St. Matthew Church (Berlin Tiergarten)

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The St. Matthew Church

The St. Matthew Church , also St. Matthäi Church , is a Protestant church building on the southern edge of the Great Zoo in Berlin's Mitte district ( Tiergarten district ). Today it is the only historical building in the middle of the Kulturforum .

Prehistory of the church building

In the southern Tiergarten district, upper-class residential developments were built in the first half of the 19th century. Higher officials, entrepreneurs, artists and scientists settled here. This later earned this area the name “Privy Council District”. The area was looked after from the Trinity Church, but it was far away. Efforts to found their own congregation were also heard at the highest level.

On October 5, 1843, a church building association was founded to take care of the construction of a church in the district. It was chaired by the Secret Council Emil von Koenen (1796–1883). In the same year, on December 9th, the association was given a building site for the St. Matthew Church by the physician Vetter , who wanted to develop the area between what was then Tiergartenstrasse and Grabenstrasse, today's Reichpietschufer on the Landwehr Canal. The church was to be built centrally in this area so that a street could be laid out - Matthäi-Kirchstraße with Matthäikirchplatz . On January 1, 1844, von Koenen sent a letter to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV asking for a building permit for the church. This took place on January 27, 1844, together with the building permit for the street of Dr. Cousin.

The church building

View of the St. Matthew Church from the State Library opposite
The sanctuary of St. Matthew's Church with a temporary altarpiece by Yang Shaobin

The church was then built to a design by the architect and high-ranking Prussian building officer Friedrich August Stüler by October 1845. The church was consecrated on May 17, 1846. The revival preacher Carl Büchsel from the Uckermark was called to Berlin as the first pastor .

Stüler built a three-aisled church building. He made the ships clear from the outside by the fact that each has its own gable and three gable roofs of equal rank cover the ships. In the north, a slender tower closes off the central nave. In the south, each nave is closed off by an apse . The building is based on the Northern Italian Romanesque . In the midst of very modern new buildings, this building still looks relatively contemporary.

The further story

On November 15, 1931, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ordained pastor in St. Matthew's Church.

The quarter around the church stood in the way of the National Socialists' expansion plans for Berlin . In preparation for the expansion into the “ World Capital Germania ”, many houses for the north-south axis were demolished here even before the Second World War . The rectory was also demolished. The church itself was to be demolished and rebuilt in Spandau . The Allied air raids and the Battle of Berlin left what was left of the area in ruins. The St. Matthew Church was badly damaged by the last skirmishes for the nearby government district around Wilhelmstrasse and the Reichstag .

After the war, the building was only externally reconstructed; the reconstruction from 1956–1960 was directed by the architect Jürgen Emmerich . Inside, new concrete trusses support the roof structure.

The area around the church was given a completely new use after the war. It was developed - at the interface between East and West Berlin - to become a cultural forum . In 1987/1988 Gisela Breitling won the competition to design the tower. The church has now also become part of the cultural forum. It will continue to be used for church services and also as a cultural venue. For the St. Matthew Foundation this church building is a prominent place for its work.

Significant works of art are on permanent display in St. Matthew's Church, including a crucifix by Gerhard Schreiter, a man of sorrows from the Riemenschneider workshop, a Christ head by Gerhard Marcks and the sculptures Face by Vadim Sidur and Ecce homo by Michael Morgner . The sacristy contains five stained glass windows by Sigmund Hahn with themes from the Acts of the Apostles .

Artists are invited to work for the series “The Other Altarpiece”. There are contemporary art exhibitions, concerts, panel discussions, sermon series and much more. Organ devotions take place from Tuesdays to Saturdays at 12.30 p.m. Afterwards there is the possibility of a pastoral discussion. Renowned theologians from the city of Berlin and guests regularly preach in the Sunday hORA church services at 6 p.m. Numerous participating soloists and ensembles contribute to the organization of the services with selected music programs. There are regular premieres of new music in church services and concerts.

The “Citykirche St. Matthäus” is an open church. Guided tours take place by appointment. Thanks to voluntary work, the church is open every day from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. except Mondays. In the “Church Shop”, among other things, the publications of Edition St. Matthäus, which document many of the Foundation's exhibitions and projects, are available. The tower is accessible during opening hours and offers a good panoramic view. A temporary exhibition on the history of St. Matthew's Church completes the offer.

The events and services are sponsored by the St. Matthäus Foundation, the cultural foundation of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO), founded in 1999 . The foundation serves the special task of leading and promoting the dialogue between the church and the arts. Your projects and actions should always give new impulses to this dialogue. It cooperates with institutions of the Protestant and Catholic Church and the Jewish community , with the state museums, particularly the picture gallery, with private galleries and with other art institutes and foundations in Germany and abroad.

graveyards

The parish received its first own churchyard in 1856, today's Old St. Matthew Cemetery . The Neue St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof Berlin followed in 1899, but it was soon sold to the city of Berlin.

literature

Web links

Commons : St. Matthew Church  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berlin artist Gisela Breitling died at 78. In: sueddeutsche.de =. March 13, 2018, accessed August 25, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 28.5 ″  N , 13 ° 22 ′ 3 ″  E