Simmering Temple

The Simmeringer Tempel was a synagogue in Vienna’s 11th district, Simmering, built between 1898 and 1899 to plans by Jakob Gartner. It served the local Jewish community, which had founded the temple association in 1891. The building stood in the Braunhubergasse, a quiet street in a residential quarter. After the Anschluss in 1938, the Nazis seized its religious objects and destroyed the synagogue on 10 November 1938. The ruins were demolished shortly afterwards. The temple’s design showed Gartner’s skill in creating a three-aisled interior with a square prayer hall seating 249 men on the ground floor. Women sat on two side galleries supported by four iron columns draped in cord. The west front featured a central projection topped by a triangular gable and a round window, while the side projections were plain. Stuck decoration enriched the interior, and an old watercolour by Ferdinand Zach suggests the original colours. Today a two-metre granite memorial by Leopold Grausam stands at the corner of Braunhubergasse and Hugogasse. Made of Mauthausen and Swedish granite, it marks the site where the temple once stood. The area remains a peaceful residential street, with no trace of the building itself. The memorial invites quiet reflection on the community that once gathered here.