District Administrator Dietmar Allgaier welcomed those present and was delighted that the new building had been completed on schedule, even undercutting the cost forecast of around 68,000,000 euros. Herbert Pötzsch, Chairman of the PKC, as well as Isolde Siegers and Michael Volz, PKC management, presented the possible uses of the extension building, which is directly connected to the former synagogue. The new building now offers a second seminar room, four new single rooms with separate sanitary units, an archive room with a ventilation system and a barrier-free visitor WC.
The architects Ulrike Engelhard and Klaus Eggler from "engelhard.eggler.architektur" (Besigheim) supervised the work with great dedication over a 16-month construction period. Construction officially began on March 26, 2019 with the start of demolition work, and the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on September 12, 2019. The work was supported by the Wüstenrot Foundation with 50,000 euros.
A special feature of the new seminar room in the new building is the graffiti from the "Schächthaus", which may be evidence that the Jews of Freudental continued to secretly slaughter small livestock for a few years after the National Socialists banned it. Butcher's hooks and the drainage channel for the animals' blood were preserved until the building was demolished in 2017.
The Pädagogisch-Kulturelle Centrum ehemalige Synagoge Freudental e.V. (PKC) is a research center and place of learning about the history of German rural Jews, particularly in the Württemberg lowlands, and is part of the indispensable heritage of the former Jewish community of Freudental. From the very beginning, the concept of the institution has linked the authentic, historical place of learning with the conference center. The conference centre, which was conceived almost 40 years ago and has been in use since 1985, was modernized and expanded in 2004. Due to the limited space available, the PKC reached the limits of its capacity both in terms of the learning opportunities on offer and the accommodation available in the conference center. The district acquired the property at Strombergstraße 21 in 2015. The integration of the building offered the opportunity to sensibly round off the building ensemble, thus ensuring the future viability of the PKC.
The architecture of the new building:
- Timber construction with certified woods
- PKC extension harmoniously adjoins the main building
- A total of 142 square meters of usable space including basement
- Seminar room with 34 square meters
- In the basement: archive room for PKC book collections with ventilation
- The seminar room has a separate entrance. In agreement with the municipality of Freudental, it will also be available to other Freudental associations (VHS, music school)
- Glass façade of the seminar room opens onto the street and the existing inner courtyard
- Heat supply from the Freudental municipality's green local heating network
Two graffiti from the former shepherd's house have been saved:
- the account of the non-Jewish small animal supplier Wilhelm Kummer, who was ostracized by the Nazis as a notorious friend of Jews. It is possible that this account is an indication of the testimony of contemporary witnesses that the Jews of Freudental continued to secretly slaughter small livestock for several years after the National Socialists banned the slaughter of livestock.
- Pencil fragments of a swastika and a Hitler salute. Both are likely to have been scribbled on the barn by young people immediately after the de facto "Aryanization" of the Jewish school building. After the November pogrom of 1938, a kindergarten and the Hitler Youth had moved into the main building.
