The New Church (; colloquially , meaning "German Cathedral"), is located in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

on the

Gendarmenmarkt The is a square in Berlin and the site of an architectural ensemble that includes the Berlin concert hall, along with the French and German Churches. In the centre of the square stands a monumental statue of poet Friedrich Schiller. The ...

across from

French Church of Friedrichstadt The French (Reformed) Church of Friedrichstadt (, , and commonly known as Französischer Dom, meaning 'French cathedral') is in Berlin at the Gendarmenmarkt, across the Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus and the Neue Kirche, Berlin, German Cathedral ...

(''French Cathedral''). Its parish comprised the northern part of the then new quarter of

Friedrichstadt Friedrichstadt (; ; ; ; ) is a town in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the river Eider approx. 12 km (7 miles) south of Husum. History The town was founded in 1621 by Dutch settlers. Duk ...

, which until then belonged to the parish of the congregations of

Jerusalem's Church Jerusalem Church () is one of the churches of the Prussian Union of Churches, Evangelical Congregation in the Friedrichstadt (under this name since 2001), a member of the Protestantism in Germany, Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Chu ...

. The

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

and

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

(in German

Reformed Church Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyterian, ...

) 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 A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

, it is not a cathedral in the formal sense of the word, as it was never the seat of a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

. After being heavily damaged during the

bombing of Berlin in World War II Berlin, the capital of Germany, was subject to 363 air raids during the Second World War. It was bombed by the RAF Bomber Command between 1940 and 1945, the United States Army Air Forces' Eighth Air Force between 1943 and 1945, and the French ...

, reconstruction was completed 1988; the church now serves as a museum.

Church and congregations

In 1701–1708, Giovanni Simonetti built the first church after a design of Martin Grünberg. It was the third church in Friedrichstadt, established in 1688, which was a town of princely domination, while the neighbouring

old Berlin Alt-Berlin ("Old Berlin"), also spelled ''Altberlin'', is a neighborhood (''Stadtviertel''), situated in the Berliner locality (''Ortsteil'') of Mitte, part of the homonymous borough. In the 13th century it was the sister town of the old Cöll ...

and

Cölln Cölln () was the Twin cities, twin city of Old Berlin (Alt-Berlin) from the 13th century to the 18th century. Cölln was located on the Fischerinsel, Fisher Island section of Spree Island, opposite Altberlin on the western bank of the River ...

were cities of

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

. The Prince-Elector originally only provided for a Calvinist congregation, since they - the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, ; , ; ) is a formerly royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) German dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. ...

s - themselves were Calvinists. But also more and more Lutherans moved in. Therefore, in 1708 the ''New Church'' became a Calvinist and Lutheran

Simultaneum A shared church (), simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th-century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in the German-speaking lands of Europe ...

. The site for the church was disentangled from the so-called ''Swiss Cemetery'', which had been provided for

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

s, who had come to Berlin between 1698 and 1699 from their intermittent refuge in Switzerland. The original building had a pentagonal footprint with semicircular apses. The interior was characterised by a typical Protestant combined altar and pulpit leaning against the eastern central pillar opposite to the entrance. Delius Berlin Gendarmenmarkt

In 1780,

Carl von Gontard Carl Philipp Christian von Gontard (13 January 1731 in Mannheim – 23 September 1791 in Breslau) was a German architect who worked primarily in Berlin, Potsdam, and Bayreuth in the style of late Baroque Classicism. Next to Knobelsdorff, he was c ...

designed and started the construction of a tower, easterly adjacent to the actual prayer hall. His design of the domed towers, a second one being added to the French Church, followed the

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

tradition and received the shape of the

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

ian Church of Sainte-Geneviève (now the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...

), then still under construction by

Jacques-Germain Soufflot Jacques-Germain Soufflot (, 22 July 1713 – 29 August 1780) was a French architect in the international circle that introduced neoclassicism. His most famous work is the Panthéon in Paris, built from 1755 onwards, originally as a church ded ...

. The construction of the domed towers aimed at making the Gendarmenmarkt resemble the

Piazza del Popolo Piazza del Popolo is a large Town Square, urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian language, Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the Populus, poplars (''populus'' in Latin language, Latin, ''pioppo ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Still under construction the tower of the New Church collapsed. Thus Georg Christian Unger was commissioned to carry out Gontard's plan. Christian Bernhard Rode created the statues, representing characters from the Old and

New Covenant The New Covenant () is a biblical interpretation which was originally derived from a Book of Jeremiah#Sections of the Book, phrase which is contained in the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31–34), in the Hebrew Bible (or the Old Testament of the ...

, which are added to the tower. The dome was topped by a statue symbolising the ''victorious virtue'' (now a post-war replica). The gable relief depicts the

Conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Convert'', a 2023 film produced by Jump Film & Television and Brouhaha Entertainment * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * ...

of Sha'ul Paul of Tarsus.Ingrid Bartmann-Kompa, Horst Büttner, Horst Drescher, Joachim Fait, Marina Flügge, Gerda Herrmann, Ilse Schröder, Helmut Spielmann, Christa Stepansky, and Heinrich Trost, ''Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmale in der DDR: Hauptstadt Berlin'': 2 parts, Institut für Denkmalpflege (ed.) (¹1983), Berlin: Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft, ²1984, part I, p. 217. In 1817, the two congregations of the ''German Church'', like most Prussian Reformed and Lutheran congregations joined the common umbrella organisation named

Evangelical Church in Prussia The Prussian Union of Churches (known under multiple other names) was a major Protestant church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed denominations in P ...

(under this name since 1821), with each congregation maintaining its former denomination or adopting the new united denomination. The New Church became famous as a place of Prussian history. On 22 March 1848, the coffins of 183 Berliners, who had been killed during the March Revolution, were shown on the northern side of the church. After an

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

service within the prayer hall outside an Evangelical pastor, a Catholic priest and a rabbi, one after the other, shortly addressed the audience, before the throng accompanied the coffins to the graves. In 1881, the dilapidated prayer hall was torn down and Hermann von der Hude and Julius Hennicke replaced it with a new one on a pentagonal groundplan, according to the neobaroque design of Johann Wilhelm Schwedler. Otto Lessing designed the six statues on the attic of the new prayer hall. On 17 December 1882, the new prayer hall was inaugurated. In 1934, the congregations of the New Church had united with that of Jerusalem's Church and have become - after further mergers - today's

Congregation in the Friedrichstadt (as of 2001). For services it uses the French Church on the opposite side of Gendarmenmarkt and ''Luke's Church'' in

Berlin-Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990, it has ...

In 1943, the New Church was almost completely destroyed in the

and was subsequently rebuilt from 1983 to 1996. Meanwhile, the German government acquired the building and the site. The church building was updated, deconsecrated and reopened in 1996 as the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

's museum on German parliamentary history (''Milestones - Setbacks - Sidetracks, The Path to Parliamentary Democracy in Germany''). Berlin Deutscher Dom Apel

The two congregations of the ''New Church'' maintained cemeteries with the two congregations of the neighbouring

(another simultaneum), three of which are comprised – with cemeteries of other congregations – in a compound of six cemeteries all together, which are among the most important historical cemeteries of Berlin. They are located in

south of

Hallesches Tor (Berlin U-Bahn) Hallesches Tor is a Berlin U-Bahn station in the central Kreuzberg quarter, served by lines U1 (Berlin), U1, U3 (Berlin), U3, and U6 (Berlin), U6. It is named after the historic ''Hallsches Tor'' (Halle (Saale), Halle Gate) of the Berlin Custo ...

( Friedhöfe vor dem Halleschen Tor).

Noteworthy parishioners

E. T. A. Hoffmann Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist.Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in ...

Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (Hans) Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff (17 February 1699 – 16 September 1753) was a painter and architect in Prussia. Knobelsdorff was born in Kuckädel, now in Krosno Odrzańskie County. A soldier in the service of Prussia, he resigned his ...

, originally also buried in the church, later translated to the cemetery south of Hallesches Tor. *

Antoine Pesne Antoine Pesne () (29 May 1683 – 5 August 1757) was a French-born court painter of Prussia. Starting in the manner of baroque, he became one of the fathers of rococo in painting. His work represents a link between the French school and the Fr ...

, originally buried within the church, later translated to the cemetery south of Hallesches Tor.

Notes

References

* Ingrid Bartmann-Kompa, Horst Büttner, Horst Drescher, Joachim Fait, Marina Flügge, Gerda Herrmann, Ilse Schröder, Helmut Spielmann, Christa Stepansky, and Heinrich Trost, ''Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmale in der DDR: Hauptstadt Berlin'': 2 parts, Institut für Denkmalpflege (ed.) (¹1983), Berlin: Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft, ²1984, part I, p. 217. No ISBN. * Günther Kühne and Elisabeth Stephani, ''Evangelische Kirchen in Berlin'' (¹1978), Berlin: CZV-Verlag, ²1986, pp. 374seq. .

External links

German Bundestag Historic Exhibition

Congregation in the Friedrichstadt (German official website)
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Mitte Former churches in Berlin Museums in Berlin Heritage sites in Berlin Rebuilt buildings and structures in Berlin Church buildings with domes Berlin NewChurch NewChurch Berlin NewChurch Berlin NewChurch Berlin NewChurch Berlin NewChurch Rebuilt churches in Germany