IRIS ANDRASCHEK & HUBERT LOBNIG, ATELIER AUBÖCK + KÁRÁSZ: TURNER TEMPLE MEMORY SITE – SEARCHING FOR A REFLEXIVE ARCHAEOLOGY

Turnergasse corner Dingelstedtgasse is where the Turner Temple stood until the pogrom night of November 1938. The synagogue was an important symbol and a center of the district’s Jewish life. Architect Karl König, a student of Friedrich Schmidt and later assistant of Heinrich Ferstel, designed the building, erected in 1871/72, in 1870. In the night from November 8 to November 9, 1938, the Turner Temple was set on fire with hand grenades and destroyed by the National Socialists.

The Design of the Square
A web of black concrete beams was chosen as the central design element. It not only symbolizes the burst roof truss of the temple, but also makes the square accessible. Mosaics forge a bridge between past and present. They show fruit and plants from the south mentioned in the torah. These may be understood as leftovers or starters of a festive meal, recall the destruction of the building and what happened to Jewish citizens, and invite to participate in a new coexistence of people of different provenance and religion. The existing linden trees were integrated into the design for this place, which does not allow us to forget the past and opens to a future full of hope at the same time.

Concept and planning:
IRIS ANDRASCHEK & HUBERT LOBNIG
MARIA AUBÖCK + JÁNOS KÁRÁSZ

The new design of the square in 2011 resulted from a competition organized by KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Wien/ Art in Public Space in cooperation with the City of Vienna.

The initiative for “Turner Temple Memory Site” came from the project “Herklotzgasse 21”.