The Gedächtniskirche was the symbolic center of West Berlin during the Cold War and is a monument celebrating peace and reconciliation.
Built between 1891 and 1895 in Romanesque Revival style in memory of Kaiser Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia.
The church was severely damaged by bombing on 23th December 1943, and then almost entirely destroyed during air raids in 1945.
The Gedächtniskirche complex consists of the ruins of the church destroyed during the war and contemporary works.
At the end of World War II, it was difficult for Allied architects to rebuild it, as the church symbolized great national pride and its ruins were a daily reminder of the horrors of war.
When the church was to be completely demolished in 1956 for the construction of a new building, the population protested vigorously. As a compromise, architect Egon Eiermann integrated the ruins into the new church building.
The modern building was constructed between 1959 and 1961 and consisted of honeycomb-shaped concrete elements embedded with glass blocks.
Inside the modern church is a sketch of the Madonna of Stalingrad.
It was designed by Wehrmacht physician Kurt Reuber during Christmas 1942, when the German General’s Sixth Army was already surrounded by the Soviet Red Army inside Stalingrad.
It was in this city that, between November 1942 and February 1943, the fate of the German forces that had invaded Soviet territory with Operation Barbarossa on 22th June 1941, was decided.
