The story of this place
Consecrated in 1895 to honour Kaiser Wilhelm I, this grand neo-Romanesque church stood at the heart of fashionable west Berlin until an Allied air raid on 23 November 1943 shattered its roof and left its spire a jagged broken stump. After the war, planners wanted to demolish the ruin, but Berliners protested, insisting the wreckage be kept as a warning. Architect Egon Eiermann incorporated the surviving 'hollow tooth' spire into a new complex of 1961, surrounding it with a modern octagonal hall glowing with 20,000 pieces of blue Chartres glass. The contrast of the ruined tower and the luminous new nave makes it Berlin's most powerful anti-war landmark, standing above the bustle of the Ku'damm.