180 years of St Matthew’s Church

Alexander Darda, an expert on the Tiergarten district, will shed light on the church’s origins and early development in a lecture. This will be followed by a reception offering opportunities for conversation and networking, as well as a celebratory service featuring a sermon by General Superintendent Prof. Dr. Julia Helmke.

The celebration honors the church’s eventful history and its current role as a place of dialogue between the church and art. It takes place as part of the installation “Als ich dachte es sei Luft” by Nadine Schemmann, which lends the church interior a special artistic atmosphere.

Program:

3:00 p.m. – Lecture

Alexander Darda, an expert on the Tiergarten district and currently a fellow of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK)/Art Library, will provide a vivid insight into the period when the church and its surroundings were established. He will shed light on the early residents of the district and the development of the congregation. Historical plans, graphics, and photographs bring the beginnings to life.

4:30 p.m. – Reception

Following the lecture, the St. Matthäus Foundation invites you to a reception in front of the church at the Baumschule Kulturforum. For several years now, the initiative of the St. Matthäus Foundation, the SPK, and the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation has been promoting exchange between the institutions and stakeholders at the Kulturforum and contributing to stronger networking within the area.

6:00 p.m. – Festive Service

The event concludes with a festive service featuring a sermon by General Superintendent Prof. Dr. Julia Helmke. The musical program will be provided by the Berlin Women’s Vocal Ensemble of St. Matthäus Church, conducted by Lothar Knappe, with works ranging from the church’s founding era to the present day by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Egil Hovland, and Mayako Kubo.

Historical Background:

St. Matthäus Church was built according to designs by the royal architect Friedrich August Stüler in the style of Northern Italian Romanesque architecture, reflecting the era’s fascination with Italy, and was consecrated on May 17, 1846. At that time, it still stood just outside the city gates, surrounded by meadows and fields, but within a short time the area developed into a significant upper-class neighborhood with cultural appeal. In 1931, the Protestant theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer was ordained at St. Matthew’s Church.

The neighborhood underwent significant changes as a result of Nazi urban planning and the destruction of World War II. The church itself burned down in April 1945 and remained a ruin in a no-man’s-land for over a decade. It was not until 1956–1960, under the direction of architect Jürgen Emmerich, that it was rebuilt—the exterior reconstructed according to Friedrich August Stüler’s design, the interior in a modern style.

Today, St. Matthäus Church is the oldest building in the Kulturforum. Since its transfer to the St. Matthäus Foundation in 1999, it has served as a place where church life and contemporary art converge.