Recreating Lost Synagogues

Marc Grellert (TU Darmstadt) discusses his decades of work creating virtual reconstructions of synagogues destroyed during the Nazi period. This work began after the 1994 firebombing of a Lübeck synagogue, the first racist attack on a Jewish house of worship in Germany since 1945. Today, more than 25 destroyed synagogues have been recreated virtually.

About the Speaker

Marc Grellert teaches digital design at the TU Darmstadt and is co-founder of the company Architectura Virtualis. His work and research focuses on virtual reconstructions and simulations of architecture, knowledge transfer with the help of digital media, and the development and realization of installations and exhibits for exhibitions. He studied architecture at the TU Darmstadt and received his doctorate in 2007 on the potential of digital technologies for remembering destroyed architecture.

Grellert has led numerous national and international research projects in the context of reconstruction, simulation and visualization of historical buildings and urban facilities, including the Vatican Palace at the time of the High Renaissance, the Berlin Palace, the Moscow Kremlin, the Imperial Tombs of Xi'an" (China), synagogues in Germany, the construction and design history of St. Peter's Cathedral, the Khmer temples in Cambodia, Ephesus (Turkey), the Dresden Residence Palace, the London Crystal Palace of 1851 and the virtual construction history of the Florentine Cathedral.

In 1994, he initiated the virtual reconstructions of synagogues destroyed during the Nazi era and developed the Synagogue Internet Archive in 2002.