Exit Exil vs Friedrichwerdersche Kirche

Exit Exil - A location-based multimedia app on German-language exile In more than 30 artistic and scholarly contributions, the app "Exit Exil" recalls the exile of German-speaking artists and intellectuals in the 1930s and 40s and builds a bridge to cultural workers living in exile in Germany today. With contributions by renowned artists and authors, the mobile app "Exit Exil" gives users insights into German-language exile and related topics such as identity and belonging, flight and expulsion, language and work. The app looks into the lives of historical exiles as well as those living in the diaspora today. Among the contributors are Susan Philipsz, Michael Lentz, Tanja Kinkel, Senthuran Varatharajah, Anna Haifisch, Mohamed Amjahid. The basis is a world map on which the content is embedded. The contributions thus convey a sense of the scope of forced migration, while at the same time enabling a place-based and in-depth experience of the content on offer. Among the contributions are films, radio plays, audio walks and installations, features, and essays. The project is scheduled to run for ten years and will be successively expanded with further artistic, journalistic and scientific contributions to become a central platform for the examination of exile. Current debates about flight, identity, new beginnings and much more will take a central place. "Exit Exile" was developed within the framework of "dive in. Program for Digital Interactions" of the Federal Cultural Foundation, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) in the NEUSTART KULTUR program.

The church was designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and was constructed in the period from 1824 to 1830 – almost concurrent to the Altes Museum (Old Museum). Schinkel’s initial plans foresaw the creation of a church in the Neoclassical style, in keeping with his (Altes) museum. However, he bowed to the wishes of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (IV), who wanted the house of worship beside the palace completed in the 'Old German' (Gothic) style. The building’s proportions reveal how the architect nevertheless remained true to his aim 'to refine the Gothic by the ancient'. Due to the humble financial resources at his disposal, Schinkel designed a single-nave church. In this, he drew inspiration from English college chapels. The construction material – red brick – may have been deliberately reminiscent of Gothic architecture (and in particular to the neighbouring churches of St. Nikolai and St. Marien) but such a choice of material was nonetheless highly unusual for the time. In fact, the Friedrichswerdersche Kirche was the first prestige project to be completed in brick since the Middle Ages. Once the church was completed, it was used by German and French congregations. The pulpit, altar, and stained glass windows (some of which are original) are visible remnants of the building’s religious use. Badly damaged in the Second World War, the church was at first only provisionally stabilized. It was only when preparations got under way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Schinkel’s birth that comprehensive renovation commenced, lasting seven years, from 1979 to 1986. The church was opened in 1987 to coincide with the 750-year celebrations of the founding of Berlin. The East-German authorities put it to use as an additional venue for the Alte Nationalgalerie. After undergoing renewed restoration from 1997 to 2000, the church houses a permanent display of early 19th-century sculpture.