Synagoge Schlüchtern, German synagogue

Synagoge Schlüchtern is a free-standing neo-Romanesque building on a corner plot at Weitzelstraße 7, erected in 1898 on a cross-shaped plan. Its four nearly identical facades mix red sandstone and rendered surfaces, with gables, blind arcades, round-arched and rosette windows, each crowned by a pediment. A dome vaults the central interior, where remains of the original painting were uncovered in 1995.

The Jewish community built the synagogue at Weitzelstraße 7, inaugurated on 26/27 August 1898, replacing a timber synagogue from around 1670 that was demolished in 1978. In the Reichspogromnacht of 1938 the interior was destroyed and ritual objects burned, but the building survived and served as a warehouse from 1939 to 1945. Restored in 1945/46 on US orders, it was later a blouse and dress factory until 1969, then a cultural venue from 1970, and from 1995 the Kulturhaus Synagoge.

The building's name lives on in the Kulturhaus Synagoge, opened in February 1995 after renovation: the ground floor held the town's cultural office and an exhibition room, the upper floor a hall for the KUKI cultural cinema with 115 seats. The cinema drew almost 15,000 viewers a year and was backed by Iris Berben, Volker Schlöndorff and Michael Verhoeven.

The synagogue stands at Weitzelstraße 7, on the corner with Grabenstraße, where the neighbouring rabbi's house is number 10. The Friends of the Schlüchtern Synagogue association has held a hereditary building lease since June 2021 and estimates renovation costs at around 7.5 million euros; reopening as a cultural centre is planned for 9 November 2026. The building is therefore not yet accessible to visitors.

The building's interior was gutted in 1938 and later remodeled; remnants of the original painting were uncovered in 1995. A steel-reinforced concrete ceiling added in 1955 divided the former prayer hall into two floors for a clothing factory.