Berliner Dom

The first church was built here in 1465. This rather modest building later served as the court church for the Hohenzollern family. The church was replaced by a cathedral, built between 1745 and 1747 in a Baroque design from Johann Boumann. It was remodeled into a classicist building from 1816 to 1822 following a design by the Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

On Emperor Wilhelm II's order, this domed building was demolished in 1894 and replaced by the current Cathedral. Much larger than any of the previous buildings, it was a protestant counterweight to the catholic St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The baroque building with Italian Renaissance influences was designed by Julius Raschdorff. It is unusually ornate for a protestant church.
Construction of the 114m long and 73m wide Cathedral took place between 1894 and 1905.

During the Second World War, the building was hit by a fire bomb which severely damaged much of the Cathedral. A temporary roof was installed to protect what remained of the interior and - despite plans by the East German government to demolish the building - in 1975 reconstruction of the church started.

The restoration of the interior begun in 1984 and in 1993 the church reopened. It was consecrated for the second time in 1996. During reconstruction, the original design was modified into a more simplified form. The Hohenzollern mausoleum that was located at the north side of the building was removed in the process.

One of the most interesting items in the richly decorated interior of the church is the reconstructed pipe organ, built by Wilhelm Sauer. The organ, originally built in 1905, has more than 7.000 pipes.
A number of members of the Hohenzollern family are buried in the church, among them Friedrich I and his wife, who are entombed in beautifully sculpted sarcophagi. The oldest tomb in the cathedral (1530) is the tomb of elector Johann Cicero, elector of Brandenburg. The main altar, which was saved from the previous cathedral dates from 1850. The reconstructed stained glass windows with nativity scenes were originally created in 1905 by Anton von Werner.