Martin Luther Memorial Church

The Past

At the beginning of the 20^th century, the Mariendorf parish planned to build a new church to make room for its growing community. In 1918, the parish bought a site at the Rathausstraße, where, as a first step, parish rooms were build in 1926-27.

Architect Curt Steinberg, who built the parish rooms, was commissioned to plan also the church. But due to the Great Depression, construction works could not begin before 1933. Two years later, in December 1935, the church was consecrated.

The church's exterior appearance is characterized by the combination of strictly vertical elements—pillars and the approximately 49 metres high tower—and a cladding of rectangular ceramic tiles in various shades of yellow and brown.

The entrance hall's side walls are decorated with terracotta portraits of Martin Luther and Paul von Hindenburg, Field Marshall in World War I and President of the German Republic from 1925 to 1934. The hall's chandelier shows the Iron Cross, surrounded with golden oak leaves.

Through the entrance hall one enters the barrel vaulted main hall of the church. It is 15 metres of height and built on an almost square plan. Its walls and pillars are covered with the same yellow-brown tiles used on the façades outside. To the south, the nave concludes in a semi-circular apse, whose stained glass windows were created in 1970 by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen. To the north there is a Walcker organ from 1935, its front pipes are decorated with folkloristic ornaments.

The church's interior appearance is dominated by the archway, which is decorated with approximately 800 square tiles. The terracotta reliefs—designed by artist Heinrich Mekelburger—show Christian symbols side by side with heads of helmeted soldiers and symbols of the Nazi state, party, and mass-organisations. Swastikas and the symbol of the NS Volkswohlfahrt (National Socialist People's Welfare) were removed at the end of the war.

The oak-made baptismal font and pulpit were designed in 1935 by Hermann Möller. The carvings on the pulpit show Christ preaching to mothers, children, workers, and bourgeois, but among the listeners are also a soldier and a man in a Sturmabteilung (storm-troopers') uniform.

The Future

With its almost untouched iconography, the Martin Luther Memorial Church today is a notable example of religious art in the Nazi-era, and therefore a listed building.

In 2001, structural damage of the bell tower and the façade was discovered. The rather costly reconstruction measures that had to be taken consequently were begun in 2009.

STATTBAU Berlin has been commissioned to the overall management and the development of the building to a location for educational, cultural, and commemoration events.