The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church preserves a bomb-damaged tower beside a modern church designed by Egon Eiermann. Its contrasting forms make wartime destruction and postwar remembrance visible in the center of contemporary Berlin.
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The broken tower beside the blue-glass church is deliberately left in view. The original Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, designed by Franz Schwechten, was inaugurated in 1895 as a monument to the emperor. An air raid destroyed it in November 1943, and the remaining tower became a memorial.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- The original church was inaugurated in 1895.
- An air raid destroyed it in November 1943.
- Egon Eiermann’s new church was inaugurated in 1961.
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