Mor-Afrem-Kirche, Modern religious building in Charlottenburg, Germany.
Mor-Afrem-Kirche is a brick and exposed-concrete church complex built around a courtyard at Mindener Straße 1, corner of Mierendorffplatz. Its low rectangular hall has a long side wall with a grid of small pale square openings above a smooth concrete band and a recessed ground level with dark vertical slats. A 33-meter brick tower on a semicircular plan rises near the entrance, its upper section pierced by dense small openings and topped by a gold cross; the sign reads "Mor-Afrem-Kirche".
The building was constructed between 1964 and 1966 as a Roman Catholic church, designed by architect Alfons Boklage. In 2005, the Syrian Orthodox community acquired and repurposed the structure.
The building was consecrated as Mariä Himmelfahrt in 1966 and served Charlottenburg's Catholic parish; from 1988 it also hosted the Italian Catholic Mission. In 2005 the Catholic Church sold it to the Syrian Orthodox congregation Mor Afrem e.V., which reopened it under its present name on 4 May 2008. The former high altar zone now ends in an apse set into the round tower body.
The church stands at the corner of Mindener Straße and Mierendorffplatz, with the entrance on the square side. The 34-metre facade facing the square is made of glass-reinforced concrete, so little daylight reaches the interior; the large window onto the courtyard is the main source of natural light. The church and its connecting wings rest on an open base storey of reinforced concrete with brick-clad columns.
The four bronze bells were cast in 1965 by the Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock foundry, before the church passed to the Syrian Orthodox community in 2005. The 33-metre tower that holds them has a semicircular plan and projects from the middle of the glass-concrete facade as a conch.
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