, which was involved in the fire, was not allowed to extinguish the fire. On the morning of November 10, 1938, the synagogue’s ruins were finally blown up by a pioneer unit from III./SS-VT “Germania” stationed in Radolfzell.
