The Zionskirche – as seen through a HOLGA camera

The journalist and photographer Vera Rüttimann works with a HOLGA camera. This analogue camera, with its deliberately imperfect optics, lends the images for this exhibition – and for the 2027 annual calendar of the Friends of the Zionskirche – a poetry all of their own: blurring, surprising play of light and images full of atmospheric depth. They invite visitors to rediscover one of Berlin’s most fascinating churches: as a space full of atmosphere, history and subtle nuances.

Opening: Sunday, 25 October 2026, 12 noon

Venue: Zionskirche, Berlin-Mitte

Exhibition dates: 25 October to 30 November 2026

Zionskirche opening hours: Mon–Sat 2 pm–6 pm, Sun 12 noon–6 pm; from 1 November, hours change to Mon–Sat 2 pm–4 pm, Sun 12 noon–4 pm

Vera Rüttimann

Vera Rüttimann, born in Wettingen (Switzerland) in 1968, works as a photographer and journalist using images, text and video. Since moving to Berlin in 1990, she has been exploring the city’s transformation, its ruptures and new beginnings, as well as the traces of German history in public spaces.

Alongside her journalistic work, she devotes herself to analogue photographic art projects, such as those using the HOLGA camera. She has also been actively involved with the Zionskirche for many years.

www.veraruettimann.com

www.instagram.com/veraruttimann/

The Zionskirche in Berlin-Mitte

The theologian and Nazi resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer was active here in 1931–32. In the 1980s, the congregation provided a safe haven for opposition groups in the GDR. The Environmental Library, founded in 1986, became an important meeting place for the independent peace, environmental and civil rights movements. To this day, the Zionskirche stands for moral courage, freedom of expression and the courage to bring about social change.