Church buildings belong to many localities. They are known as landmarks, town centers or landmarks. The places of worship have a wide variety of architectural, art-historical and regional-historical significance. But their future is threatened: dozens of them have lost their function, some have already disappeared from the townscape without a trace. Time to commemorate disappeared churches outside of Central Germany – and what has been irrevocably lost with them.
The Church of Grace was the evangelical church in Invalidenpark in Berlin’s Mitte district. It was also popularly known as Augustakirche – in memory of Empress Augusta – and Invalidenkirche – because the parish originally belonged to the Invalidenhaus and because of its occasional use in connection with the Invalidenfriedhof.
Story
In addition to the military community, the military parish of the Invalidenhaus also included an evangelical civil community from the end of the 18th century. Due to the territorially extensive parish, this grew to 25,000 members in the 19th century – despite the change of parishioners who lived east of Chausseestraße to the Sophiengemeinde and despite the emergence of the Dankskirche on Wedding.
The civil parish could only use the chapel of the Invalidenhaus. In 1866 it became an independent parish and was to have its own church. The Catholic civil community was more successful with the construction of their parish church of St. Sebastian.
In May 1890, the Evangelische Kirchenbauverein was formed under the patronage of Empress Auguste Viktoria to build the Church of Grace. He had set himself the task of “fighting the religious and moral emergencies in Berlin and other cities in the industrial areas” by supporting church building projects – and to curb the growing influence of social democracy on the workforce. There was financial support for the project from a higher authority and help in overcoming bureaucratic obstacles.
After settling disputes with the city of Berlin about the costs and with the military treasury about the property for the church, the foundation stone was laid on June 11, 1890. The name of the church of grace is explained by the fact that the German Reich gave the building plot in Invalidenpark free of charge to the state of Prussia, as well as a “gift of mercy” from the imperial family in the amount of 300,000 marks. She received the name on May 23, 1890.
The church building was dedicated to the memory of the deceased Empress Augusta – hence the Empress Augusta Memorial Church. The dedication took place on March 22, 1895 in the presence of the imperial couple, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden, as well as a number of princesses and princes.
structure
The church was built by the architect Max Spitta in the early Romanesque style. Spitta orientated himself on the Hohenstaufen Romanesque style, the Church of St. Peter in Sinzig built in the 13th century and the Limburg Cathedral. The glass windows were designed and produced by the glass painter Alexander Linnemann from Frankfurt. The mosaics were created by the Deutsche Glasmosaik-Anstalt von Wiegmann, Puhl & Wagner.
The church had 1,550 seats, of which 950 were permanent seats in the nave, 490 in the galleries and 110 in the upper side aisles around the chancel. In front of the royal box stood the carved wooden figure of a squire with a Hohenzollern shield, created and donated by the wood sculptor Gustav Kuntzsch from Wernigerode. The church tower was about 69 meters high.
The construction costs amounted to around 800,000 marks – which would be around 6.13 million euros today – and costs for the interior design to around 200,000 marks.
This sum was raised as follows: In addition to the gift of grace, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden, the Grand Duke of Weimar and the Prince of Hohenzollern donated a total of 200,000 marks and the combined district synods 100,000 marks. 345,000 marks were donated by the Protestant communities in Berlin and from the provinces – especially from the Rhine province. The Gnadenkirchen congregation brought up the difference itself. The Church of Grace also served as a place for celebrations at funerals in the nearby Invalidenfriedhof.
war and the time after
During the Second World War, the church was badly damaged in bombing raids on Berlin. Subsequently, people who had been bombed out and the homeless used it as emergency accommodation. In the post-war period, looters looted the interior of the open church and stole valuable materials, including the stained glass windows.
The church community did not repair it because there was a lack of money and materials – and the East Berlin authorities did not see it as their task to stop the church from falling into ruin.
After non-ferrous metal thieves had also stripped off the copper roof of the church towards the end of the 1940s, its brickwork, which was now unprotected from the weather, fell into disrepair.
Blow up 1967
Like other congregations with the same fate, the congregation naturally wanted their church to be rebuilt. But that remained a pious wish: the Church of Grace was blown up in 1967. What happened in the two decades before in terms of attempts to save and preserve the sacred building cannot be seen from the sources accessible on the Internet.
Recent past and present
The community of grace today belongs to the evangelical church community at Weinberg (until December 31, 2013: evangelical church community Sophien) in the church district of Berlin Stadtmitte.
In the Invalidenpark, which was redesigned in 1997, there is a sculpture: On a lawn there is a water basin, in the middle of which a narrow granite work of art called “Sunken Wall” protrudes from the water. It is reminiscent of the lost church and the former Berlin Wall nearby.
Coordinates: 52° 31′ 45″ N, 13° 22′ 35″ E
Sources and links:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnadenkirche_(Berlin-Mitte)
https://kkbs.de/blog/24944
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invalidenpark
