Marienkirche, Medieval church in Alexanderplatz, Germany
Marienkirche is a brick church standing beside the television tower in central Berlin, with three naves connected by broad arches and stone arcades throughout the interior. The building rises about 91 meters (300 feet) high and its red-brick walls dominate the space with sturdy, clear architectural lines.
The church was first recorded as a parish church on 3 January 1292, and architectural experts date its construction to around 1270. After fire damage, the tower was rebuilt in Baroque style between 1663 and 1666 under Michael Mathias Smids, and Carl Gotthard Langhans gave it its neo-Gothic spire in 1789. Hermann Blankenstein restored the building in 1893–1895, and the GDR restored it again in 1969/1970.
The parish was Roman Catholic until the Reformation in 1539, when it became Lutheran; from 1817 to 1948 it belonged to the Prussian Union of churches. Since the late 20th century it has been the preaching church of the St. Petri-St. Marien congregation. A Christmas Eve organ concert with Bible readings, held around 22:00, became in the 1980s a declared act of the East German blues scene for the peace movement.
The church is open to visitors daily, though hours vary by season with shorter times during winter months. Access may be limited during services or religious events, so it helps to check conditions before planning your visit.
The Dance of Death in the tower hall is 22.6 metres long and about two metres high, painted around the plague year 1484 after models in Lübeck. Its verses in Low German are the oldest surviving Berlin poetry. Whitewashed at the Reformation, it was rediscovered in 1861 by the architect Friedrich August Stüler and is now faded and behind glass.
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