Gedenkstätte Alte Synagoge, Wiesbaden

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Wiesbaden, colloquially known as the Michelsberg Memorial or Named Memorial in Wiesbaden, the capital of the German state of Hesse, is a memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust from Wiesbaden during the Nazi era.

During the pogrom night of November 9/10, 1938, the Michelsberg synagogue, built in 1869, was set on fire by Nazis. The building was so badly damaged that it was demolished in 1939. For a long time, the events on site were not remembered publicly and in the course of the construction of the elevated bridge, the place was in danger of disappearing completely from public view.

The Active Museum Spiegelgasse for German-Jewish History in Wiesbaden campaigned for the construction of a memorial to the murdered Jews of Wiesbaden on the site where the synagogue of the Jewish community once stood.

After the demolition of the Hochbrücke in 2001, there was an opportunity to commemorate the victims of National Socialism at the authentic site of the synagogue. In 2005, the state capital Wiesbaden announced an urban planning ideas competition with a realization component to obtain designs for the redesign of the "former synagogue/Michelsberg" area. The most important goal of the competition was to create a place of commemoration by name for the Jews murdered and expelled during the National Socialist dictatorship.

On January 27, 2011, the nationwide memorial day for the victims of National Socialism, the Named Memorial at Michelsberg was inaugurated after eight months of construction. With its seven-meter-high reinforced concrete walls, the memorial makes visible the dimensions of the former synagogue at this site. In addition, the outlines of the synagogue are depicted in the flooring.

At eye level, the names of all 1507 victims identified so far are engraved on stone slabs. The design of the memorial is based on designs by the artist Valeria Sass and the architectural firm Barbara Willecke.

The memorial is administered by the Wiesbaden City Archive.