"Church of Hope", Heritage church in Dresden, Germany

The Church of Hope is a yellow-stuccoed building with a red tiled hipped roof and dormer windows, built in 1936 as a community hall to plans by Rudolf Kolbe. Its entrance has three round arches on sandstone capitals carved with scenes of people at work and biblical themes, reached by stone steps. A long side wall holds tall arched windows, and the interior hall seats five hundred people.

Plans for a second Löbtau congregation date from around 1896; the Hoffnungsgemeinde became independent on 1 January 1915 under Pastor Theodor Böhmer. Inflation wiped out the building funds in 1923, so work began only in 1935. Architect Rudolf Kolbe's community house was consecrated at Pentecost 1936 by bishop Friedrich Coch, and only in 1961 was the planned church abandoned and the building named Hoffnungskirche.

The name refers to hope, taken from the Hoffnungsgemeinde founded in 1915. Since 1999 the Friede und Hoffnung congregation has held services alternately here and at the Friedenskirche. The south windows, made in 1947, show angels with the faces of Pastor Johannes Böhme's two daughters, who died on 8 May 1945.

The church stands at Clara-Zetkin-Straße 30 in Löbtau, its three round-arched entrances reached by stone steps with metal handrails. Services of the Friede und Hoffnung congregation alternate between this building and the Friedenskirche. The 500-seat hall is entered from the rectangular forecourt, once intended by the Deutsche Christen as a consecration square.

The three round-arch entrances rest on sandstone capitals carved with figures at work and biblical scenes, a detail easily missed from the street. The rectangular forecourt in front was intended by the Deutsche Christen as a consecration ground. Inside, the 1965 coloured cross is by Elly-Viola Nahmmacher.