Turnertempel Mahnmal

The Turnertempel on Turnergasse in Vienna's 15th district, Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, was an important synagogue built by the Jewish community between 1871 and 1872. The freestanding building, designed by Karl König in the Italian Renaissance style, had room for hundreds of worshippers and was extensively renovated and expanded in 1923. During the November pogroms of 1938, the temple was destroyed by arson, and only the community center behind it was left undamaged. After the war, the site served for a time as a garage before the City of Vienna built a housing complex there. The synagogue's original site, however, was never built over and became a fenced-in meadow. Today a modern memorial, opened in 2011, marks the spot. Designed by a team of architects, the monument is not meant to be a traditional Holocaust memorial; instead, it aims to preserve the history of the place and encourage encounters. Since 2018, the square has been named after Moshe Jahoda, who played a key role in bringing the memorial to life.