View of the Lennau Jewish Cemetery. This engraving was created by Johann Rudolf Holzhalb in the mid-18th century.Image: Swiss National Museum
The first synagogues in Switzerland were built in the “Jewish villages” of Langnau and Endingen in Surbtal, canton Aargau. They still bear witness to the eventful past of Swiss Jewish settlement.
Gabriel Heim/Swiss National Museum
The settlement of the first Jewish families was recorded in Baden County at the end of the 16th century. Their names are recorded in the community of Lennau from 1622, and in the neighboring village of Endingen from 1678, although their arrival – fleeing the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War – can be considered earlier. More Jewish immigrants arrived in towns across the country from the Rhine Valley in Alsace and Vorarlberg, which were quickly denounced as “Jewish villages.”
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In 1696, the mayor of Baden, representing the eight old places, issued the first letter of protection to the Jews. The act had to be renewed every 16 years (the last time was in 1792) and, in addition to various taxes, stipulated the regulations of the authorities that Jews had to comply with. They were not allowed to buy real estate, were allowed to marry a foreign Jew only if she brought 500 guilders, and were prohibited from living under the same roof as Christians.
This limitation was imaginatively circumvented by having two independent entrances to the house. Charles Lewinsky described this architectural oddity in his epic family novel “Melnitz,” set in Surbtal:
“In the other half of the house, which had its own entrance door and its own staircase, in keeping with the law according to which Christians and Jews were not allowed to live in the same building, lived the landlord, the tailor Ogenfuss and his wife and three children, if you know how to treat them. They were peaceful people. They were good neighbors, which meant that each other was treated well. Ogenfuss deliberately did not notice the death of Uncle Melnitz and all the mourners who came to the house for seven days. People live closer than they actually wish and so become habitually blind.
But neither restrictions nor repeated riots by angry peasants (the Plum War of 1802) could stop the growth of Jewish communities in both suburbs. Around 1780, 400 Jews lived in Endingen, a village of 1,000 people. By 1850, their numbers increased to 1,000 and within a few years they became the majority of the population. They made a living as cattle and horse merchants, trading and producing straw products, hawkers or “junk Jews”, or, like Filipina Guggenheim, running a ritually run hotel.
As the community grew, so did the work of building religious and spiritual life. The first brick synagogue in Lengnau was completed in 1750, followed by the synagogue in Endingen in 1764. In an anti-Semitic article about the Jews of Baden County, the 1786 Helvetic Calendar reported: “The two synagogues are characterized by the simplicity, incompetence and character of their owners. […] Although the buildings are small in scale, the Synagogue in Endingen was not built without symmetry and taste”.
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Hope for equality after Helvetia
After the collapse of the Helvetic Empire, the canton of Aargau was established in 1803 under the Act of Conciliation drawn up by Napoleon Bonaparte. But for the Jews of Surbutar, their hopes of increased equality did not materialize. Quite the opposite! In 1809, the Allgäu Parliament passed a law placing Jews under the supervision of the government police, and in 1824, an organic law came into effect, ending the Jewish community's previous autonomy. This gave the states the power to enact various regulations and even intervene in ritual matters.
Conciliation Act 1803.Image: Swiss Federal Archives
In the mid-1850s, two communities applied for permission to build larger synagogues. In fact, this plan was approved after much controversy at the Council of Argau, thanks to the work of Augustine Keller, director of the liberal seminar, who, motivated by Christian paternalistic convictions, wanted to “bring the Israelites to rise to the level of other social classes”. and citizen life, so that their education is different, that is, suitable for the character of our country and closer to the customs of our country.
Male portrait by Augustin Keller.Image: Swiss National Museum
The new Lennau Synagogue was inaugurated on August 6, 1847. The incident attracted attention throughout Switzerland and its neighboring countries. The building was entrusted to Zurich architect Ferdinand Stadler. Stadler, who built many sacred buildings during his career (the Augustinian church in Zurich and the Reform church in Thalwil), developed a three-part architecture characterized by a gabled roof and slender arches. shaped windows.
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Synagogues in Endingen and Lunau
Lennau Synagogue. Etching by Johann Balthasar Bullinger, 1768.
Source: Swiss National Museum
In 1850, one third of Switzerland's Jews lived in Endingen, and the new synagogue was inaugurated on March 26, 1852. The architect Caspar Josef Jeuch (Barracks of Aarau) designed the facade with elements of Oriental style, thus realizing the first synagogue building in Switzerland to use these decorations. The paintings inside are also in “oriental style”. As a feature, the beautifully constructed facade has a clock that can be seen from a distance. This may also be because in Endingen it is not a church tower in a village square, but a synagogue standing on rural land.
Meschane Moukem – Meschane Marcel.
If you change position – your luck will change.
(Jewish proverb from Subtar)
Beginning in the mid-1860s, young Jews began to immigrate from the rural community of Surbutar. After the liberation in 1867, Switzerland was now open to them. If the term “historic Jewry” exists in Switzerland, it is for those families who are still proud of their homeland in Lunau or Endingen – like former federal councilor Ruth Dreifuss.
Ruth Dreifuss after her election as a federal MP in 1993.Image source: Swiss National Museum/ASL
Other posts adapted from the National Museum Blog:
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