Şehitlik Mosque – Berlin Türk Şehitlik Camii

Şehitlik Mosque with Cemetery

As the weather today was almost obtrusively serene and sunny, I decided this was the right time to take a few more pics of Berlin's fairytale-like, most fabulous mosque: The Turkish Şehitlik Mosque.

I published a little article about it here on my blog in October 2009, but that day I had forgotten to charge my camera's battery, so I could only take a few precious photos. Now I took a whole load of pics and the weather was my friend.

 

The premises consist of a cultural center and a mosque. The upper floor of the cultural center features a big terrace and a building element half the size of the ground floor. 

The mosque itself is comprised of four stories: A multipurpose hall in the basement, a prayer room on the ground floor, the mosque on the third floor and a gallery where the women usually pray.

Main prayer language is Turkish, occasionally Arabic and on Fridays prayers are read in German, too.

A brazen plaque right beside the entrance gate explains the origin of the cemetery in Turkish and German. For a short explanation visit my October 2009 article.

Here is the Turkish text:

"Berlin'de ikinci Türk Mezarliği olarak 1866 yilinda Sultan Abdulaziz zamaninda kurulmuştur. 1798 yilinda tesis olunan ilk Türk Kabristanindaki mevtalar buraya taşinmişlardir.

Mezarlari nakledilen, Prusya'da Osmanli Sefiri iken, 29 Ekim 1798 de vefat eden devlet adami, şair ve tasavvuf eri Giritli Ali Aziz Efendi ile diğer dört merhum adina 1867 yilinda kurulan abide, 1988 de Berlin Senatosu tarafindan Diyanet İşleri Türk-İslam Birliği'nin işbirliği ile tamir edilmiştir.

1920-1921 yillarinda şehitliğin ihyasinda Osmanli Büyük Elçiliği eski imami, Hafiz Şükrü Efendi 'nin büyük emeği geçmiştir. Caminin iki minareli bugünkü şekli Türk işçilerinin katkilariyla gerçekleştirilmiştir."

Official Site of Şehitlik Mosque in German language

American Hook Organ finds new Home in German Church

On my way to the America Memorial Library in Kreuzberg, I passed by a stunningly beautiful Gothic Revival style brick church with multiple svelte towers springing up into the sky: The Church of the Holy Cross.

 

According to the wishes of Emporer William I. of Prussia this monumental church was designed by Johannes Otzen, the son of an organist and village school teacher, and built from 1885 to 1888. Being too modest for the Emporer's taste, the unpretentious design priorly offered by architect Blankenstein had been rejected in favor of the four times as costly representative edifice. 

The church consists of a nave and a transept with a crossing tower which in about 20 meters height is topped by a dome.

World War II left the church in ruins after fire bombs had hit the building. In the years following 1945, pastor and parish were strongly opposed to governmental demolition plans and managed to enforce the building's reconstruction. The interior was kept much simpler from then on: The hitherto decorative brick work was plastered over, giving the space a somewhat sterile feeling.

In 1995 the structure was extensively renovated for prospective clerical and secular utilization. Apropos: As soon as I entered the churches vestibule, I was greeted by a vile stench and when I turned my head I saw a homeless man peacefully snoring in a corner surrounded by all his worldly possessions.

In 2001 the church received a unique instrument: The Organ op. 553 built in 1870 by Hook Bros., Boston. It is the only 19th-Century American organ in Germany. This gigantic instrument possesses 2370 pipes and is a genuine instrument of high romanticism.

Hook Organ
Church of the Holy Cross – Homepage

Kaiser William Memorial Church - Anti-war Memorial

Kaiser William Memorial Church, or as my daughter refers to it: "the broken church", is indeed an extraordinary landmark of Berlin. The Protestant church is located in the center of the Breitscheidplatz on Kurfürstendamm and visible over a great distance. The church - inaugurated in 1895 - was severely damaged during a bombing raid in 1943. Whereas the National Socialists promised the reconstruction of the church, the allied forces were reluctant to do so, as the building stood for the Wilhelmian-German national pride.

In the late 50s/early 60s a new church with a tower, a foyer, and a chapel was built and grouped around the ruins of the old church. The buildings are constructed in concrete, steel, and glass, the walls being made of a concrete honeycomb with more than 20.000 unique stained glass inlays by the French artist Gabriel Loire from Chartres. The predominant color is blue interspersed with red, green and yellow. The atmosphere inside the new church is delightful, due to the prismatic variation of colors.

The entrance hall of the damaged spire is open to visitors and presents beautiful mosaics, bas-reliefs, and sculptures along with panels which tell the story of the damaged church.

Source: Bundesarchiv

Kaiser William Memorial Church

Holy Martha!

This very beautiful red brick house (built in 1912) in Kreuzberg, a stone's throw away from the border of northern Neukölln, holds a very special secret: It covers a backyard Church! Who would have guessed that?

Walk through the gateway and you will be standing right in front of St. Martha, the church of a protestant parish. Built in renaissance style in 1904, the church bears a striking resemblance to the U-Bahnhof "Schlesisches Tor" (one of the first Berlin subway stations). U-Bahnhof

In the seventies the church was split horizontally to make room for indispensable community work: If you enter the church through its main entrance you will find a large hall reserved for inter-cultural and inter-religious open youth work and a kindergarten. Use the stair to get to the room where religious service takes place.

Martha-Gemeinde
Picture of Martha Church in 1904

Jewish Life in Berlin

New Synagogue Berlin, 1896

 The first documentation of Jewish presence in Berlin reaches as far back as 1295.

After several acts of persecution and expulsion in Brandenburg and Berlin during the Middle Ages, today's over 12,000-member-strong Jewish community started out in 1671 when several wealthy Jewish families - expelled from Austria - were allowed to settle in Berlin. This was due to the fact that Emperor Frederick William of Prussia needed help with the reconstruction of the country after the Thirty Years War.

Today, Berlin's Jewish community is a fast growing one. Many Jews in Berlin are unaffiliated, so that the total number of Jewish inhabitants is estimated at 20,000 - 30,000. In 1991 the German government adopted the Contingent Refugee Act which "exempted Jews from the many hurdles that immigrants face when applying for German citizenship" (ACJ), which subsequently led to an immigration wave of Soviet Jews.

Nowadays you can find 7 Synagogues in Berlin (photos here :  Rykestraße 53) with their religious orientations ranging from orthodox to egalitarian (addresses and religious orientation).

Jüdische Gemeinde Berlin

Synagogues

Islam in Berlin

Background: Maschari Center with Omar-Ibn-Al-Khattar Mosque opposite Görlitzer Bahnhof

Video about Mosque

According to Euro-Islam.info around 200 000 Muslims are living in Berlin. An estimated 40 000 of them are naturalized German citizens. Altogether Berlin's Islamic population totals approximately 9% of Berlin's entire population.

Since fall 2002 the "Islamische Föderation" - due to their winning a long-lasting lawsuit against school authorities - has been teaching religious lessons in 20 public schools. Thenceforth school offices have been receiving an increasing number of petitions to excuse girls from any sorts of sporting activities.

About 82 mosques and Islamic centers are situated in Berlin. They are visited for prayer and religious ceremonies, and some of them additionally offer cultural, social or educational activities.

The majority of Berlin Muslim residents (72%) believe Muslims living in Germany to be loyal to the country. 94% of Muslims in Berlin reject violence as "an acceptable moral response for a noble cause".

Source: Euro-islam.info

Day of the open Mosque - Şehitlik-Mosque

Today is the "Day of the open Mosque" where over 20 mosques in Berlin are opening their doors to visitors.

I chose to visit the Şehitlik Mosque in Neukölln as well as Germany's oldest Muslim cemetery (over 200 years old) which is located on the same piece of land. Turkish members of the Prussian army received the land from King Frederick William III.

The Şehitlik Mosque was built in 1983 on the Turkish cemetery from which it borrowed the name Şehit ( = maryr).

The building itself is an example of Classic 16th and 17th Turkish-Ottoman architecture while the interior decoration seems unusual for the classic period: Ceramic and marble elements complement each other to form a real gem.

Şehitlik-Mosque