Dipl.-Ing. Mirko Przystawik

Mirko Przystawik studied architecture at the Technische Universität Braunschweig. Since 2005, he has been working as architectural historian: First, he served as an research associate at the Institute for the History of Architecture and Urban Development, Department of Architectural History, and since 2007 at the Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe there. Parallel to this, he assumed his work at the IGdJ as an academic staff member in 2019.

In various research projects, he has addressed his research focuses – modern Jewish architecture and material culture as well as Jewish topography. For example, he worked on the project “Jüdische Reform und Architektur: Die ‘Erfindung’ der Reformsynagoge im heutigen Land Niedersachsen und ihre weltweite Verbreitung im 19. Jahrhundert” (Jewish Reform and Architecture: The ‘Invention’ of the Reform Synagogue in the Present-Day State of Lower Saxony and its Worldwide Dissemination in the Nineteenth Century), conducted between 2009 and 2012 by the Bet Tfila – Research Center and the IGdJ. His current project at Bet Tfila is titled “Niedersachsen – Eine jüdische Topographie” (Lower Saxony – A Jewish Topography). In previous projects, he did research on the Jewish rural community in Hornburg and Torah arks in German-speaking regions. At the IGdJ, he has been working since 2019 on the project “Jüdische Wege in die Architektur” (Jewish Paths toward Architecture) together with Dr.-Ing. Katrin Keßler.

Mirko Przystawik’s research focus at the IGdJ is on Jewish architects, their professionalization and networks. In addition, he co-organizes lecture series, for example the lecture series “Jüdisches Bauen – Architekten und Architekturen” (Jewish Construction – Architects and Architectures) in the 2021 summer semester. In current and previous projects at Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe, he deals with Jewish architecture and material culture as well as with topographical and historiographical approaches to the buildings of Jewish communities, such as Hornburg and Berlin. In addition, he researched Torah ark architecture in German-speaking lands using building archaeology and historiographical approaches.

At Bet Tfila, he also curated and supervised exhibitions on the architecture of the Jewish Reform Movement, the Jewish Community in Hornburg, as well as synagogue architecture in Germany.

Mirko Przystawik has also co-organized various conferences, such as the series International Conference on Jewish Architecture, and he engages in seminars on architectural history within the curriculum of architectural studies at the Technische Universität Braunschweig.

Jüdische Wege in die Architektur. Deutsch-jüdische Architekten in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts
(Jewish Paths toward Architecture. German-Jewish Architects in the First Half of the Twentieth Century)

• (Hrsg. mit Cord-Friedrich Berghahn/ Katrin Keßler/ Ulrich Knufinke), Israel Jacobson (1768–1828). Studien zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen; Schriften des Israel Jacobson-Netzwerks) Göttingen 2022.
• Toraschrein oder Kanzelaltar? – Der Baldachin des Jacobstempels in Seesen, in: Cord-Friedrich Berghahn u. a. (Hrsg.): Israel Jacobson (1768–1828). Studien zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen; Schriften des Israel Jacobson-Netzwerks) Göttingen 2022, S. 176-185.
• „Fixum“, „quasi fixum“, „portatile“? – Toraschreine als „wandernde“ Objekte; in: Katrin Keßler/ Andreas Brämer/ Ulrich Knufinke (Hrsg.), Wandernde Objekte des Jüdischen (Jüdisches Kulturerbe 3), Braunschweig 2022, S. 125-138.
• (Hrsg. mit Andreas Brämer/ Katrin Keßler/ Ulrich Knufinke), Jewish Architects – Jewish Architecture? (Schriftenreihe der Bet-Tfila – Forschungsstelle für Jüdische Architektur in Europa 12), Petersberg 2021.
• Ludwig Levy. An Architect of Jewish Faith?, in: Andreas Brämer u. a. (Hrsg.), Jewish Architects – Jewish Architecture? (Schriftenreihe der Bet-Tfila – Forschungsstelle für Jüdische Architektur in Europa 12), Petersberg 2021, S. 53–62.