Stommeln Synagogue

In 1991, the town of Pulheim initiated the Stommeln Synagogue art project, a permanent process of examination of this historically significant location. Since then it has continued to make a contribution to a culture of remembrance. A wide-ranging overview of remarkable works is being assembled on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the synagogue.

Far from the day-to-day business of culture, international artists have repeatedly taken up the challenge of developing works for the silent building in a remote setting and its remarkable historical context. Virtually all the works were specially designed for the location with its architecture and history; the overview publication shows how they enter into a close inter-relationship, how they define the space and are equally themselves defined by its field of tension.

The synagogue in the Stommeln district of Pulheim is one of the few ynagogues in Germany that was not destroyed during the pogroms of 1938 and that did not fall victim to the wave of demolitions that took place after the war.