Cologne Synagogue

As the 1861 Glockengasse Synagogue could no longer accommodate the growing community, a new building for its more liberal members rose on Roonstraße between 1895 and 1899, consecrated by Rabbi Abraham Frank on 22 March 1899. On the November Pogrom of 9 November 1938, the Nazis devastated all seven of Cologne's synagogues, including this one, and wartime air raids caused further damage. Restored at Konrad Adenauer's initiative, it reopened on 20 September 1959 under architect Helmut Goldschmidt — largely unchanged outside but simplified within. That same year, on Christmas Eve, Nazis desecrated its exterior, an incident Chancellor Adenauer addressed in his New Year's address. In October 2020, the German Bundestag approved €42 million for a heritage-conscious renovation of the roof, dome, an interior mosaic, and the windows.

The building serves as both a house of worship and a community venue, housing a kosher restaurant, a library, a museum, a youth centre, and a banquet hall. A plaque in the memorial hall honours the Jews murdered under Nazi rule. Before the Holocaust, the community followed a liberal Jewish rite with organ and choir and separate seating for men and women; today the orthodox rite is practised.

During World Youth Day in August 2005, Pope Benedict XVI visited the synagogue — the first Catholic pontiff to enter a Jewish house of worship in Germany. Citing an unbroken presence since the year 321, the community describes itself as the oldest Jewish community north of the Alps.