Zion Church, Protestant church in Berlin-Mitte, Germany
Zion Church is a Protestant church on Zionskirchplatz in Berlin-Mitte, built in Romanesque Revival style from brick with yellow glazed bricks from the Hermsdorf cement and clay works. Its 67-meter tower rises at the junction of Zionskirchstraße and Griebenowstraße, and the choir faces north rather than east. The interior originally had 1,424 seats, 562 of them on the gallery.
King Wilhelm I donated 10,000 thalers in 1861 after surviving an assassination attempt in Baden-Baden, and construction began in 1866. The church was consecrated on 2 March 1873. Air raids in November 1943 destroyed the roof, altar, choir windows and the Sauer organ; the parish bricked up the lower windows in 1946. Roof and tower repairs only began in 1988, and the tower and roof were fully restored from 1993.
The name refers to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the hill of the city fortress. Since 1997 a bronze torso of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Karl Biedermann stands before the west side; a second cast was placed before Wrocław's Elisabeth Church in 1999. In summer the church is open to visitors, and on Sunday afternoons the 22-metre tower viewing platform gives views in three directions.
The church is open to visitors in the summer months. On Sunday afternoons, visitors can climb the tower to a viewing platform 22 meters up, which offers views of Berlin in three directions and a look at the vaulted ceiling above the main space.
During the 1980s, the building housed an environmental library and became a gathering point for political dissidents in East Germany. This period made it a symbol of resistance during a pivotal time in the country's history.
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