Rykestrasse Synagogue

The Sacred Heart Church is a Catholic church that was built between 1897 and 1898 by the architect Christoph Hehl. At the end of the 19th century, the urban expansion of Berlin necessitated the construction of new places of worship. As the future district of Prenzlauer Berg was not very dense, the only notable pre-existing buildings were windmills and inns. One of these inns was purchased in 1890 by the parish of St. Hedwig to build a chapel, together with the adjacent presbytery and a Catholic school.

The Gethsemane Church was built between 1891 and 1893 according to the plans of the architect August Orth and inaugurated in 1893 by Kaiser Wilhelm II. In terms of style, August Orth combined neo-Romanesque elements, such as round-headed windows, with Baltic Gothic elements, such as rose windows or cross arches, and above all the use of brick as a material. The church was named after the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Christians venerate this place where the twelve apostles and Jesus of Nazareth prayed the night before his crucifixion and where he was arrested.

The Sophienkirche is a Protestant church built according to the concept and plans of master builder Philipp Gerlach. The church was built in 1712-13 and was originally consecrated as the 'Spandau church'. It was only under the successor of King Friedrich II (1740-1786) that it was named after Sophie Luise and has since been called Sophienkirche. The baroque church tower was added in 1732-1734 by the master-builder Johann Friedrich Grael. On 13 September 1964, the American civil rights activist Martin Luther King preached in the Sophienkirche during a surprise visit to East Berlin.