St. Nicholas's Church

Der Deutsche Dom

Wilhelmsgedächtniskirche

Berlin Cathedral

Hedwigskathedrale Interior

The New Synagogue

It is perhaps strange that we two atheists should spend so much of our time visiting religious sites, but generally speaking they are the source of much of the fine art of a country. In Thailand we saw all of the famous Buddhist temples and more, in India we saw Hindu and Buddhist temples and Moslem mosques. In Meso- and South America it was baroque Spanish colonial churches. So in Berlin we had to visit the city's churches too.

St. Nicholas's Church, Berlin

The Nikolaikirche is one of the oldest in Berlin, dating to 1230-1470; i.e. it was founded at the same time as Berlin. It is located in the Nikolaiviertel, which until World War II had many very old buildings but they were destroyed by the war and the area became a waste land. In preparation for the 750th anniversary of Berlin, in 1979 reconstruction was started and now the area has a quaint, "old time" atmosphere. Not far from Alexanderplatz, it took us several visits to Nikolaiviertel before we got into the church. Inside it is dark and sombre and filled with old oil paintings. It was also, thankfully, heated and so a welcome refuge from the cold winter weather outside. It should also be mentioned that it is a Catholic church. Given that the protestant movement began in Germany, one tends to think that the entire population was converted, which is not at all the case.

Der Deutsche Dom

Der Deutscher Dom - Once a Church, Now a Museum

One of the churches we visited isn't a church anymore. The so-called German Cathedral or Deutscher Dom is a museum of German history. That means that there isn't much inside that reminds you of its former religious use. Outside, though, it is instantly recognizable as a church with a lovely large dome. It was first built in 1708, extensively modified in 1785, destroyed in at the end of WWII, and rebuilt in 1993-1996. If Hitler hadn't been so mad and insistent on pulling down Germany with himself, so much could have been saved.

Der Deutscher Dom anchors the southern end of Gendarmenmarkt, perhaps the finest square in Berlin. At the northern end stands a matching church, called "Der Französische Dom" or the French Cathedral, which dates to 1701-1705. It too is no longer a functioning church but was still being refurbished while we were there as an art museum (and so could not be visited). In between the two museum-churches is the Konzerthaus or Concert Hall, built in in 1821. It is its proportions that do the most to make the platz outstanding.

Hedwigskathedrale

Hedwigskathedrale Interior

With our Swiss friends Sandro and Yvonne, we visited the St Hedwig's Cathedral, built in 1747-1773, according to Brockhaus. It has a rather unusual somewhat modern interior that probably stems from its rebuilding in 1963. The entire space is surmounted by the enormous open dome, making the main space circular. The altar therefore is in the center and sunken below the main part of the church. We would have liked to see a service but we never managed to get back there on a Sunday.

Die Wilhelmsgedächtniskirche

Die Wilhelmsgedächtniskirche

Die Wilhelmsgedächtniskirche Interior

Perhaps the most famous church in Berlin, at least to West Europeans, the Memorial Church to Kaiser Wilhelm I, sits in West Berlin next to the Kurfürstendamm, West Berlin's Fifth Avenue. Built as a memorial to the Kaiser, it is, or was once, a truly imperial church. The interior is covered with gilded mosaics that depict the life and times of the Kaiser. Unfortunately, it was very severely damaged during allied bombing raids during World War II and instead of reconstructing it, the government of the time decided to convert it from a memorial to the Kaiser to a memorial against the war. At least that is our interpretation.

The part of the original church that survived was stabilized and a rather ugly round church was built beside it. Both are open to the public but only the ruins of the old church impress and are a must-see. The small part of the former church that remains still retains large sections of truly beautiful mosaic work. It truly is a shame that they didn't see fit to rebuild the original church, not to glorify any past imperial power, but rather to glorify the craftsmen who designed and built the church in the first place. Perhaps now that Dresden has rebuilt its cathedral Berliners will re-think their choice.

Der Dom zu Berlin

Der Dom Zu Berlin (Cathedral) from Lustgarten

And last but not least, at the edge of Museum Island and not far from Alexander Platz, is Berlin's most magnificent church, the Berlin Cathedral. We first passed by one snowy day when the Lustgarten, the large garden that it shares with the Altes Museum, was hushed and quiet. But the day of our visit, very late in our stay, the weather was warm and a pale sun was shining so inside the church it was very busy with tourists and worshippers alike gawping and staring at the lovely interior that has recently been refurbished. It is definitely a cathedral worthy of a great capital city which Berlin is once again.

The Dome of Berlin Cathedral

View from the Tower of Berlin Cathedral

We began our visit by climbing up to the tower and were rewarded for our climb with some great views of Berlin, including the one of the Lustgarten in front of the church. To the right, out of view are the Alte Nationalgalerie and the Altes Museum. Directly ahead is the Spree Canal; to the left, also out of view, is the Schlossplatz; and to its east is the eyesore of the People's Palace of the DDR that is thankfully slated for demolition soon. Behind (east of) the Dom zu Berlin is the Spree River.

Like the Hedwigskathedrale, the Dom zu Berlin has one large all-encompassing dome that provides a breathtakingly large unbroken space for the church beneath. Around the outside edges of the main sanctuary are several tombs that hold former Princes of Germany and many more are in the crypt-basement. Having explored them all, we climbed up the grand staircase at one side of the church to enter one of the four balconies that face the altar and give terrific views of the high relief statues that fill the spaces above the drum's windows.

Last but not least, the area behind the balconies contained a small museum that gave the history of the Cathedral. The current church is a 1975-1993 reconstruction of the 1905 Cathedral, which itself replaced a smaller building. (The first church on this site dates to 1465.) Berlin, being the capital of a majority protestant nation in 1905 had to be doted with something that could match up to St Peter's (Catholic) church in Rome. The exhibit included some models of design proposals that were rejected in favor of the current one. We agreed that the better design was chosen.

The New Synagogue

The New Synagogue

Never Forget

The Neue Synagoge is located on Oranienburger Strasse, once the heart of Jewish life in Berlin. Hardly more than around the corner are the remants (after Nazi destruction) of the oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin. A memorial stands there now.

Unforutnately we never were able to visit the inside; the view from outside is as close as we came to visiting the synagogue. The plaque explains that the original building was built in 1856, burned in 1938 during the destructive Nazi rampage called Kristallnacht (night of the broken glass), destroyed by allied bombing in 1943, and rebuilt in 1966. The plaque concludes by saying that the building's facade should remain sacred for all time as a warning and a memorial and exhorts the reader: "Never Forget". It is signed by the management committee of the Greater Berlin Jewish Community.