Chapel of Reconciliation: The Church in the Death Strip
Why is it significant?
In front of you stands a small oval building wrapped in a screen of tall wooden slats, and behind the slats, walls of rough, compacted clay. It is quiet, modest, almost humble.
Key Facts
| Place | Chapel of Reconciliation: The Church in the Death Strip |
|---|---|
| Address | Bernauer Straße 4, 10115 Berlin, Germany |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.53580, 13.39190 |
| Part of Walk | The Wall on Bernauer Straße: Escapes, Tunnels and the Mauerpark in Berlin |
| Generated | Generated |
In front of you stands a small oval building wrapped in a screen of tall wooden slats, and behind the slats, walls of rough, compacted clay. It is quiet, modest, almost humble. To understand why it is here, you have to imagine a very different church on this spot: tall, neo-Gothic, red brick, with a spire visible from far across the city.
That church, the Church of Reconciliation, was consecrated in 1894 for a working-class parish that lived on both sides of what later became the border. Then, in August 1961, the Wall went up, and the church found itself standing in the death strip. Its congregation could no longer reach it. Its doors were sealed. For more than twenty years a church called Reconciliation stood trapped between two walls, in plain view of both halves of a divided city.
In January 1985 the East German authorities blew it up. First the nave was demolished, then, a few days later, the tower came down in a cloud of dust, filmed by television cameras from the West. The official reasoning was security and a clear line of sight for the guards. To many people on both sides, it looked like a state destroying a symbol it could not control.
After the Wall fell, the parish got its land back, and in 2000 this chapel was consecrated. Its walls were built with the ancient technique of rammed earth, and mixed into the clay are crushed bricks from the old church. The bells, which were rescued, now hang in a simple frame outside, and inside stands the old altarpiece that survived the demolition.
On most weekdays at midday a short service is held here in memory of one person who died at the Wall, read out by name, one life at a time. Then continue east along Bernauer Straße and turn right into Strelitzer Straße, where one of the most daring escapes in Berlin's history came up through a courtyard.