Berlin Cathedral
Look up from the Lustgarten on Museum Island and this colossal Neo-Renaissance church is Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) — Germany's largest Protestant church. Commissioned by Wilhelm II and designed by the architect Julius Raschdorff, it was built between 1894 and 1905 in a grand "High Italian Renaissance with Baroque influences" style. It is more than a place of worship: it holds one of Europe's most important dynastic crypts. In the Second World War, the dome was burned through in 1944, and the slow postwar reconstruction was not completed until 2002. Today the cathedral takes in the central Sermon Church, the Baptismal and Matrimonial Church on the south side, and the Hohenzollern Crypt below — worth stepping inside for the corners people walk past but rarely explain.
Germany · 3 The overlooked corners inside
The overlooked corners inside
The Sauer Organ
This giant organ in the Sermon Church dates from 1905, built by the Sauer organ workshop and designed and completed in step with the cathedral itself. Its ornate case (the prospekt) was made by the sculptor Richard Most. Its technology is frozen at the 1905 standard — and that is exactly what makes it precious: with 7,269 pipes, 113 stops, four manuals and a pedalboard, it was the largest cathedral organ in Germany of its day, and remains the largest surviving fully pneumatic late-Romantic organ.
The Ornate Sarcophagi of the Royal Couple
This pair of ornate sarcophagi in the Sermon Church holds Frederick I, the first King of Prussia, and his queen, Sophie Charlotte. Designed by the Baroque master Andreas Schlüter in 1705 and 1713 respectively and cast by Johann Jacobi, they are regarded as among the most important works of Baroque sculpture. Step close to the queen's: the coffin rests on four supports bearing Prussian eagles and is draped with a coronation mantle, while a male figure of Death sits before it, writing the Latin words "in eternal memory of Queen Sophie Charlotte" into a book.
Sources: de.wikipedia.org
The Hohenzollern Crypt
Descend from the Sermon Church and you enter the Hohenzollern Crypt, which fills almost the entire lower level of the cathedral — Germany's most important dynastic burial place. It ranks alongside the imperial Austrian crypt at the Capuchin Church in Vienna, the crypt of the French kings at the Basilica of Saint-Denis near Paris, and the crypt of the Spanish kings at the Escorial near Madrid, among Europe's most important dynastic burial sites. The crypt holds 94 members of the House of Hohenzollern, from the late sixteenth century to the early twentieth — including the electors and kings who profoundly shaped the history of Brandenburg and Prussia.
Sources: de.wikipedia.org
FAQ
What overlooked corners are worth seeing inside Berlin Cathedral?
The Sauer Organ, The Ornate Sarcophagi of the Royal Couple, The Hohenzollern Crypt and more — 3 spots in all, each with sources and a guide in your language to read or listen to on the spot.
Is the Berlin Cathedral guide free?
All 3 guides are free.