Since the demolition of the Memorial Church (Denkmalskirche) section on the north side by the East German authorities in 1975, Berlin Cathedral has consisted of the large Sermon Church (Predigerkirche) in the center, and the smaller Baptismal and Matrimonial Church (Tauf- und Traukirche) on the south side and the Hohenzollerncrypt(Hohenzollerngruft), which covers almost the entire basement. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the cathedral's original interior was restored by 2002. Currently there is discussion about restoring the historical exterior as well.
Term
Berlin Cathedral (German: Berliner Dom) is the common name for the Supreme Parish and Collegiate Church (German: Oberpfarr- und Domkirche zu Berlin) in Berlin, Germany.
On 7 April 1465 – at Frederick Irontooth's request – Pope Paul II attributed to St Erasmus Chapel a canon-lawCollege named Stift zu Ehren Unserer Lieben Frauen, des heiligen Kreuzes, St. Petri und Pauli, St. Erasmi und St. Nicolai dedicated to Mary(am) of Nazareth, the Holy Cross, Simon Peter, Paul of Tarsus, Erasmus of Formiae, and Nicholas of Myra. A collegiate church is a church endowed with revenues and earning estates, in order to provide a number of canons, called in canon law a College, with prebends.[4] In this respect a collegiate church is similar to a cathedral, which is why in colloquial German the term cathedral college (Domstift), became the synecdoche used – pars pro toto – for all canon-law colleges. So the college of St. Erasmus' chapel, called Domstift in German, bestowed the pertaining church its colloquial naming, Domkirche (cathedral church). Frederick Irontooth provided the college with estates, sufficient to supply eight canon prebendaries.[5] On 20 January 1469, Dietrich IV, then Prince-Bishop of Brandenburg, invested eight clergymen, chosen by Frederick Irontooth, as collegiate canons with the prebends.[4]
The Collegiate Church in the former Black Friars' Church of St. Paul's south of the Palace (1536–1747)
In 1535, Prince-Elector Joachim II Hector reached the consent of Pope Paul III to shut down the 1297-founded Dominican convent (Black Friars), southerly neighboured to the palace, to acquire the pertaining monastic St. Paul's Church, built ca. in 1345. On 28 May 1536, most of the Black Friars moved to a Dominican monastery in Brandenburg upon Havel. Joachim II Hector assigned the thus void, three-nave church building to the Collegiate Church of Our Lady, the Holy Cross, the Ss. Peter, Paul, Erasmus and Nicholas and enlarged the College to 12 prebendaries, bestowing two of them to canons taken on from the Dominican convent.[6]
In 1538, a new western façade with two towers was attached to the collegiate church, which – due to its prior status as a church of a mendicant order – had no tower before. In the next year, Joachim II Hector converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism, as many of his subjects had done earlier. The collegiate church thus became Lutheran too, like most of the electoral subjects and all the churches in the Electorate. However, Joachim II Hector's ideas of Reformation were different from the modern ones. After his conversion he enriched the collegiate church with luxuriant furnishings, such as paraments, monstrances, relics, chasubles, carpets and antependia.[7] From 1545 on the electoral family of Hohenzollern used the church building as their burial place.[8]
In 1608, the year of his accession to the throne, Prince-Elector John Sigismund, then a crypto-Calvinist, dissolved the college and the church was renamed into Supreme Parish Church of Holy Trinity in Cölln.[9] In 1613, John Sigismund publicly confessed his Calvinist faith (in Germany usually called Reformed Church), but waived his privilege to demand the same of his subjects (Cuius regio, eius religio). So he and his family, except his steadfastly Lutheran wife Anna, converted, while most of his subjects remained Lutherans. While Berlin's other churches, subject to Lutheran city-council jurisdiction, remained Lutheran, the Supreme Parish Church of Holy Trinity, the Hohenzollern's house church, became Berlin's first, and until 1695, only Calvinist church,[10] serving from 1632 on as the parish for all Calvinists in town.[11] Being now a Calvinist church, the patronage of the Holy Trinity was increasingly skipped.
In 1667, the dilapidated double-tower façade was torn down and in 1717 Martin Böhme erected a new Baroque façade with two towers. With the effect of 1 January 1710, Cölln was united with Berlin under the latter name. In 1747, the Supreme Parish Church was completely demolished to clear space for the baroque extension of Berlin Palace.
The Supreme Parish Church with its double-tower façade of 1538 with northerly adjacent parts of Berlin's Palace. Miniature shown in the present church building.
View of the interior of the Supreme Parish Church in 1705 (the only known graphic with this view)
The Supreme Parish Church in 1736 with its new towers
The Supreme Parish Church in its new Building north of the Palace (1750–1893)
On 6 September 1750, the new baroque Calvinist Supreme Parish Church was inaugurated, built by Johann Boumann the Elder in 1747–1750. The electoral tombs were transferred to the new building. The new structure covered a space north of the palace, which is still covered by the present building.[9]
In 1817, under the auspices of King Frederick William III of Prussia, the community of the Supreme Parish Church, like most Prussian Calvinist and Lutheran congregations joined the common umbrella organization named Evangelical Church in Prussia (under this name since 1821), with each congregation maintaining its former denomination or adopting the new united denomination. The community of the Supreme Parish Church adopted the new denomination of the Prussian Union. Today's presbytery of the congregation bears the unusual name in German: Domkirchenkollegium, literally Cathedral College, thus recalling the history of the church as a collegiate church.
In celebration of the Union Karl Friedrich Schinkel remodeled the interior in the same year and in 1820–1822 the exterior of Boumann's church in the neoclassicist style.[9] The Supreme Parish and Cathedral Church faced at its southern façade Berlin City Palace, the residence of the Hohenzollerns (severely damaged in World War II and demolished later by the East German government), and the Lustgarten park at its western front, which is still there.
Miniature of the Supreme Parish Church in Berlin, as built by J. Boumann the Elder in 1750
The Supreme Parish Church after Schinkel's remodelling, c.1830
Modern Berlin Cathedral (1893–present)
Berlin Cathedral from the Lustgarten (2015)Berlin Cathedral before sunset (August 2024)
However, in the 19th century, a new building was under discussion, but the post-Napoleonic poverty made its realization impossible. After dismantling the movable interior (altar, paintings, sarcophagi), Boumann's building was demolished in 1893 and Julius and Otto Raschdorff, father and son, built the present Supreme Parish and Cathedral Church in exuberant forms of high Neo-Renaissance style.[9]
The organ in 1964 – on the floor the rubble of the dome, destroyed in an Allied bombing 1944
With no separation of Protestant church and state of Prussia, Wilhelm II officiated as the summus episcopus (Supreme Governor of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces, as it was named since 1875) and the state paid the complete construction cost of 11.5million Marks. At 114 metres (374ft) long, 73 metres (240ft) wide and 116 metres (381ft) tall, it was much larger than any of the previous buildings and was considered a Protestant counterweight to St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. On 27 February 1905, the present building was inaugurated.[12]
In 1940, the blast waves of Allied bombing blew away part of the windows. On 24 May 1944, a bomb of combustible liquids entered the roof lantern of the dome. The fire could not be extinguished at that unreachable section of the dome. So the lantern burnt and collapsed into the main floor. Between 1949 and 1953, a temporary roof was built to enclose the building. On 9 May 1967 the then still undivided Evangelical Church of the Union decided a committee for the reconstruction of the Supreme Parish and Cathedral Church, then located in East Berlin.[13] The government of the Eastern German Democratic Republic did not oppose the work of the committee due to the concomitant inflow of Deutsche Marks.
In 1975, reconstruction started, simplifying the building's original design and demolishing the north wing, the 'Denkmalskirche' – Memorial Church. Compared by some to the Medici Chapel, it had survived the war completely intact but was demolished for ideological reasons by the communist government due to it being a hall of honour for the Hohenzollern dynasty. This resulted in scaffolding for restoration appearing on the church while detonation charges were applied to its undamaged rear. The government also demanded the removal of as many crosses as possible. The demolition and redesign cost 800,000 marks, while the restoration (done on the cheap) cost just 50,000 marks.[14] The Berlin Cathedral Building Society now seek to rebuild the Denkmalskirche.[15]
In 1980, the baptistery and wedding church reopened for services. The restoration of the nave began in 1984. On 6 June 1993, the nave was re-inaugurated in an event attended by Federal ChancellorHelmut Kohl and televised nationwide in Germany. There has been discussion to restore the dome and surrounding cupolas to their original appearance, but this has not occurred due to a lack of funds.
Music
"SIEHE, ICH BIN BEI EUCH ALLE TAGE BIS AN DER WELT ENDE." ("SEE, I WILL BE BY YOU ALL THE DAYS UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD.")
—Biblical sentence (Matthew 28:20) above the main entrance to Berlin Cathedral (on the left)
Main organ
"UNSER GLAUBE IST DER SIEG, DER DIE WELT UEBERWUNDEN HAT." ("OUR FAITH IS THE VICTORY THAT CONQUERED THE WORLD.")
—Biblical sentence (1 John 5:4) above the main entrance to Berlin Cathedral (on the right)
The pipe organ, built by Wilhelm Sauer, was fully restored during reconstruction. It has 113stops, including three ranks of 32' pipes on the pedal division, played by a 4-manual console:[12]
I Hauptwerk C–a3
Prinzipal
16'
Majorbaß
16'
Prinzipal
8'
Prinzipal amabile
8'
Doppelflöte
8'
Flûte harmonique
8'
Bordun
8'
Quintatön
8'
Viola di Gamba
8'
Gemshorn
8'
Harmonika
8'
Gedacktquinte
51/3′
Oktave
4'
Flûte octaviante
4'
Fugara
4'
Rohrflöte
4'
Oktave
2'
Rauschquinte II
Grosscymbel III
Scharff III–V
Kornett III–IV
Bombarde
16'
Trompete
8'
Clairon
4'
II Brustwerk C–a3
Prinzipal
16'
Quintatön
16'
Prinzipal
8'
Geigenprinzipal
8'
Doppelflöte
8'
Spitzflöte
8'
Soloflöte
8'
Rohrflöte
8'
Salicional
8'
Dulciana
8'
Oktave
4'
Spitzflöte
4'
Flauto Dolce
4'
Salicional
4'
Quinte
22/3′
Piccolo
2'
Mixtur IV
Cymbel III
Kornett III
Tuba
8'
Klarinette
8'
III Schwellwerk C–a3
Salicional
16'
Bordun
16'
Prinzipal
8'
Schalmei
8'
Hohlflöte
8'
Konzertflöte
8'
Gedeckt
8'
Gemshorn
8'
Unda maris
8'
Dolce
8'
Oktave
4'
Quintatön
4'
Traversflöte
4'
Gemshorn
4'
Nasard
22/3′
Waldflöte
2'
Terz
13/5′
Mixtur III
Trompete
8'
Cor anglais
8'
Glockenspiel
Rückpositiv
Flötenprinzipal
8'
Flöte
8'
Gedackt
8'
Dulciana
8'
Zartflöte
4'
IV Schwellwerk C–a3
Lieblich Gedackt
16'
Prinzipal
8'
Traversflöte
8'
Spitzflöte
8'
Lieblich Gedackt
8'
Quintatön
8'
Aeoline
8'
Voix céleste
8'
Prestant
4'
Fernflöte
4'
Violine
4'
Gemshornquinte
22/3′
Flautino
2'
Harmonia aetheria III
Trompete
8'
Oboe
8'
Vox Humana
8'
Tremolo zu Vox humana
Pedal C–f1
Prinzipal
32'
Untersatz
32'
Prinzipal
16'
Offenbaß
16'
Violon
16'
Subbaß
16'
Gemshorn
16'
Lieblich Gedackt
16'
Quintbaß
102/3′
Prinzipal
8'
Flötenbaß
8'
Violoncello
8'
Gedackt
8'
Dulciana
8'
Quinte
51/3′
Oktave
4'
Terz
31/5′
Quinte
22/3′
Septime
22/7′
Oktave
2'
Kontraposaune
32'
Posaune
16'
Fagott
16'
Trompete
8'
Clairon
4'
II/I, III/I, IV/I, Super I, III/II, IV/II, Super II, IV/III, I/P, II/P, III/P, IV/P
3 Freie Kombinationen, Mezzoforte, Forte, Tutti, Rohrwerke, Jalousieschweller III. Manual, Jalousieschweller IV. Manual, Jalousieschweller Vox humana, Handregister ab, Rückpositiv ab.
Inside Berlin Cathedral
Ensembles
Contributing to the cathedral's comprehensive concert programme is their own set of choirs (Berliner Domkantorei) and a brass ensemble (Berliner Dombläser). Berlin Cathedral is also the main place of activity for the renowned boys' choir Staats- und Domchor Berlin, an institution of the Berlin University of the Arts. Since Advent 2015, The English Choir Berlin, a multinational SATB adult choir, sings Choral Evensong (Domvesper in anglikanisher Tradition) monthly on a Saturday evening and, from time to time sings at Sunday morning divine services.
Frederick II of Brandenburg, nicknamed "the Iron" and sometimes "Irontooth" (Eisenzahn), was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from 1440 until his abdication in 1470, and was a member of the House of Hohenzollern.
The Berlin Palace, formally the Royal Palace and also known as the City Palace, is a large building adjacent to the Berlin Cathedral and the Museum Island in the Mitte area of Berlin. It was the main residence of the House of Hohenzollern from 1443 to 1918. Expanded by order of Frederick I of Prussia according to plans by Andreas Schlüter from 1689 to 1713, it was thereafter considered a major work of Prussian Baroque architecture. The royal palace became one of Berlin’s largest buildings and shaped the cityscape with its 60-meter-high (200 ft) dome erected in 1845.
The Pomeranian Evangelical Church was a Protestant regional church in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, serving the citizens living in Hither Pomerania. The Pomeranian Evangelical Church was based on the teachings brought forward by Martin Luther and other Reformators during the Reformation. It combined Lutheran and Reformed traditions. The seat of the church was Greifswald, the bishop's preaching venue was the former Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas in Greifswald.
Cölln was the twin city of Old Berlin (Alt-Berlin) from the 13th century to the 18th century. Cölln was located on the Fisher Island section of Spree Island, opposite Altberlin on the western bank of the River Spree, until the cities were merged by Frederick I of Prussia to form Berlin in 1710. Today, the former site of Cölln is the historic core of the modern Mitte locality of the Berlin-Mitte borough in central Berlin.
A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian churches.
The French (Reformed) Church of Friedrichstadt is in Berlin at the Gendarmenmarkt, across the Konzerthaus and the German Cathedral. The earliest parts of the church date back to 1701, although it was subsequently expanded. After being heavily damaged during World War II, the church was rebuilt and continues to offer church services and concerts.
Friedrichstadt was an independent suburb of Berlin, and is now a historical neighbourhood of the city itself. The neighbourhood is named after the Prussian king Frederick I.
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St. Mary's Church, known in German as the Marienkirche or St.-Marien-Kirche, is a church in Berlin, Germany. It is located on Karl-Liebknecht-Straße in central Berlin, near Alexanderplatz. The exact age of the original church site and structure is not precisely known, but it was mentioned as the site of the alleged theft by Jews of the wafers in an act of Host Desecration in 1243. As a result of these charges, a number of Jews were burnt at the stake at a place later called Judenberg. It is also mentioned in German chronicles in 1292. It is presumed to date from earlier in the 13th century.
The New Church, is located in Berlin on the Gendarmenmarkt across from French Church of Friedrichstadt. Its parish comprised the northern part of the then new quarter of Friedrichstadt, which until then belonged to the parish of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church. The Lutheran and Calvinist congregants used German as their native language, as opposed to the French-speaking Calvinist congregation of the adjacent French Church of Friedrichstadt. The congregants' native language combined with the domed tower earned the church its colloquial name Deutscher Dom. While the church physically resembles a cathedral, it is not a cathedral in the formal sense of the word, as it was never the seat of a bishop.
Monbijou Palace was a Rococo palace in central Berlin located in the present-day Monbijou Park on the north bank of the Spree river across from today's Bode Museum and within sight of the Hohenzollern city palace. Heavily damaged in World War II, the ruins were finally razed by the authorities of East Berlin in 1959. The palace has not been rebuilt.
Jerusalem Church is one of the churches of the Evangelical Congregation in the Friedrichstadt, a member of the Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The present church building is located in Berlin, borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, in the quarter of Friedrichstadt. Jerusalem Church is fourth in rank of the oldest oratories in the town proper.
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Jesus Church (Kaulsdorf) (German: Jesuskirche, colloquially also Dorfkirche, village church) is the church of the Evangelical Berlin-Kaulsdorf Congregation, a member of today's Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (under this name since 2004). The church building is located in Berlin, borough Marzahn-Hellersdorf, in the locality of Kaulsdorf. The church was named after Jesus of Nazareth. The congregation's parish comprises the area of the historical village of Kaulsdorf, which had been incorporated into Berlin by the Prussian Greater Berlin Act in 1920.
The Parochialkirche is a Reformed church in the Klosterviertel neighbourhood of the Mitte borough in Berlin. The church, now a listed building, was built between 1695 and 1703. It is the oldest church in Berlin built as a Protestant place of worship. The church is now used and owned by the congregation of St. Mary's and St. Peter's, the merger of the parishes in the historical city center concluded on 23 September 2005. The congregation forms part of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia, a Protestant regional church body comprising Lutheran, Reformed and united Protestant congregations.
Berlin's history has left the city with an eclectic assortment of architecture. The city's appearance in the 21st century has been shaped by the key role the city played in Germany's 20th-century history. Each of the governments based in Berlin—the Kingdom of Prussia, the 1871 German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, East Germany and the reunified Federal Republic of Germany—initiated ambitious construction programs, with each adding its distinct flavour to the city's architecture.
Bruno Doehring was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. A preacher at the Berlin Cathedral from 1914 to 1960, Doehring was a popular figure in the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union in Berlin. He was a strict conservative and was active in the Weimar Republic as a politician.
Halle Cathedral is an Evangelical Reformed Church, and is the oldest surviving church in the old part of the city Halle, Saale. Beside it resided the Archbishop of Magdeburg, who ruled the city for a long period. Albert of Brandenburg remodelled the church's exterior from 1520 onwards and built the neighbouring Neue Residenz, aiming to make the church one of the most influential and powerful monasteries north of the Alps.
↑ Hach, Arno (2002) [1933]. Alt-berlin Im Spiegel Seiner Kirchen: Rückblicke in Die Versunkene Altstadt; Mit Einem Plan Der Berliner Innenstadt Um 1860. Ammerbuch: Beggerow. p.21. ISBN978-3-9361-0300-7.
↑ Among the new revenues additionally bestowed to the collegiate church were the dues to be delivered by a number of soccage farmers in the village of Kaulsdorf and the revenues of its church, however, also obliging the college to fulfill its duties as patron according to the ius patronatus over that church.
↑ In 1695 Berlin's second Calvinist church was erected, called Parochial Church, i.e. parish church, as opposed to the Supreme Parish Church then colloquially called Collegiate of Palace Church.
↑ From then on Calvinist immigrants, as from Bohemia, France (Huguenots), Juliers-Cleves-Berg, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and Wallonia were very welcome in Berlin and all the Electorate of Brandenburg in order to build up a considerable minority, being religiously a power base of the Hohenzollern.
1 2 Pohl, Michael, Johann S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Josef Rheinberger, Max Reger, Max Reger, Max Reger, Max Reger, and Max Reger (1993). Die Grosse Sauer-Orgel Im Berliner Dom (Sound recording). Düsseldorf: Motette. OCLC33188606.
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