Jewish Museum Augsburg Swabia
he Jewish Museum was founded in 1985 in the Great Synagogue of Augsburg as the first independent museum in the Federal Republic of Germany dedicated to the history and culture of Jews. Erected at the beginning of the 20th century, the synagogue survived the pogrom of November 1938, and is now a unique testimonial to German-Jewish culture and once again the center of a Jewish congregation. The sanctuary may be viewed when visiting the museum.
A section of the permanent exhibition is dedicated to the architecture and history of the impressive building. Since 2014 the former synagogue of Kriegshaber, nowadays a suburb of Augsburg, serves as a branch of the museum. The oldest preserved synagogue building in the region, for almost 300 years it has been the center of a thriving Jewish rural community which disappeared due to migration into the cities and destruction during the Nazi era.
The Jewish Museum Augsburg Swabia sees itself as a historical museum that refers to the Jewish history of Bavarian Swabia in relation to current social issues.
It is a place where aspects of migration, integration, homeland and culture are discussed from the perspective of a minority. And it is a place where it is shown that diversity is neither a threat nor an enrichment, but a normality.