The First Church of Russian Emigration in Berlin: The Fate of the Masterpiece

Abstract

This article dwells upon the tragic history of the architecturally unique Russian Community House with a church. It was built by the design of an architect Nikolai Vasilyev (1875–1958). The presentation of the material in the article begins with the history of the Orthodox embassy house churches in Berlin. Despite the long historical and matrimonial ties between Russian and Prussian Reigning Royal Houses, there was no separate capital Orthodox church edifice in Berlin. The rector of the embassy church A. Maltsev advocated the construction of it, but the First World War interfered with the plans to build a new Orthodox church in Berlin. However, the increase of the Orthodox community after 1917 at the expense of the emigrants made the construction of a new church edifice even more essential. The design was developed by N. Vasilyev. Considering the need to create a multifunctional building, which should be located among a dense urban development and blend in style with the neighboring buildings, the architect embodied his old designs for monastery structures in the Neo-Russian style, carrying the idea of the “Temple-Castle” (designs of the Metochions of Kalyazinsky Alexander Nevsky Monastery and Feodorovsky Gorodetsky Monastery in St. Petersburg). The building, which included premises for various purposes, was crowned with a church in the spirit of Novgorod ecclesiastical architecture with an open gallery for processions. This unique architectural monument suffered a sad fate – the building was sold for debts and bought by German Labor Front (DAF). The former community house was a subject of a complete reconstruction in accordance with the plans for the administrative development of the district. However, a plot of land was allocated to the Russian community for the construction of a new church edifice, which was consecrated in 1938, but that new church was no longer as interesting and unique from an architectural point of view as the first temple. Thanks to the analysis of archival materials it was found out that the reconstruction was not completed and the former community house survived in its original form (only the domes were dismantled) during the Second World War. The building was converted to a hotel only in the late 1950s or early 1960s.