Jerusalem Church (Berlin)

The Jersualemkirche is one of the oldest churches in the former Berlin Friedrichstadt and a current venue in the parish of Berlin city center.

History

From the chapel to the Great Church

Already in 1484 found the Jerusalem church as Capelle Hierusalem first mentioned. Over time, numerous modifications and extensions were made, inter alia, by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Edmund garlic (1841-1883) gave the church from 1878 to 1879 their final shape. Due to the spread of the newspaper district and the emigration of the population shrank the number of parishioners rapidly, the seats in 1366 were soon no longer to fill. In 1941 the church was sold to the Romanian Orthodox Church in Berlin.

Destruction and new construction

During the Second World War took place on 3 February 1945, the largest air strike took on the government and the newspaper district. In the center of which was the Jerusalem church, which was almost completely destroyed. After the war the new communist government of Romania had little interest in a ruined church in the western part of Berlin. The publisher Axel Springer, however, had his eye on the land on which to build his publishing house. In 1961 the ruins of the Jerusalem church was demolished.

A new building was built in 1968 according to plans by Sigrid Kress man - Zschach at an acute angle from the lime and Markgrafenstraße. On a part of the original location of the Jerusalem church is the Axel - Springer -Haus today. On the Rudi Dutschke -Straße, the outline of the former Jerusalem church is traced with a double row of red stones in memory. The foundation of the church is registered under number 09031270 at the monument database the Senate Department for Urban Development Berlin. Some stones of the old church were salvaged from the wreckage and are attached to the facade of the new church.

Billboard on the historic site

Floor plan of the former church

Shatterstone the former Jerusalem Church

The Jerusalem church as a venue

After the merger of the Evangelical congregation Jerusalem with four other parishes in 2001 hardly religious services were held in the Jerusalem church. 2007, the Jerusalem Church of the Special Places Environmental Forum Berlin GmbH was converted to the venue. In their rooms, conferences, congresses and other events take place and fulfill the church with new life.