Neue Kirche

The Neue Kirche stands on the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin, one of a trio with the Französischer Dom and the Konzerthaus. Martin Grünberg designed the building between 1701 and 1708. Its pentagonal footprint and semicircular apses mark it as a Protestant church of that era. The dome came later: Carl von Gontard added it in 1785, and it gives the church its German Cathedral nickname.

The architecture blends Baroque and Neoclassical elements, and the dome follows the Palladian tradition. Its models stretch from Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones to Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, today's Panthéon. The addition served a larger vision for the square, which was meant to resemble the Piazza del Popolo in Rome. A statue of victorious virtue crowns the dome, a replica of the original post-war figure. The gable relief shows the conversion of Paul of Tarsus.

The Second World War left the church heavily damaged, and a meticulous restoration ran from 1982 to 1996. Worship has since given way to a museum: the permanent exhibition Wege, Irrwege, Umwege traces the development of parliamentary democracy in Germany. Its title translates as Paths, Wrong Tracks and Detours, the story you follow through a building first raised for worship.