3D Reconstruction of the New Synagogue in Wroclaw in 1872
The 3D reconstruction of the dome of the New Synagogue in Wroclaw. Model was made wit BIM approach. More information can be found in Virtual Research Environment of the project or in the Sketchfab viewer.
Carried out by the Institute of Architecture, Hochschule Mainz, the project "The New Synagogue in the Context of Three Religious Communities. Digital Reconstruction and Documentation of the Breslau/Wrocław Synagogue" offers a unique opportunity to explore this amazing temple and unique focal point in the city's skyline.
The project provides for a semantically saturated digital model of the synagogue that harnesses new research methodology, using the Virtual research environment (Virtuelle Forschungsumgebung, VFU). VRE enables the scientific analysis of the sources used for the reconstruction of the building and the development of links connecting different sets of data, namely corporate bodies, persons, objects, sources, historical events, research activities and places. The model also elaborates Breslau's spatial context in ca. 1872, when the synagogue opened; it is also embedded in the social and cultural context of that time, most notably in religious matters. For the purpose, an extended database was developed to provide information on Evangelical and Catholic communities in the city, and two respective churches they almost concurrently developed: St Salvator’s Church and St Michael's Church, which, together with the New Synagogue, were expected to act as vertical landmarks in Breslau's cityscape. The project also advances new methodology for the digital reconstruction of historic architecture which provides for an innovative recontextualisation of perished cultural heritage using vibrant and thriving Digital Humanities.
The project also involved a Polish-German workshop for architecture students from the Hochschule Mainz, Germany, and art history students from the University of Wrocław, Poland. The workshop was focused on nineteenth-century sacred architecture in Breslau, and explored five designs for St Salvator’s Church [Salvatorkirche] by C.J.Ch. Zimmermann (1831–1911), neither of which ever went beyond the conceptual stage. The project also involved a Polish-German workshop for architecture students from the Hochschule Mainz, Germany, and art history students from the University of Wrocław, Poland. The workshop was focused on nineteenth-century sacred architecture in Breslau, and explored five designs for St Salvator’s Church [Salvatorkirche] by C.J.Ch. Zimmermann (1831–1911), none of which ever went beyond the conceptual stage.
The night of 9 November 1938 witnessed the most harrowing pogrom of German Jewry since the Middle Ages. Synagogues and other Jewish property were desecrated and destroyed, including each and every synagogue designed by Edwin Oppler. November 2018 marked the 80th anniversary of these events, which we commemorated with an AR (Augmented Reality) app. Specially designed for the purpose, it visualises the perished New Synagogue in Breslau. The app "kARtka z synagogą" comes with a dedicated synagogue postcard, which we premièred during the annual March of Mutual Respect, commemorating the pogrom and covering the route from the White Stork Synagogue to where the New Synagogue used to be located. The citizens of today's Wrocław join the march as a living testimony to these harrowing events, which also served as a prelude to the Holocaust.
As such, the digital reconstruction project preserves memory and raises the awareness of Breslau's Jewish community and its complex history, a history that straddles two countries in time: pre-war Germany and today's Poland.