The "Neue Synagoge", also the liberal synagogue, served the liberal (assimilated) Jew and was established in 1872 by the R. Gedalja Tiktin (1843-1886), an Orthodox, and R. R. Manuel Joel, a liberal Jew. They commissioned the Jewish architect Edwin Oppler, who designed the largest and most magnificent synagogue of Germany. It was built in Byzantine Roman style, crowned by a 60 m. high dome, surrounded by four smaller ones. In the notorious crystal night in November 1938 this beautiful architectural gem was torched and totally destroyed.