Zum Guten Hirten, Parish church in Friedrichsfelde, Lichtenberg, Germany.
Kirche Zum Guten Hirten is a Catholic parish church on Kurze Straße in Friedrichsfelde, built 1983–1985 to designs by Rainer Rietsch, Walter Krüger and Bernd Stich of the Deutsche Bauakademie. Its concrete body, clad in clinker brick, rests on an irregular plan of two offset trapezoids, so the walls rise to different heights. The steep brick gable and the lower flat-roofed wing with its small square tower and metal cross read as a tent, the "Zelt Gottes über der Welt".
The original structure was built in 1906 as a modest chapel serving the local Catholic community. After major reconstruction, it was reconsecrated in 1985 as the new building that stands today.
The name 'Zum Guten Hirten' (Good Shepherd) refers to the Christian image of the shepherd caring for his flock. The parish was established in 1906 as a curate of St. Mauritius, and the present church was consecrated in 1985. The stolen monstrance and chalice from 1920 were replaced by pieces from the Schlossarek silverware factory in Breslau, which are still in use.
The church sits near Friedrichsfelde subway station on Kurze Strasse, with easy access from surrounding streets. Visitors will find it centrally positioned within the neighborhood and straightforward to reach by foot or public transit.
Bernhard Lichtenberg, later provost of St. Hedwig's Cathedral, gathered donations as chaplain in 1906 that turned a former barn on the Kurze Straße plot into the first small brick church. The parish remembers him as its early fundraiser; he was beatified in 1996.
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