Dr.-Ing. Katrin Keßler

Katrin Keßler has been an academic staff member at the IGdJ since November 2018, working in the research project entitled 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). She studied architecture at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, where she completed her Ph.D. with a thesis on Liturgische und religionsgesetzliche Voraussetzungen des aschkenasischen und sefardischen Synagogenbaus in Mitteleuropa (“Liturgical and Religious-Legal Preconditions of Ashkenazic and Sephardic Synagogue Construction in Central Europe”) at the Institute for History of Architecture. For many years, she has been involved as an academic staff member in various projects of the Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe. Scholarships enabled her to undertake research stays, among others, at the Center for Jewish Art of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she worked for three years on a DFG (German Research Foundation) research project on “Bauwerke jüdischer Gemeinschaften in Berlin” (Buildings of Jewish Communities in Berlin). At the Technische Universität Berlin, Department of Architectural and Urban History, she was also a collaborating partner on the research project entitled “Ein hochmittelalterlicher jüdischer Wohn- und Handelskomplex in Erfurt und seine Raumfassung” (A High Medieval Jewish Residential and Commercial Complex in Erfurt and its Spatial Setting, 2017/18). She also continues to serve as an associate at the Bet Tfila – Research Unit, where she is heading the project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research called “Net Olam. Jüdische Friedhöfe im Fokus von Antisemitismus und Prävention (Net Olam. Jewish Cemeteries in the focus of Anti-Semitism and Prevention, 2018–2021).

Katrin Keßler is a member of the Koldewey Gesellschaft – Vereinigung für baugeschichtliche Forschung e.V. and of the Verband Deutscher Kunsthistoriker e.V. She is a board member of the Israel Jacobson Netzwerk für jüdische Kultur und Geschichte e.V.

The current focus of her work at the IGdJ is research on Jewish architects in Germany up to the time of the Shoah, their training stations, networks, and emigration paths. In the context of this research, Katrin Keßler also participated in organizing the conference entitled “Jewish Architects – Jewish Architecture?” (November 2018). She also helped conceive the lecture series „Jüdisches Bauen – Architekten und Architekturen” (“Jewish Construction – Architects and Architectures”) (Spring 2021). She also co-organized the Third Network Conference “Wandernde Objekte” (“Wandering Objects”) (September 2019) of the Netzwerk jüdisches Kulturerbe (Jewish Cultural Heritage Network), which took place in Hamburg, and is responsible for the Network’s publication series: Jüdisches Kulturerbe (“Jewish Cultural Heritage”). Her current research focuses on the architectural history of Jewish communal institutions (especially synagogues and ritual baths) in modern times, in addition to the biographies and works of Jewish architects.

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)

• Jewish Architects and Their Networks. The Example of the Zionist Architect Richard Michel, in: Andreas Brämer u. a. (Hrsg.), Jewish Architects – Jewish Architecture? (Schriftenreihe der Bet-Tfila – Forschungsstelle für Jüdische Architektur in Europa 12), Petersberg 2021, S. 63–70.
• Jüdische Wege in die Architektur. Die Eroberung eines „neuen“ Berufsfeldes, in: Jüdische Geschichte und Gegenwart (MiQua Schriftenreihe Band 1), Köln 2021 (im Erscheinen).
• Vom Kleiderschrank zum Toraschrein: Synagogeneinrichtungen nach 1945, in: Katrin Keßler/ Andreas Brämer/ Ulrich Knufinke (Hrsg.), Wandernde Objekte des Jüdischen (Jüdisches Kulturerbe 3), Braunschweig 2021 (im Erscheinen).
• (Hrsg. mit Andreas Brämer/ Ulrich Knufinke), Wandernde Objekte des Jüdischen (Jüdisches Kulturerbe 3), Braunschweig 2021.
• Galka Scheyer – A Jewish Woman in International Art Business, hrsg. von Katrin Keßler u. a., Braunschweig 2021 (im Erscheinen).
• (Hrsg. mit Martha Stellmacher/ Alexander von Kienlin/ Ulrich Knufinke), Jüdisches Kultuerbe (re-)präsentieren (Jüdisches Kulturerbe 2), Braunschweig 2019.