Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church tickets: which one to buy

Entry to both the ruined tower with its memorial hall and the modern church beside it is free, with a donation box. Concerts of classical music are staged in the new church through the year and ticketed separately; the blue glass and the acoustics make it a striking venue. There is a small exhibition in the old tower showing the church before 1943 and the mosaics that survive in the entrance hall.

Walking tours of west Berlin include the church and cost several times nothing. The site is on Breitscheidplatz at the end of the Kurfuerstendamm, on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn at Zoologischer Garten, and is impossible to avoid if you are in the western centre. Nothing needs booking. The small shop in the foyer sells a good booklet on Eiermann's design, which is the only detailed account in English.

Visiting Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church: what to see

Franz Schwechten built the original church in the 1890s for Wilhelm II, a heavy neo-Romanesque pile dedicated to his grandfather, with mosaics celebrating the Hohenzollern dynasty. British bombing in November 1943 burned it out and left the west tower standing with its spire broken off at an angle. Berliners argued about demolition and then voted, in effect, to keep the stump; Egon Eiermann designed the new church around it between 1959 and 1963 as four separate elements, an octagonal nave, a hexagonal bell tower, a chapel and a foyer, all built as concrete honeycombs filled with 20,000 pieces of blue glass made in Chartres.

Inside the new nave the light is a deep, even blue with red and gold flecks, and a gilded Christ floats above the altar. The ruined tower keeps its damaged mosaics and a cross made from nails salvaged from Coventry Cathedral. The old tower's entrance hall keeps its original ceiling mosaic showing Wilhelm I among angels, one of the few surviving pieces of the imperial decoration.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church opening hours and the best time to go

The memorial hall in the old tower and the new church both open daily from mid-morning to early evening, with the church closing for services and concerts. Evening is when the blue glass works best, lit from outside so that the whole box glows on the square. Breitscheidplatz holds one of Berlin's largest Christmas markets in December, and a memorial to the victims of the 2016 attack runs along the steps.

The area is busy at all hours. Photography without flash is allowed. Dress is informal. Allow half an hour for both buildings. The zoo, the KaDeWe department store and the Bikini Berlin complex are all within a few minutes. The square is a meeting point and is busy late into the night, which makes the church one of the few Berlin landmarks that is floodlit and alive after midnight.