Zionskirchplatz is a

pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

al square in the Rosenthaler Vorstadt, a district of Berlin's

Mitte Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kreuzb ...

district. It is located on the approximately 53 meter high Veteranenberg, an elevation on the southwestern edge of the Barnim plateau and is registered as a garden monument with the number 09010210 in the Berlin State Monument List.

History

Zionskirchplatz was created during the development of the new Berlin quarter based on the

Hobrecht-Plan The Hobrecht-Plan is the binding land-use plan for Berlin in the 19th century. It is named after its main editor, James Hobrecht (1825–1902), who served for the royal Prussian urban planning police ("Baupolizei"). The finalized plan "Bebauung ...

of 1862 in Department XI as Platz D. In accordance with the ideas of the Berlin City Council, the garden architect Joseph Pertl was commissioned to design the striking intersection of five streets in an appealing manner, at the same time as the neighbouring Arkonaplatz. It received its name in December 1866 with the construction of the Church of Zion (1866-1873) in the centre of the square. The square was designed as a decorative square with small paving and decorative strips of dark basalt stones, in which marble star ornaments mark the entrances to the interior of the square. Around the church, four densely planted rows of lime trees and between them strips of lawn formed a continuous green area. The square was initially protected by a wrought-iron grid that was closed at night. In 1989, the District Office erected a bronze sculpture by

Karl Biedermann Karl Biedermann (11 August 1890 in Miskolc, Austria-Hungary – 8 April 1945 in Vienna) was commander of the Austrian Heimwehr, Major of Wehrmacht and a member of German resistance to Nazism. Life After visiting the cadet corps in Traiskirchen ...

to the side of the church in honour of the resistance fighter

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have ...

, who had been active in the church and was later executed by the Nazis. In the almost 150 years since the square was inaugurated, a number of changes and replantings have been made which deviated greatly from the original design plan. In 2013/2014, the Berlin Senate had the square redesigned at a cost of around 1.5 million euros, restoring the historic pathways with their visual axes and replanting trees with lime and chestnut trees.

Utilization

Apart from walkers and churchgoers, the square directly in front of the church entrance was regularly used by an eco-market. When the weather is fine, the parish opens a café in front of the church on Sunday afternoons. On Sundays, visitors can climb up the stairs to the top of the church for a small fee. The 104 steps lead visitors to the top from where there are views over

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right. However, that year it was incorp ...

and Berlin.

References

{{coord, 52.5347, 13.4038, type:landmark_region:DE, display=title 1866 establishments in Germany Squares in Berlin Odonyms referring to a building Odonyms referring to religion