The synagogue in Stommeln, today a part of the City of Pulheim, is one of the few synagogues in Germany that were neither destroyed during the pogroms of 1938 nor razed during the post-war surge in urban renewal.

In order to do justice to its significance and to stimulate a lasting dialogue on the subject, the art project Synagogue Stommeln was initiated in 1990 under the aegis of the late Dr. Gerhard Dornseifer, Head of the Cultural Department at the time. Since 1991, the city’s Culture Department has annually invited an artist to realise a project that enters into close interaction with the room, defining its architecture while in turn being defined by its historic context.