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Chapel of Reconciliation
The Chapel of Reconciliation is a modern religious building on Bernauer Strasse, in Berlin's Mitte district, standing on the site of the former Church of Reconciliation, demolished in 1985 by the GDR government. The current chapel, consecrated on 9 November 2000, was designed by Berlin architects Rudolf Reitermann and Peter Sassenroth and built under the direction of Austrian artist Martin Rauch. Its interior walls are made of rammed clay containing fragments of stone and glass from the rubble of the earlier church, and the oval outer wall is formed of wooden posts that recreate the shape of the previous building. It is the first German church built in clay and the first public building of this material in more than 150 years in Germany. Inside it holds a replica of the Statue of Reconciliation from Coventry Cathedral, a gift from that cathedral also found in Hiroshima and Belfast. The chapel forms part of the Berlin Wall Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer) and belongs to the Community of the Cross of Nails of Coventry Cathedral, a worldwide symbol of reconciliation and peace. Every year, international volunteers from the Open Houses organisation take part in maintenance work and support for the parish.
Add it to your trip on Wanloria →Things to do at Chapel of Reconciliation: 4 missions
- Look in the clay walls for rubble from the earlier churchGo up to the rammed-clay wall and spot the pieces of stone and glass embedded in it.
- Take in the replica of the Statue of ReconciliationStop in front of the replica of the Coventry Cathedral sculpture kept in the chapel.
- Walk around the oval wall of wooden columnsWalk all the way round the chapel's outer oval, built with wooden columns.
- Visit the Chapel of ReconciliationVisit the Chapel of Reconciliation in Berlin and get your bearings on the ground.