Christuskirche Wandsbek

Christuskirche Wandsbek stands on the eastern side of Wandsbeker Marktplatz, in Hamburg’s Wandsbek district. Its 70-metre tower rises above the centre and remains visible from across Wandsbek.

The church marks the fourth building on this site, where a congregation began in 1623. Christian IV granted permission for the first church in 1631, and construction produced a small half-timbered Dreifaltigkeitskirche in 1634. Johann August Arens designed its neoclassical successor, inaugurated in 1800 before fire destroyed it in 1898. Fernando Lorenzen’s neo-Gothic church followed in 1900 and 1901, then bombing in 1943 left only side walls and the tower base. The present building rose between 1953 and 1955, incorporating those remains, while the tower reached completion in 1965.

Inside, a Pantokrator mosaic by Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen faces a bronze meditation cross by Rolf Scheibner and a crucifix by Carl Schümann. Walker & Cie built the organ in the 1960s, and its 2007 renovation preserved a working part of the interior’s musical history. The surrounding Historic Cemetery Wandsbek and Schimmelmann Mausoleum extend the setting beyond the church walls.