An Intervention to the Memory: CONNECTING PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

ETSAB | Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona

MBArch | Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Architecture

Contemporary Project

2020/2021

An Intervention to the Memory

CONNECTING PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

by Serap Doglarlioglu

ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT AND THOUGHT

Convenient ambiguities: materiality as a flexible playground for architecture.

Instructor: Alessandro Scarnato, Architect PhD

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin

Skyline of Breitscheidplatz with Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Upper West under construction, Zoofenster an Bikini-Haus in 2016.

Image © Harald Krichel

ARTICLE 1.

Different Events Create Different Memories

ARTICLE 2.

Contrast Layers of Time

ARTICLE 3.

Strategical Destructions of the Cities During World War II

ARTICLE 4.

Construction to Keep the Memory of the Past

REFLECTION AND PROPOSAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Different Events Create Different Memories: Analyzing Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, Germany with the concept of `Past`

by Serap Doglarlioglu

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was built between 1890 to 1895 in Berlin, Germany to honor the first German Emperor by architect Franz Schwechten in a Romanesque Revival style. During the Second World War, it was highly damaged by air-raids.¹ The ruins of the church have been preserved as an empty shell until it was converted into an anti-war memorial to highlight the peace.

Initially, the religious architecture was designed by an architect to memorize the emperor, but this building was almost turned into dust during World War II. Despite the destruction of the war, a large but damaged part of the church still stands as it is. It could have been demolished or recovered to its original state with the imitation of the neo-romanesque style or a new intervention, but it still remains as a bombed church.

Memory brings the past to the present and lets it communicate timelessly. Every ruin is a heritage to us with its’ information from the past. The Kaiser Wilhelm Church remained damaged to remind of the past, as a memory but not only to remind the materials or the techniques of the time. Suppose natural causes would have damaged this building, would the public insist on keeping it as it is, even though the church is contrasting the modern architectural context of the present? From another perspective; if Germany could not recover after the war, would the public still want to see a reminder of the horror every day in their neighbourhood or city? The memory of this architectural ruin becomes stronger with the contrast of events that happened to it and their projection onto people’s feelings. As an art critic and historian, Cesare Brandi would suggest maintaining the church because of its potential educative nature to understand the present with the past.

¹ “Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.” Berlin.de Newsletter. Last modified 17 January 2019. https://www.berlin.de/en/attractions-and-sights/3561433-3104052-kaiser-wilhelm-memorial-church.en.html.

In the 60s, there was an attempt to replace the damaged church with a modern design of that time by the government, but the public refused that intervention because they wanted to see how they become stronger every day despite the terrible conditions of the past. Achieving the impossible while the church remains as damaged as it is now. Most part of the church might be gone, but the rest of the ruins’ invisible memory still remains.

“It has remained a famous and poignant reminder of the horrors of war, as well as being a symbol of West Berlin’s determination and extraordinary post-war recovery, during the time when it was surrounded by communist East Germany.”²

Therefore, the rejection of demolishing the existing ruins by the public led to a new design for the modernist church designed around the remaining ruins by Egon Eiermann. The architect’s last approach was like John Ruskin’s idea of respect and leave everything. Therefore, the. original buildings program was changed from a church to ruin and from ruin to a memorial with this new intervention. The new church was built using concrete, steel and glass. The church’s form is very rigid, octagonally shaped, while the tower with a new chapel is hexagonal. This solid architectural language creates a dramatic existence next to the ruins, and this new intervention does not hide itself.

Fig.1: Photo-collage showing people walking past the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin on July, 20, 1945 and May 2, 2015 Image © GETTY IMAGES

Breitscheidplatz, where the church is located, is one of Berlin’s most attractive places with its combination of the old and new architecture surrounding it; it is also a busy social and commercial district. The form of the new church buildings are following the context of the site with a modernist architectural style, but that makes them extremely contrast to old Romanesque Revival church ruins. The modern architectural context of the neighbourhood is instrumental in showing the recovery after the war. An example: If the old church’s ruins were located in an empty, abandoned context, it would not be a symbol of recovery. This context is unique with the unwanted destruction caused by WW II. It is the modern construction today that reminds the idea of the American Revolution; creating the new to make the past of the future in an empty land.

Carlo Scarpa’s intervention, Museo di Castalvecchio in Verona is a very inspiring example with his respectful attitude of designing the bombed, missing part of the building with dematerialization. He still continues with a modern approach without fixing the wounded and suffered area. In my opinion, a similar approach to this example is missing at the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

Fig.2: BEFORE- Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church / Franz Schwechten / Berlin 1940. Image ©Heinz Pollmann

Fig.3: AFTER- Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church / Franz Schwechten / Berlin 1960. Image © Willy Pragher

The new church building, and the site’s context seem like they compressed the old ruins unrespectfully. That’s why a new proposal is needed to create a visual connection between the old and the new church. To respect the importance of the missing part of the past, I would like to use the concept of ready-made which was introduced by Marcel Duchamp in 1913. It would be an intervention to represent the construction from destruction and at the same time to describe the architectural language of today. Using stone wastes can also represent the destroyed part of the old church:

The building’s feeling evolved over time. The church was a memorial to honor an emperor and turned to a memorial of war and destruction, and finally, now it is a symbol of ambition and resurrection. While the meaning of the ruins is positive now, the shadow of horror shows itself more because of the current architectural condition.

So, the combination of both churches would be a conceptual and visual combination while representing our time’s waste-based sustainable approach in architecture. The waste stones used for this approach may stem from other bombing sites in the city which allows them also to become part of this intervention and turns it to a new memory, related to the present and past of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church.

This approach follows the idea of Paolo Marconi, who defends the idea of turning the past into tangible present, as there should be another way of making the holes and scars of the building understandable. The Rigid and clear form of the current intervention next to the broken church tower would conceptually and visually connect better. The invisible broken part of the old church would be highlighted with this kind of intervention proposal.

Fig.5: Castalvecchio/ Carlo Scarpa/ Verona, 1974. Image © Peter Guthrie

Fig.4: Casa 9x9/ Titus Bernhard/ Stadtbergen, 2003. Image © Christian Richter

Contrast Layers of Time: Analyzing Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, Germany with the concept of `Future`

by Serap Doglarlioglu

The previous article “Different Events Create Different Memories” was an informative introduction and discussion about the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in terms of the concept of ‘Past’ and ‘Memory’. This article will discuss the same subject in terms of ‘Future’ and ‘Layers’.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is a combination of old ruins and a new church designed by Egon Eiermann. The first church building was designed between 1891 and 1895 in a NeoRomantic style and the new modernist building around the old ruins was completed between 1959 and 1961. It is important to understand the time and the condition of it to be able to talk about the future. The contrast of these two designed structures reminds us of the time with their different architectural styles and the current structural conditions. When ‘time’ is that strongly visible on the architecture site, the discussion of ‘future’ appears itself.

When there are two opposite architectural languages, people mention them as the ‘old and new one’. Old evokes the past and new brings the future to mind. However, there are 66 years between the construction of old and new church buildings and there are 60 years between the present year and the new church’s-built date. So, how can people still call it a new church after 60 years?

In my opinion, there are two important points in this scenario: The first one is that the ruins are a very strong visual representation of the past with being the memories of the events of their time and in this scenario, the memory is the destruction and horrors of World War II.

The ruins of the original church are a symbol of a horrible past and at the same time the optimistic, utopian vision of the future.

People in the past monstrously used the technology to create war weapons to invade and show power instead of focusing on improving the cities.

It caused destruction of the present structures and lives. Unfortunately, it is not only the past and the wars and destructions still continue today. Many architectural heritages of these countries are turning into dust. So, the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Church itself is a reminder of the peaceful future. A future that is focused to improve and live together, not destroy. But Human beings tend to work in a monstrous way and this makes me think that the future of the architecture and cities will keep turning ruins and dust and keep resetting until they find a weapon that only kills and not destroy the cities.

The second point is about building as a religious architectural structure with an extraordinary design approach, because most of the time religious buildings tend to be designed with the same architectural language, even in the present time.

However, the new church buildings which are designed by Eiermann are ahead of the time with the modern design approach to a religious building. It is still very unique and provocative to bring a new aesthetic to religious architecture with its geometrically rigid steel concrete and glass structure. It evokes a rush of excitement until this day.

Fig.1: Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Context / Berlin, Germany Image © Zeya Deylamipour

Fig.2: Construction Process of New Chapel- Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Franz Schwechten / Berlin 1940.

Image © Fritz P. Krueger

For example, religious architecture design can be seen as a ‘totalitarian regime’ of the 30s which did not let people develop something new and different and this new additional architecture is exploring the new possibilities in terms of design and materiality.

In this case, the people who go to the church back conservativism rather than a government or a system. Also, Eiermann was an architect of the post-WW II period and this totalitarian approach to architecture during the War by the Nazi regime must have triggered him to design with a modern architectural language, especially next to the horrible memory of that time. This approach made me think about the concept of the future that comes out of repressed ideas in a way. Whatever is repressed now will be the future as human beings like being rebellious and turning the impossible into possible.

In the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church example, it can be said that the future is just a new layer of possibilities. These layers of time are endless and there will be always a new layer of a structure and architecture on top or next to the old one until the time stops. If we think about the ruins from the past that are laying under the current level of the earth. These layers of time are vertical but, in this subject, the layers of the time are aligned horizontally and at mixed locations. Therefore, no matter which direction the layers are, the future is a continuation of the present and becomes the past with every new layer that appears in the world.

Fig.3: Layers of TIme- Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church / Franz Schwechten / Berlin 1940. Image © Runinternational.eu

Fig.4: Interior of the New Chapel- Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church / Franz Schwechten Berlin 1960. Image © Sergey Kohl

Strategical Destructions of the Cities During World War II: Analyzing Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, Germany with the concept of `Destruction`

by Serap Doglarlioglu

Destruction is a word that brings negative feelings with itself, like fear and loss. These feelings are related to traumas of destruction which bring changes with them inherently. Change can be positive or negative, but it still means a goodbye to what was existing and usual. That is especially the case when it comes to the destruction of cities and architecture, whatever the cause may be; war, natural catastrophes or intentional and planned, it is a severe loss. That’s why destructions are incomprehensible if they are evaluated only on the blueprints without considering people and their psychology. It is easy to draw a line or erase on paper, unlike reality. So, destruction is a traumatic experience whether it causes an improved urban planning or unexpected nature possessions later on. That’s why in the history, it was much easier for the dictators to erase the building blocks which are on the way of their power displays.

During World War II, many cities were damaged and destroyed by air-raids, like Coventry, Dresden, and Berlin to demoralize the nations with the strategical bombings to tabula rasa, destroy everything. Cathedrals of these cities were damaged and almost completely ruined. Since the beginning of architecture history, religious buildings have significant meanings to people, and they cannot be only considered as soulless structures. They give hope and strength to nations as well as they are a showcase of the wealth of the empires and governments with its’ architectures. That’s why these damaged churches all had experience different architectural interventions to the ruins even though their destruction caused by the same event. Because these interventions, or non-interventions, all have symbolic meanings that they represent.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin is a symbol of destruction itself. As I mentioned in the first article about the Past, the reason the ruins of the church still remain is that it is a remembrance of the painful destruction of WWII and how the nation still stands like the remains and how the surrounding modern architectures show the recovery with the material and visual contrast after the big destruction of air-raids.

“…Kaiser Wilhelm I, is now nicknamed “Hollow Tooth” by locals and was preserved for posterity. It has remained a famous and poignant reminder of the horrors of war, as well as being a symbol of West Berlin’s determination and extraordinary post-war recovery, during the time when it was surrounded by communist East Germany.” ¹

Interestingly, the war survivor Kaiser Wilhelm Church was planned to be to be destroyed by the government itself because it is not cheap to maintain the damaged tower from the government budgets.

“Earlier the church authorities put the cost of repairing its neo-Gothic facade at 3.5 million euros ($5.1 million), but now due to continuing disintegration the cost has soared to 4.1 million euros.” ¹

So, the destruction idea appeared as a designing decision with an architecture competition for a new church building. However, the public in Berlin was strongly against the idea of erasing the memory of the cruel past. It is interesting because, the budget which is used for maintaining the ruins of the church, can be used for the public in a more convenient manner. They did not want to replace the old church with a new modernly designed version because of the memory of the war. The destruction and pain would have vanished with that demolishment.

Fig.1: Bombed Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church / Berlin, Germany Rare Historical Photos

When the Taliban bombed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, the memory did not disappear because it was carved into the Rock and its silhouette is still there as a gap and absence.

In contrast, another example is in Salonika, the great murder of Jewish ended up with the biggest Jewish cemetery of the Mediterranean and killing them did not destroy their existence, it only turned them from present to a memory. However, destroying their gravestones and tombs erased the memory of Jewish presence. So, if the government of Berlin would not listen to the protests, the memory and the reminder of horror would be erased, and human tends to repeat the same mistakes easily without reminders of the past.

The public won and the tower of the church is still remaining as a memory but is it enough to add “memorial” to the name of the church and build a new church right next to it? The uncomfortable image of the hollow church seems to disappear in between new surrounding structures because the only common thing that old and new church is sharing that the same location and not even the same function anymore.

Fig.2: Plan and Elevation of the Church- Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Franz Schwechten / Berlin 1940. Image Photos © Adrian Welch

Construction to Keep the Memory of the Past: Analyzing Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, Germany with the concept of `Construction`

by Serap Doglarlioglu

Construction cannot be separately handled without mentioning the past. The past is never just past as it is always the present through materiality and nature. Buildings can be destroyed, and human life can end but nothing really disappears, they just change form in nature. Architecture and construction use the existing materials and while taking them from nature, this event also reshapes nature itself like the marble quarries in Tuscany.

Memory is a sense of knowledge and understanding of the past and it is the possibility to look back at this past as something that has not been erased by the construction but has been included. Layers of the construction appear with the memory, and they appear with the materiality as the past. The existing can be used as a construction element and layers can be constructed on top of each other or next to each other but it can be always visible.

Kaiser Wilhelm Church shows these layers with the significant architectural difference between the old and new church. However, they seem not related to each other at all. The problem with the new architecture is that there is not any physical connection with the old ruin and not even a visual inspiration from the old church.

If we look at the examples of Coventry and Dresden cathedrals which both experienced a destructive event similar to the Kaiser Wilhelm Church: Dresden cathedral acted like “nothing happened” and was raised again as it was before, Coventry Cathedral rebuilt from the same material with a different design but also kept the remains of the old cathedral adjacent and created two cathedrals in unity. One functions as a cathedral while another one is a reminder of the terrible past event in Coventry. This construction gives hope to the future as well as the ruins show what can happen again if we do not remember.

“The decision to rebuild the cathedral was taken the morning after its destruction. Rebuilding would not be an act of defiance, but rather a sign of faith, trust and hope for the future of the world. It was the vision of the Provost at the time, Richard Howard, which led the people of Coventry away from feelings of bitterness and hatred. This has led to the cathedral’s Ministry of Peace and Reconciliation, which has provided spiritual and practical support, in areas of conflict throughout the world.” ¹

However, this architectural unity is strongly missing throughout the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church buildings and constructing a new church next to it unrelatedly put the old one in its shadow.

Throughout history, it took many years and decades to finalize the construction of these cathedrals. It was time and money consuming. The constant work of construction of the cathedrals generated a whole economy around them. That’s why people mostly were used to seeing unfinished church constructions and they became the characteristic looks. In contrast to the past, the government now is under economic pressure to keep the Kaiser Wilhelm Church not completed and ruined. As Viollet-LeDuc sees the construction as a process that never ends because the construction process can go a step back and further. Maybe, the intervention to Kaiser Wilhelm Church can play between these steps and create a new combination of the different steps of the construction. The action of construction always needs to have sense and the reality must be comprehended well before the intervention. The reality I see here in Berlin is that the current location of the church tower ruins must be defined strongly in order to prevent a loss of memory.

Fig.2: Coventry Cathedral, UK Image Photos © English Cathedrals Archive

Fig.1: Dresden Frauenkirche, Germany Image © r/ArchitecturalRevival

Coventry Cathedral. “Our History” Coventry Cathedral, Last modified 2021, https://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/wpsite/our-history/.

Reflection and Proposal:

Intervention to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, Germany

An intervention is needed to make the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church outstanding once again, but this intervention must be also helpful in terms of its soaring costs to the government. If the old church building was carved into rocks like Buddhas of Bamiyan, even the absence of it would remain as a memory even the budget would be cut by the government to preserve it.

Also, highlighting the past events can be important in terms of the visitor’s feelings. Most of the churches’ windows are used to tell the painful story of Jesus and glazed windows proved the importance of light and colors in human emotions.

Science Fiction movies displaying catastrophes and destruction of whole cities or planets are appealing because they give us a chance to feel the event of destruction from the firstperson point of view. Shows us the disasters from the inside. After the destruction, there will be no action or construction that will start later, but the exciting element of these movies is the moment of the destruction.

The new intervention to Kaiser Wilhelm ruins can allow the people to watch its delayed destruction and decay by building transparent protection around it which also shows the historical images of the past event. There is no need to give an architectural function to the current memorial as the public wants it to stay as a reminder of the past. Surrounding the current tower with a new structure will localize the current position of the ruins and even the church will be destroyed as intentionally or naturally, the stones will be stuck in this surrounding structure like a box of memory. For a very long time, the Kaiser Wilhelm Church was frozen and asleep. Every day it was the same. The horrors of the past seemed to be over and so the destruction of the building was stopped. But this intervention will start the decay again to visualize that the eternal life and frozen state of the building was just an illusion.

In Germany and all over Europe far-right movements and parties are gaining more support and power in recent years. The German politician Walter Lübcke was killed by neo-Nazis right in front of his own home for his welcoming and open political approach. The horrors and crimes of the Second World War might be over, but hatred, prejudice and xenophobia that causes these horrors still exist in today’s society. And as long as this is true, the Kaiser Wilhelm Church will decay to be a constant and painful reminder of this ongoing issue.

Bibliography

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“Building.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/technology/building.

“Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.” Berlin.de, www.berlin.de/en/attractions-and-sights/3561433-3104052-kaiser-wilhelm-me morial-church.en.html.

“Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.” Meros, world.meros.uz/en/wonder/view?id=735.

“Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.” VisitBerlin.de, www.visitberlin.de/en/kaiser-wilhelm-memorial-church. Monchaux, Thomas de, et al. “A Beacon in Berlin.” The New Yorker, www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-bea con-in-berlin.

“Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church - Data, Photos & Plans.” WikiArquitectura, 8 Sept. 2020, en.wikiarquitectura.com/ building/kaiser-wilhelm-memorial-church/.