The Protestant Church of Plötzensee (German: Gemeindezentrum Plötzensee) is situated in
Berlin-Charlottenburg-Nord
Charlottenburg-Nord (, literally "Charlottenburg North") is a locality (''Ortsteil'') in the northern part of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough of Berlin, Germany. It is chiefly composed of after-war housing estates, allotment gardens and com ...
and was inaugurated in 1970 as the second church building of the Protestant Congregation in
North-Charlottenburg within the
Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. As it is located close to the former
Plötzensee Prison, the church-building was designed as a memorial for the victims of
National Socialism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
. The paintings ''Plötzenseer Totentanz'' (Plötzensee
Danse Macabre) painted by the
Viennese artist
Alfred Hrdlicka
Alfred Hrdlicka (; 27 February 1928 – 5 December 2009) was an Austrian sculptor, painter, and professor. His surname is sometimes written Hrdlička.
He was born in Vienna. After learning to be a dental technician from 1943 to 1945, Hrdlick ...
are an important part of this church.
Building and architecture
The church and the church-centre were built in the years between 1968 and 1970 for congregants living in the recently built Paul-Hertz-settlement in this area. The architects Gerd Neumann, Dietmar Grötzebach and Günther Plessow created the buildings, which include a church, a day-care facility for children, a youth centre, apartments, offices and other rooms for congregational use.
The church premises were designed as a place of memorial from the beginning. Alfred Hrdlicka created the ''Dance of Death of Plötzensee'', which shows motifs similar to medieval dances of death on 16 boards. The paintings point at today's threats by violence, power and arbitrary.
The architecture shows influences of ideas that came up during a reform-period of the Protestant church in Germany during the 1960s: the benches are arranged in a square (quadrangle) around the altar in the centre. This was meant to create a feeling of community among those who worship in here and to involve them more intensely in the service. Almost contradicting to this intention the architecture of the church refers to the prisons of Plötzensee: the cupola made of concrete reminds the worshiper of a prison cell; light comes only from a single window right above the altar.
Ecumenical activities
There is a close Ecumenical cooperation with the nearby Roman Catholic memorial church
Maria Regina Martyrum
Maria Regina Martyrum (german: link=no, Gedenkkirche Maria Regina Martyrum (actually Gedächtniskirche Maria Regina Martyrum der deutschen Katholiken zu Ehren der Blutzeugen für Glaubens- und Gewissensfreiheit in den Jahren 1933–1945) literal ...
and the Carmelite monastery adjunct to it. This cooperation is especially dedicated to remember the martyrs of Plötzensee. The most important ecumenical memorial events of these churches are the
Ecumenical Plötzensee Days The Ecumenical Plötzensee Days are an annual event, commemorating martyrs and victims of National Socialism. They take place at the catholic commemoration church Maria Regina Martyrum and at the Protestant Church of Plötzensee.
The events take p ...
every January and the annual anniversary of the assassination-attempt of
20 July 1944.
In summer 2009 the ''Ecumenical Memorial Centre Plötzensee - Christians and Resistance'' has been founded in the Protestant Church of Plötzensee.
Literature
* Bringfried Naumann: Der Plötzenseer Totentanz im Evangelischen Gemeindezentrum Plötzensee. 2. Auflage 1993 (Verlag Schnell & Steiner, Reihe: Der Kleine Kunstführer), ''(in German)''
* Rüdiger von Voss and Gerhard Ringshausen: ''Die Predigten von Plötzensee. Zur Herausforderung des modernen Märtyrers.'' Lukas Verlag: Berlin 2009, ''(in German)''
* I. Mössinger/U. Saltin: Die ökumenische Gedenk-Region Charlottenburg-Nord/Plötzensee: Alfred Hrdlickas "Plötzenseer Totentanz". In: Reiner Albert, Roland Hartung, Günther Saltin (Hg.): Alfred-Delp-Jahrbuch Band 3/2009. Alfred Delp und die Kunst, LIT Verlag 2009, ''(in German)''
External links
Homepage of the Protestant Church of Charlottenburg-Nord*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Protestant Church Of Plotzensee
Holocaust museums
Protestant ecumenism
United Protestant church buildings in Berlin
Culture in Berlin
20th-century Lutheran churches in Germany
Churches completed in 1970
1970 establishments in Germany