In 1881 a synagogue was built. The Industrial Revolution brought economic growth, mostly with the help of the railway and the area's tobacco and hops production. 1889 gave residents in Bruchsal their first telephones, and in 1906 the Prince-Styrum Hospital was built. The city's slaughterhouse opened in 1908, and World War I again turned Bruchsal into a major hub on the supply line for the troops. Immediately after the war, in 1919 and 1920 the city was wired for electricity. In 1934 the Autobahn was built between Heidelberg and Bruchsal, and in 1936 the Bretten district was merged with the Bruchsal district. In 1938 the Nazis destroyed the synagogue (in its place stands a fire station today) and the Jewish population were deported. In 1939 the District Bruchsal became the district of Bruchsal, which included 38 towns and cities, until it was merged into Karlsruhe (district) during the district reform of 1970. On the afternoon of March 1, 1945, Bruchsal was bombed by the Allies. At the time of the attack, the war was essentially over, with the front line only 20 km from the city limits and nearly no one left to defend it. To this day, that particular attack upsets residents as the consensus is that it was unnecessary and inconsequential to the outcome of the war. There are allegations that the attack by U.S. bombers was conducted in retaliation for the killing of a parachuted pilot by farmers.[https://web.archive.org/web/20100920103908/http://aoshs.org/memories/Memorydetail.asp?MemoryID=59&VolumeID=1] In addition to the 1,000 lives that perished that day, the entire inner city and the baroque château were destroyed. On April 2, 1945, allied forces took Bruchsal without resistance.