View of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church – today versus ca.1930

Standing with the bridge of the train station Zoologischer Garten behind us, we look eastward along the buildings constructed by Franz Schwechten. The Romanisches Haus I (1896) is on the right side of the picture, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (1895) is central, the Romanisches Café in the Romanisches Haus II (1901) lies beyond the church, slightly to the left. The café can be seen above the ‘U’ railway sign and the constable directing traffic.

The Romanisches Haus I housed the Café Trumpf and the Gloria-Palast cinema, which was established in 1925 on the first floor of the building, seating 1200. It was open until 1998. Partially destroyed in WWII, the cinema was reconstructed upon an existing structure in 1953, before finally being demolished in 2017. Today, the GLORIA office building and Motel One hotel stand in its place. The remaining ruins of the Memorial Church stand shoulder to shoulder with the newer nave and church tower built in 1963, which were designed by Egon Eiermann in the style of post-war modernism. The ruins of the old church tower have been preserved as a memorial, warning of the horrors of war and destruction. The Europa Center was built in 1965 at the original location of the Romanisches Haus II. It includes a shopping centre and a high-rise office building and is topped by a Mercedes-Benz star.

The Hutmacher-Haus is in the left foreground of the modern-day picture, next to the Zoo-Palast cinema. In prior times, this was an exhibition space, known as the Wilhelmshallen. Erected in 1906, it was home to the large premiere-cinema ‘Ufa-Palast am Zoo’ from 1919. With 1,740 seats, the Ufa-Palast am Zoo was the largest and most luxurious film theatre in Germany at the time.

Where the façade of BIKINI BERLIN is seen today, a spacious row of storefront shops once stood, built in 1925 by Hans Poelzig in the style of the New Objectivity. Named the ‘Haus am Zoo’, it was home to the CAPITOL cinema, with its 1314 seats, theatre pipe organ and retractable orchestra pit. Further notable attractions on site were the Café am Zoo, the Palais am Zoo and elegant sales outlets of Bechstein and BMW. In 1929, the ultra-modern Gourmenia building by Leo Nachtlicht was constructed in the space between the CAPITOL and Ufa-Palast cinemas. Equipped with a magnificent indoor garden and a roof terrace, it offered a unique dining experience. These two buildings stood in stark contrast to the classical neo-Romanesque architecture of the imperial ‘Romanisches Forum’ ensemble. Those included the buildings by Franz Schwechten, with the Roland Fountain in front of Romanisches Haus I, as well as the Wilhelmshallen and the Kaisereck commercial and office building on Rankestrasse.

The entire area around the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was largely destroyed in an air raid in November 1943.