Around 1400, a Berlin patrician named Müller returned safely from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In gratitude, he donates the Hierusalem Chapel at the gates of the city. The chapel is mentioned for the first time in a document dated October 18, 1484: it must be renovated and the Bishop of Brandenburg promises all volunteers an indulgence.
In 1539, Elector Joachim II Hector converts to Protestantism. The Jerusalem Chapel becomes Protestant like all other churches in Brandenburg. In 1680 a hospital for the poor is built. This is the occasion to also renovate and enlarge the chapel by 1689.
By 1725, the Jerusalem Church was once again too small for the growing congregation. The renowned master builder Phillip Gerlach demolishes the old building and erects one of the largest churches in Berlin with 1,366 seats by 1728. Edmund Knoblauch rebuilt the Jerusalemkirche again in 1879.
At the end of the 19th century, numerous press publishers are founded in the southern Friedrichsstadt. The catchment area of Jerusalem Church becomes the largest newspaper district in the world. It is a business district where fewer and fewer people live: The congregation shrinks. Finally, the empty church building is requisitioned by the Wehrmacht during World War II.
In August 1943, the Nazi government sold the Jerusalem Church to the Romanian Orthodox community in Berlin. They extensively rebuilt the church and celebrated the inaugural mass on January 24, 1944. On March 2, 1945, a bomb hits the Jerusalem Church and it burns out completely.
Socialist Romania has no use for a church in the western part of Berlin and sells the property to the Berlin Senate. On March 9, 1961, the ruins of the Jerusalem Church are blown up. In 1966, the Axel Springer high-rise is inaugurated on this site.
A few meters from the site of the old Jerusalem Church, architect Sigrid Kressmann-Zschach builds a modern new building in 1968. At the acute angle of Lindenstrasse and Markgrafenstrasse, a church building with a parish hall is created. The publisher Axel Springer donates the free-standing bell tower.
There are fewer and fewer church members in Kreuzberg. The Jerusalemgemeinde is therefore merged with three other congregations in 2001. Since 2003, the church has been used as a Christian-Jewish interreligious center. In the same year, the Axel Springer publishing house has the ground plan of the old Jerusalem Church marked with red stones in front of the publishing house.
2007 wird die Jerusalemkirche zum Veranstaltungsort umgebaut. Tagungen, Kongresse und andere Veranstaltungen füllen das ehemalige Gotteshaus mit neuem Leben.
BESONDERE ORTE