Christ Church

Expert opinion and renovation of the roof and tower

The Christuskirche is a Protestant church built in 1907-1908 by Robert Leipnitz in the Berlin district of Oberschöneweide. The church is a listed building.

After the Second World War, various war damages were repaired, so that the church served as a recording studio from 1959, in addition to church services, also due to the excellent acoustics. For the recordings with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra even various reconstructions took place inside the building. Due to a lack of funds for renovation work, the church was abandoned in 1988. The sacred building was then made available exclusively to the recording studio of VEB Deutsche Schallplatten and its successors until 2001.

It was not until 2003/2004 that the Christuskirche could be comprehensively renovated. In the process, several alterations were made: Below the side galleries, a separate café and a community room were created, which is also used for exhibitions.

crossing tower and slate roof

The neo-Gothic church building was laid out with a cruciform nave surmounted by a massive crossing tower with an eight-sided dome. The roof surfaces are correspondingly small and were covered with slates in German covering.

D:4 prepared a damage mapping of the slate roof in 2019. Since the roof truss was complex and showed deformations due to its age, a detailed recording and representation was essential for the restoration. On the basis of various expert opinions (including a wood expert opinion), it was possible to list damage, create photo documentation by aerial drone, and determine necessary restoration measures. It was also examined whether a complete renovation of the roof could be avoided by individual repair measures.

This was followed by selective rehabilitation of the identified damage.