The article dates the church to between 1220 and 1230 and calls it the oldest church in Berlin, alongside the Church of Our Lady at Alexanderplatz. It names no architect, style or materials. It was Roman Catholic at first and became Lutheran after the Reformation reached Brandenburg in 1539.
The congregation last used the building on October 31, 1938, and it was then handed to the government as a concert hall and ecclesiastical museum. Allied bombing destroyed the roof and the tops of the towers, and in 1949 the vaults and northern pillars collapsed. The ruins lay in East Berlin.
The German Democratic Republic rebuilt the church from 1980 to 1983 from historic drawings, as part of the Nikolaiviertel for Berlin's 750th anniversary in 1987, so it is largely a reconstruction. It has 41 bells and a Jehmlich organ of 44 stops. The Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin administers it, and organ recitals are given most Fridays.
Comments