Jewish life existed in Cottbus as early as the 15th century. The number of Jewish inhabitants of Cottbus increased sharply in the 19th century. While 35 Jewish citizens were resident in the city in 1829, a hundred years later there were more than ten times as many. In 1858, the Cottbus Synagogue Community was founded. From 1811, the community met in a rented room at Marktstraße 12, where the first synagogue was inaugurated in 1875. This building had to be given way to the new town hall in 1934.
A prestigious new synagogue was built on the former Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße in 1902 – at the time of the inauguration, the congregation had about 450 members. Among them were highly respected citizens, such as the cloth manufacturer Max Grünebaum, who promoted art and culture in Cottbus, or the lawyer Abraham Hammerschmidt, whom the Prussian Minister of Justice congratulated on his 50th anniversary of service in 1931.
Holocaust survivor Max Schindler and his family belonged to the Jewish community of Cottbus. In his interview he remembers religious life in his early childhood.