Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is Berlin’s great war memorial: the broken spire of a church built for the Kaiser, bombed in 1943 and left as a ruin, beside a modern octagonal church walled with deep blue glass. It stands on Breitscheidplatz, at the end of the Kurfürstendamm, and is free to visit. A long restoration of the whole ensemble begins in 2026, and the exhibition in the old tower has closed until about 2029, but the new church stays open.
From the Kaiser’s church to a memorial
Kaiser Wilhelm II built the church in memory of his grandfather, Wilhelm I, the first emperor of united Germany. The architect Franz Schwechten designed it in a neo-Romanesque style, and it was consecrated in 1895, with a spire of 113 metres; its entrance hall, completed in 1906, was covered in mosaics glorifying the Hohenzollern dynasty.
On the night of 22–23 November 1943 an air raid left it a burnt-out shell. When Egon Eiermann’s winning design for a new church, in 1957, proposed pulling the ruin down, Berliners protested, and he revised it to keep the broken tower, building around it an octagonal church and a hexagonal bell tower in 1959–63. Berliners call the trio the hollow tooth, the lipstick and the powder compact. On 19 December 2016 a terrorist drove a lorry into the Christmas market beside the church, killing thirteen people (one of them died of his injuries in 2021); a golden crack in the steps is their memorial.
The visitor’s cheat sheet
| Where | Breitscheidplatz, 10789 Berlin, at the eastern end of the Kurfürstendamm |
|---|---|
| Opening hours | Daily 10am–6pm, except during services, prayers and concerts |
| Admission | Free; guided tours by donation |
| Tours | 30-minute tours Tuesday–Sunday, mostly hourly from 11.15am to 4.15pm (Tuesday until 1.15pm); none on Mondays |
| Memorial Hall | Exhibition in the old tower closed from 29 August 2026 for restoration, planned until about 2029 |
| Getting there | U-Bahn Kurfürstendamm, or S-Bahn and U-Bahn Zoologischer Garten, a few minutes’ walk |
| How long | Half an hour; an hour with a tour |
Hours and admission checked against the official site in October 2026. They change; the official site is always the last word.
A restoration has begun. The exhibition in the Memorial Hall, in the base of the old tower, closed on 29 August 2026, and the old tower, the bell tower and the church itself are to be restored in stages until about 2029, with a new exhibition and, it is planned, a viewing platform in the tower. The church is planned to stay open for services, concerts and tours throughout, but parts may be closed and the streets around it are partly fenced off. Expect scaffolding.
What to see, in the order you meet it
The golden crack
Crossing the steps and the square in front of the church is a crack filled with gold, 14 metres long, unveiled in 2017 in memory of the victims of the attack of 2016. Their names and countries are on the front of the steps.
The old tower
The ruined tower stands as the bombs left it, its spire broken off. Inside its base is the Memorial Hall, the old entrance hall, whose mosaics of the early 1900s show a procession of Hohenzollern rulers; a Cross of Nails from Coventry, made from the nails of its bombed cathedral, recalls the two cities’ reconciliation. The hall is closed for restoration from August 2026, so none of this can be seen until it reopens.
The new church
Step into Eiermann’s octagon and the noise of the city disappears into a deep blue light. The walls are made of more than 20,000 small panes of coloured glass, mostly blue, made in the workshop of Gabriel Loire in Chartres, set in a double concrete honeycomb. Above the altar hangs a golden figure of the risen Christ by Karl Hemmeter. In a side chapel is the Stalingrad Madonna, a charcoal drawing made by the German army doctor and pastor Kurt Reuber in the encircled city at Christmas 1942, of the Virgin sheltering the Child, with the words “light, life, love”. Reuber died in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp in 1944.
Tours and where to stay
Tours and hotels
The church’s own volunteers give short tours from Tuesday to Sunday, by donation, and on Sundays a tour through the gap between the double walls of blue glass. Many Berlin walking tours of the West End start or end here. Concerts in the church are listed on its website.
Tour and hotel links go to GetYourGuide and Booking.com. This site earns nothing from them at present — they are here because they are the quickest way to check what is actually available.
Don’t miss
- The blue glass Inside the new church; best on a bright day.
- The Stalingrad Madonna Kurt Reuber’s drawing of Christmas 1942.
- The broken spire From Breitscheidplatz and the Kurfürstendamm.
- The golden crack The memorial to the attack of 2016.
- Saturday at 6pm A Bach cantata or organ vespers.
Insider tips
Come on a sunny afternoon, and come back after dark. The blue glass glows with sunlight from inside by day, and at night, lit from within, the octagon and bell tower glow blue across the square. Free tours leave most hours from Tuesday to Sunday.
The church stands where the Kurfürstendamm and the Tauentzienstraße meet, the heart of the old West Berlin; the KaDeWe department store is a few minutes’ walk east, and the Zoo just north.
Common questions
Is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church free to visit?
Yes. The new church is open daily from 10am to 6pm, except during services and concerts, and entry is free. The short guided tours are by donation. Plans for the restored tower include an entrance charge in future, but services will stay free.
Why was the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church never rebuilt?
It was wrecked in an air raid in November 1943. Egon Eiermann’s winning design for a new church, in 1957, would have demolished the ruin, but Berliners protested, and he revised it to keep the broken tower as a memorial, with his new church and bell tower beside it.
Is the old tower open?
The exhibition in the Memorial Hall, in the base of the old tower, closed on 29 August 2026 for restoration, which is planned to run until about 2029. The new church stays open, and the guided tours continue.
What is the golden crack on the steps?
The memorial to the terrorist attack on the Christmas market on 19 December 2016, in which thirteen people died, one of them of his injuries in 2021: a crack filled with gold runs across the steps and the square, and the names of the dead are on the steps.
When is the Christmas market?
The market on Breitscheidplatz, round the church, runs from 23 November 2026 to 3 January 2027. Entry is free.
Can I hear the organ?
Yes. There is organ music with a short tour of the organ on Fridays at 1.45pm, and on Saturday evenings at 6pm a Bach cantata service or an organ vespers, usually free with a collection. Some concerts are ticketed.
Where to stay and eat nearby
The streets around the Kurfürstendamm and Savignyplatz are full of hotels, cafés and restaurants, and the S-Bahn and U-Bahn at Zoologischer Garten connect with the rest of Berlin.
More churches in Germany
- Berlin Cathedral — the Hohenzollerns’ great church, on Museum Island.
- Dresden Frauenkirche — destroyed in 1945, and rebuilt rather than kept as a ruin.