Home > Pictures! > Unstill Life > 1993–1995 > Berlin Trip > Berlin Cathedral

While the city palaces were blown up and made into brick chippings, Berlin's parish and cathedral church was given a chance. On May 28, 1945 workers began to clear up the site. Despite war damage, the cathedral parish held its first service in the crypt church on September 2nd. The cathedral bells were heard again, for the first time, on November 29, 1948.

In 1948 the authorities decided that it would be far more expensive to pull down such a massive building than to repair it. However, planning was to take another 30 years, and reconstruction work did not begin until 1975.

This, the last German "emperor's cathedral" was built after the plans of Julius Carl Raschdorff, a Silesian architect. Even at that time, the cathedral's pompous character aroused criticism which is still heard to this day. Not surprisingly, therefore, the cathedral's reconstruction proved extremely complicated. Although its original overall height has been reduced from 114 to 98 meters, and its exterior is no longer so ornate, the cathedral still dominates the reconstructed historic city center.

	The cathedral as viewed from the east.
	View of the chancel.
	The organ. (I would kill to play this.)
	The emperor's staircase and vestibule.
	The sarcophagus of Frederick William I, the Great Elector. (These things are huge.)
	This statue of Death is at the foot of the sarcophagus of Queen Sophie Charlotte. (It is larger than life-size.)
	This statue of Grief is at the foot of the sarcophagus of King Frederick I.