The Jewish Museum Augsburg Swabia is the oldest foundation-supported Jewish museum in Germany. Located in the west wing of the great Augsburg Synagogue, the museum first opened its doors in 1985 following an extensive renovation of the entire synagogue complex.
The synagogue in the Augsburg city center, built from 1913 to 1917 according to designs by Fritz Landauer and Heinrich Lömpel, is one of the most impressive synagogues in Europe. It is the only urban synagogue in Bavaria to have survived the National Socialist period, and today it is once again the center of a Jewish community. In fact, thanks to Jewish immigration from the post-Soviet states, the Augsburg Jewish community is now larger than ever before.
The museum’s permanent exhibition, which in its current incarnation dates from 2006, is currently being reconceived and redesigned in the course of a general renovation of the building.
One museum – two locations
A second museum location, the former Kriegshaber Synagogue, was inaugurated in 2014. The former Kriegshaber Synagogue is the oldest surviving synagogue building in Bavarian Swabia. From the early eighteenth to the twentieth century, it was the heart of an important rural Jewish community just outside the Augsburg city gates.
The former Kriegshaber Synagogue is currently the Jewish Museum’s only space for temporary exhibitions. Another such space will be available at our main location when the ongoing renovation of the Augsburg Synagogue is complete.