Deutscher Dom

Deutscher Dom stands on Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt, where its domed towers form a symmetrical ensemble with the French Church. The church began between 1701 and 1708 for Calvinist and Lutheran congregations.

Giovanni Simonetti designed the original building after plans by Martin Grünberg, using a pentagonal ground plan with semicircular apses. Carl von Gontard added the decorative domed towers in the late eighteenth century, following Palladian and neobaroque ideas. Christian Bernhard Rode’s statues show figures from the Old and New Covenant, while the gable relief depicts the conversion of Paul of Tarsus. Bombing during the Second World War caused severe damage, but reconstruction preserved these architectural details by 1988.

Inside, the museum follows German parliamentary history from the March Revolution of 1848 to the present. Photos, installations and films examine the first national assembly, the German Empire and the Nazi regime. A striking detail remains the display of revolutionaries’ coffins here during the March Revolution, turning the church into a place of public mourning.