St. Michael's Church, Berlin
Saint Michael's is located on the Michaelkirchplatz in Engelbecken, which was part of the old Luisenstadt Canal, along which the Berlin Wall ran until German reunification.
After the canal's closure in 1926, the space was converted into a park, which offered an uninterrupted view of St Michael's from the south.
This view was opened up after the fall of the Berlin Wall, such that the church is once more seen in the way it was originally conceived.
Michaelkirchstraße runs from Michaelkirchplatz to the River Spree, crossing Köpenicker Road [de], and has existed since the sixteenth century.
It was intended to give Catholic soldiers living in Berlin a spiritual home and ease the pressure on St. Hedwig's Cathedral.
This could not be provided by the heavy octagonal roof planned for the cupola, so Soller substituted a domed tower, in accordance with earlier architectural models and the wishes of Frederick William IV.
On 14 July 1851, the foundation stone was laid, with the King and his family in attendance, along with church, secular, and military officials.
The building was completed by Andreas Simons, Martin Gropius, and Soller's nephew, Richard Lucae.
Members of the parish banded together to form a relief society, in order to reduce the problem.
The Marienstift had social facilities, mobile health care, a kindergarten, and accommodation for servant girls.
The Blessed Domprobst Bernhard Lichtenberg, who was later a prominent opponent of National Socialism, was chaplain at St Michael's from 1903 to 1905.
Kaller brought members of the parish together as a lay apostolate for ensuring pastoral care.
With the aid of the Centre Party, the approval of the plan by the Landtag of Prussia was blocked and the Engelbecken was turned into a pond for swans, surrounded by green space.
In the final months of the Second World War, on 3 February 1945, the Luisenstadt was nearly entirely destroyed by air raids carried out by the USAAF with over 950 aircraft.
[8][9][10] Other graffiti on the Berlin Wall along Waldemarstraße is documented in ten connected poster-photos taken by photographers Liselotte and Armin Orgel-Köhne in 1985.
In August 2005, plans were revealed for the restoration of the nave and the installation of a Centre Against Expulsions in it from Autumn 2006.
On the corner columns of the crossing, there were statues of the Four Evangelists on high pedestals, before the church's damage during the Second World War.
He adapted this idea into a basilica structure, roofing each bay so that they appeared as a series of "Zentralbauten" arranged one after another.
There is also a tabernacle with a marble image of the Madonna on the altar, made by sculptor Heinrich Pohlmann.
The overall design, with its three apses and the vast nave is, however, heavily influenced by the church of San Salvador, Venice.
The combination of the "Zentralbau" and hall church structures had a significant influence on several subsequent buildings of the Schinkel school in Berlin.
