The Neue Synagogue was damaged on Kristallnacht (the Germans more accurately call it Pogrom Night), but the building avoided major damage thanks to the efforts of Wilhelm Krützfeld, chief of the Hackescher Markt police station. Krützfeld was able to get Hitler's SA thugs to withdraw and forced the local fire department to extinguish the flames.
Neue Synagogue
The New Synagogue was designed by Eduard Knoblauch, a non-Jew who had no idea what a Synagogue was supposed to look like. Completed in 1866, this Moorish-Byzantine style building was rejected by many in the Jewish community who commented that it was a nice building, but not a synagogue. I think the organ, which was the third-largest in Berlin, may have given away the designer's ignorance.