Erlöserkirche

Story

In Rummelsburg, among trees and cobblestones, a red brick tower rises with its black spire and green turrets. The Erlöserkirche. And behind it lies a story of empresses, war, and resistance.

On May fourth, eighteen ninety, Empress Auguste Viktoria laid the first stone of this church. It was the first of the sixty she would commission to build.

Rummelsburg was a working-class neighborhood, eleven thousand inhabitants. The empress wanted to bring imperial power to the humblest corner of Berlin.

Architects Hase and Spitta designed it in neo-Gothic style. Brick by brick, they erected it between eighteen ninety and eighteen ninety-two.

In February nineteen forty-five, a bombing destroyed the original altar windows. The congregation survived and rebuilt.

During East Germany, the regime watched over it. In the eighties, the church became a refuge for the pacifist movement, always on the brink of illegality.

From the empire to reunification, this tower stood firm. Listen to the full guide and I'll take you to explore every corner of its history.