In the years 1961-2000 the Jewish community met for worship in a small house. In 2000 a new synagogue was built for a growing Jewish community. The new Synagogue offers not only an imposing place of worship, but an attractive community centre as well.
“Das Tietz” commissioned by the Tietz family business was designed and built by Professor Wilhelm Kreis in 1912-1913. The building was heavily damaged in the “Pogromnacht“ in 1938 and again in the bombing of Chemnitz in March 1945. In 2004 the former department store was converted into a cultural centre housing the municipal library, community college, museum of natural history as well as the New Saxon Gallery.
The brothers Simon and Salman Schocken commissioned Erich Mendelssohn to design and build this magnificent and modern Schocken department store. The five-story store opened on May 15 1930. Function and ownership changed many times in the years 1933-1991. Astonishingly, the building was barely affected by the bombing of Chemnitz on March 5 1945.
The opera house was inaugurated in 1909. Richard Tauber, the son of a Jewish wine merchant from Vienna, took over the running of the theatre 3 years after its inauguration and made it famous. He was the first in Saxony to produce Wagner’s Parsifal, earning Chemnitz the title “Bayreuth of the North”. Tauber suffered under the Nazi regime. He was forced to resign his post and went into exile.
Schalom Restaurant opened on March 15, 2000. The house on the Heinrich-Zille Straße was originally built to be a restaurant but oddly, only in the year 2012 when Schalom moved here were the rooms of the house finally used for their original purpose. Schalom offers a completely kosher menu and is well known for its pleasant atmosphere. In 2018 Shalom appeared with a recommendation in the famous “Guide Michelin”.