‘House of One’: Berlin lays first stone for multi-faith worship centre

Muslims, Jews and Christians are to be united for worship under one roof in Berlin in a groundbreaking project called ‘House of One’.

The cornerstone of the multi-denominational temple was laid in the German capital on Thursday with supporters saying they hoped it would forge greater understanding between the three religions.

A mosque, a synagogue and a church will be combined on the site on Leipziger Strasse, in the area where Berlin has its historical origins, and on the former foundations of a 13th-century church, the Petrikirche, which was badly damaged during second world war bombing and pulled down during communism.

Laying the cornerstone, Wolfgang Schäuble, the president of the Bundestag and a former economics minister, called it a “location of tolerance and openness”, which he said had the “theological aspiration to be open to other spiritual perspectives with equal respect”. He stressed the importance of the project to promote dialogue between the religions and to fight fanaticism and violence.

The leaders of the project, which is to begin in earnest in the autumn and is expected to take four years, are Imam Kadir Sanci, Rabbi Andreas Nachama and Father Gregor Hohberg, a Protestant priest, all of whom began discussing their dream for a joint establishment a decade ago.

The weekly Die Zeit has referred to the temple as Germany’s “most spectacular ecclesiastical construction project”. Nachama, who previously worked as a chaplain for US troops stationed in Berlin, told the paper the project had emerged from years of dialogue between the three men.

“It was Father Gregor Hohberg’s brilliant idea to create a spiritual space on the spot where the oldest church in Berlin stood for 750 years, which brings Jews, Christians and Muslims together with other believers and non-believers. It should become a house of mutual respect,” he said.

Sanci told German media he was pleased that Muslims in the city would finally find a place to worship in the city centre and not tucked away in less well-known locations, as the majority of Germany’s estimated 800 mosques are.

The government has given €20m towards the €47m project, while €10mis being provided by the Berlin state government. €9m are donations from individuals, and the remaining sum is expected to be collected in donations over the next four years.

The Berlin architectural bureau Kuehn Malvezzi is behind the construction, which will stand 46 metres high, competing with gleaming high-rises on Leipziger Platz and nearby Potsdamer Platz, many of which have been erected over the past 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Joseph Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he welcomed the fact the project would encourage inter-religious dialogue. “Here religions can talk with each other instead of about each other,” he said.

Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, told German media the building sent an important signal “at a time in which antisemitism and Islamophobia are increasing,” he said.