Dankes-Kirche, Modern church in Wedding, Germany.
The Dankes-Kirche on Weddingplatz is an Evangelical church built from 1970 to 1972 by Fritz Bornemann, consisting of a hall church and adjoining community rooms. The sacred building has a polygonal ground plan and is a reinforced concrete skeleton structure with fair-faced concrete outer walls. Glazed entrance halls lie between the staggered wall panels, whose vertical window bands light the interior from the side; a metal cross sits on the gable facing the square, with the bell chamber integrated into it.
The original building was constructed between 1882 and 1884 with seating for 1200 people, but suffered extensive damage during World War II and was demolished in 1949. The current structure was built later as a modern replacement to serve the congregation with a completely new architectural approach.
The name Dankeskirche (Thanksgiving Church) refers to the votive church planned after the failed 1878 assassination attempts on Kaiser Wilhelm I. From 2007 the building served as a youth church, and the Syrian Orthodox congregation St. Izozoel later used it, acquiring it on a hereditary lease; on 18 August 2019 it was consecrated as the Mor Izozoel Church.
The church stands at Weddingplatz in the Wedding district of Berlin-Mitte, on a polygonal plan with a glazed entrance hall set between the building parts. Since 18 August 2019 it has been consecrated as the Mor-Izozoel-Kirche of the Syriac Orthodox congregation, which holds it under heritable lease, so visits depend on that community's use rather than on Protestant service times.
The two bells in the bell chamber were cast in 1970 by Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock, the same year construction began. The bell chamber is set into the gable facing Weddingplatz, topped by a metal cross, so the bells hang not in a separate tower but within the church's street-facing facade.
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