Saint Clement Church, Catholic church in Kreuzberg, Germany.
Saint Clement Church is a neo-Romanesque basilica with red brick facing, a pitched brown tiled roof, and a facade divided into two levels. The upper wall has three tall arched windows, while the lower section, under a narrow tiled lean-to roof, contains two side-by-side arched doorways: the left covered by a pointed brick gable with an open geometric screen above a dark door, and the right framed by a broad rounded brick arch with dark double doors. It was built as a rear courtyard church, hidden from the street.
Clemens August Graf von Galen, later Bishop of Münster and cardinal, donated the church and an attached Kolpinghaus; the foundation stone was laid on 18 September 1910. The church, dedicated to Klemens Maria Hofbauer, was consecrated on 24 June 1912. During World War I it served as a military hospital, and the Jesuits took over the curate in 1919. In 1942 the Gestapo seized the property for the Economic Administration Main Office; the building was damaged in World War II and restored in 1957.
The church is dedicated to Klemens Maria Hofbauer, a Redemptorist canonised in 1909. Since 2006 Vincentian Fathers from India have led pastoral care, and in 2008 they founded the Retreat Centre of Divine Mercy for re-evangelisation. Perpetual adoration is held here continuously alongside parish ministry. A hostel has operated in the complex since spring 2006.
The church stands at Stresemannstraße 66, set back as a side wing in the second courtyard of the former Kolpinghaus, so it is not visible from the street. The front building that once hid it was destroyed in the war. Perpetual adoration runs continuously, so expect prayer activity at most hours.
The church sits in the second courtyard of the former Kreuzberg Kolpinghaus, built as a typical Berlin Hinterhofkirche hidden from the street by a front building destroyed in the war. Its north aisle has no windows because it abuts the neighbouring party wall, while clerestory windows light the nave on both sides.
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