GERMANY. Frankfurt. Uniface Cast Plaquette 1907 (Bronze, 62x49 mm, 66.31 g, 12 h), on the consecration of the New Frankfurt Synagogue. By K. Goetz. Schrobenhausen. NEUE SYNAGOGE DER JSR.RELIGIONSGES.ZU FRANKFURT A.M / בית תפלה ישורון ('House of Prayer Yeshurun' in Hebrew) / EINGEWEIHT AM 23. AUGUST 1907 / יום ה י״ט אלול שנת הרחיבי מקום אהליך קהל עדת ישורון לפ״ק ('Thursday, the 19th of Elul in the Year Enlarge the place of thy tent [chronogram based on the verse from the Book of Isaiah 54:2], Congregation Yeshurun' in Hebrew) Arched gateway with an ornate ceiling, supported by two columns rising from altar steps, framing a view of the exterior of the New Frankfurt Synagogue (Synagoge Friedberger Anlage). Rev. Blank. AJN XLII, p. 76. Julius 2776. Kienast 394. Stern -. Whiting 531. Kienast number '394' in ink on the reverse. Extremely fine.


Among Karl Goetz’s works, this early plaque is unusual. Better known today for his widely collected propaganda medals of the First and Second World Wars, some reflecting the nationalist and racist ideology of their time, Goetz here commemorated the 1907 dedication of Frankfurt’s New Synagogue on Friedberger Anlage.

Designed by Berlin architects Peter Jürgensen and Jürgen Bachmann, the synagogue seated more than 1,600 worshippers. It survived the November 1938 pogroms but was demolished soon afterward under Nazi coercion.