A LONG WAY TO THE DOM

Raschdorff’s Berliner Dom around 1905 (source unknown).

Berliner Dom, designed by Julius Raschdorff and consecrated #OTD – February 27 – 1905 in the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife, Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria.

The 98-metre high church, which at the same time is the tallest religious building in Berlin, felt like the #BER of its time: it took 11 years to build but even longer to decide HOW to build it. The 1867 architectural contest attended by 51 architects brought no winner.

It wasn’t until 1888 that a special committee finally decided on Julius Raschdorff’s design. It was a re-adjusted version of Raschdorff’s 1885 plans, which – like many others – failed to impress the decision-makers. The altered version came to be known as the “Twenty-Million-Project” (which tells you something about the cost of the enterprise).

This was not, however, the end of re-adjustments: in 1891 before finally giving…