Church sights in Berlin
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Berliner Dom
Pompous yet majestic, the 1905 neo-Renaissance Berliner Dom was once the royal court church and now does triple duty as house of worship, museum and concert hall. Take a spin around the sombre crypt where dozens of royals are buried in elaborate tombs, then climb up to the outside viewing gallery for glorious city views. The 7269-pipe Sauer organ and the elaborate sarcophagi made for the Great Elector and King Friedrich I and their wives are top draws in the main church hall.
reviewed
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B
Gethsemanekirche
This statuesque red-brick church is an 1893 neo-Gothic pile by August Orth and was among the dozens commissioned by Emperor Wilhelm II to ‘create a bulwark against socialism, communism and atheism’ which, he feared, were fomenting in Prenzlauer Berg and other working-class districts. Ironically, rather than stifling such movements, the Gethsemane church encouraged them. Its congregation can look back on a proud tradition of dissent and as a haven for nonconformists and freethinkers. During GDR times it was a key player in the nonviolent movement that eventually brought down the regime. Such action, of course, placed it firmly in the crosshairs of the Stasi which, as late …
reviewed
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C
Nikolaikirche
Original Gothic churches are a rare sight in Berlin, so that’s the first thing that makes St Nicholas special. The other is its key role during the Reformation. For it was behind these thick walls in 1539 that Elector Joachim II took the then-radical step of celebrating Brandenburg’s first public Lutheran-style worship service. That’s the elector in bronze outside the church. Inside, important treasures include a baptismal font (1398), a baroque pulpit (1714) and a late-Renaissance altar (1582) whose centre panel depicts the Last Supper. Church acoustics, by the way, are splendid, making this a great place to catch a concert. If you’re here on a summer weekend, try …
reviewed
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D
Matthäuskirche
Standing a bit lost and forlorn within the Kulturforum, the Stüler-designed Matthäuskirche (1846) is a beautiful neo-Romanesque confection with alternating bands of red and ochre brick and a light-flooded, modern sanctuary that doubles as a gallery. German resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ordained a Lutheran minister here in 1931. A few years later the church was scheduled to be transplanted to Spandau to make room for Albert Speer’s Germania. Fortunately the war – and history – took a different turn. Bonhoeffer, however, was executed by the Nazis on 9 April 1945, just a few days before the end of the war. Climb the tower for good views of the Kulturforum and Po…
reviewed
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E
Sophienkirche
One of Berlin’s finest baroque churches, Sophienkirche was named for Sophie Louise, wife of King Friedrich I. The queen financed the project but was nowhere to be seen when it opened in 1713, though not by choice: her stepson and newly crowned king, Friedrich Wilhelm I, had banished her from Berlin! Today the galleried confection with its delicate stucco ceiling is rarely open and the tower is under long-term reconstruction. The entrance is at the end of a walkway off Grosse Hamburger Strasse, past a building still sporting WWII shrapnel wounds. The enchanting churchyard with its ancient trees and gracefully aging tombstones is also visible from Sophienstrasse.
reviewed
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St Marien am Behnitz
Separated from the Spandau Altstadt by the busy Strasse am Juliusturm, the Kolk quarter exudes medieval village flair with its romantic narrow lanes, crooked, half-timbered houses and 78m-long section of town wall. A must-see jewel is the church of St Marien am Behnitz. A top-to-bottom makeover of the 1848 church saw the return of the hand-painted murals, decorative stucco and stained-glass windows that had been destroyed during a botched 1960s restoration job. Try catching a concert here – the acoustics are tremendous.
reviewed
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F
Deutscher Dom
This 1708 church wasn’t much of a looker until getting its dazzling galleried dome courtesy of Carl von Gontard in, like Französischer Dom, 1785. It’s now home to a hopelessly academic exhibit called ‘Milestones-Setbacks-Sidetracks’ that charts the path to parliamentary democracy in Germany and regularly bores field-tripping school kids to tears. Borrow a free audio guide or join a guided one-hour tour (also in English by prior arrangement) to make better sense of it all.
reviewed
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G
Hugenottenmuseum
Local Huguenots worshipped at the Französischer Dom (French Dome), where the small Hugenottenmuseum now chronicles their story. The elegant structure is a spitting image of the Deutscher Dom opposite.
reviewed
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