Die Garnisonkirchen des Barock in Berlin und Potsdam

The lively debate surrounding the rebuilding of the Garrison Church in Potsdam has, quite apart from all the controversies, renewed awareness of the cultural and civic architectural significance of a building steeped in history. This is the first study to analyse and interpret in context all six Brandenburg garrison churches, which were built consecutively in three locations, primarily under Frederick William I: the Lutheran ones in Berlin and the Catholic ones in Potsdam. Their history is traced over some 250 years, placing them in the contexts of military history, church history, architectural history and the history of urban design. Philipp Gerlach’s second Potsdam Garrison Church is not only a masterpiece of Prussian baroque in the narrower sense and a structure of outstanding importance for the cityscape. It is also an image in stone of the religious politics of its builder and patron, who was closely connected as king to his Reformed Court Church, as commander of his regiment to the Lutheran Garrison Church, and as Summus Episcopus of his state church to the Parish Church which he chose as his burial place. Other subjects examined include the models for the churches and their own influence as models. The study also depicts in detail the measures taken by the Prussian King’s successors for the churches, the army and the state church, and those taken by the responsible authorities in three different republican eras, which devotedly preserved the great churches, then led them to ruin and eventually to destruction.