Login

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Reborn of a Church After the War

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, located on Berlin's Kurfürstendamm, consists of the remaining tower, the new church and the new bell tower. The new octagonal church and bell tower are built in a modern style with a total of 21,000 stained glass windows, while the old church and tower have been converted into a memorial exhibition hall.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche) is located next to Berlin’s famous shopping street, Kurfürstendamm, and consists of a remaining tower, as well as a new church and new bell tower built after the war.

In the late 19th century, German Emperor Wilhelm II ordered a church to be built in Berlin in honor of his grandfather, Emperor Wilhelm I. The church was called the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The neo-Romanesque church had a 113-Meter-High Main Tower and four smaller towers, and was inaugurated in the presence of the family of Wilhelm II. In 1940, the church collapsed under Allied artillery fire, leaving only a remnant of the main tower.

After the war, a new church was rebuilt alongside the wreckage to preserve this remnant of war. The new church was completed in 1961, with 21,000 Stained Glass Windows shared by a modern style octagonal nave and a hexagonal bell tower. The double-walled structure of the new church has a lighting system in the interlayer, so that both inside and outside the church you can always see the blue light coming from behind the windows, as if to bring the deep night sky inside. A 4.6m Tall Statue of Christ also hangs above the altar of the church.

Today the Remaining Tower is only 71 meters tall, and the interior has been opened as the Memorial Hall, with Precious Mosaics and Reliefs on the ceiling, walls and floor. Memories of War is the main theme of the exhibitions here, such as a statue of Christ originally placed in the main altar of the old church, Cross of Nails from Coventry Cathedral England, and a Cross presented by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Manywhere Trivia:
A German air raid on Coventry, England in 1940 almost leveled the Coventry Cathedral to the ground. After the war, the two cities repaired their friendship, and not only were tokens exchanged, but Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was consecrated on the same day as the rebuilt Coventry Church (25.5.1962).