St. Matthäuskirche seen from the Neue Nationalgalerie
“Vater Staat” (Father State) by Thomas Schütte
Berlin, September 2011
“Standing a bit lost and forlorn within the Kulturforum, the Stüler-designed Matthäuskirche (1846) is a beautiful neo-Romanesque confection with alternating bands of red and ochre brick and a light-flooded, modern sanctuary that doubles as a gallery. German resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ordained a Lutheran minister here in 1931. A few years later the church was scheduled to be transplanted to Spandau to make room for Albert Speer’s Germania. Fortunately the war – and history – took a different turn. Bonhoeffer, however, was executed by the Nazis on 9 April 1945, just a few days before the end of the war.”(Lonely Planet, Berlin)
See also: Vater Staat
Thanks, VP. I've studied Bonhoeffer's works all my young adult and adult life, but I had never seen the church where he was ordained even though I've been in Berlin a couple of times.
ReplyDeleteDid you go inside?
ReplyDeleteLove the contrast of the roof....
ReplyDeleteWow, what a church.
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame that we lost Bonhoeffer.