Gedachtniskirche

Gedachtniskirche is the memorial church of the Protestation. It is a Protestant church in Speyer. The church is located on the southwest of the city of Speyer. It was built between 1893 and 1904. The church was constructed in memory of the protest that took place at the Diet of Speyer, by the protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire in 1529.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century during the time of the Kulturkampf, relations between Protestants and Catholics were deformed. The Gedachtniskirche was designated as a mother church for Protestant Christianity. The building of the memorial church was a response to Johann von Schraudolph's structural replacement and painting of the Speyer Cathedral. Actually the intention was to renovate the Baroque Trinity Church, near the memorial church, but it was decided that a new building should be built instead.

The foundation stone took place on 24 August 1893. After eleven years of building, the memorial church was finally dedicated on 31 August 1904. The church corresponds to the neo-Gothic style. In Gedachtniskirche, you can find the use of relatively pure historical forms of architecture.

The stones of the building were very carefully chosen. The red sandstone from Weidenthal that was used for the foundations could not be used for further building as it was screened with pebble stones and therefore not suitable for assemblage work. There are many dimensions in the architecture of the Gedachtniskirche. Some of them are discussed bellow:
• Overall length of church and tower is 72 m.
• Overall length of the church inside: is 51 m.
• Width of the nave is 24 m.
• Height of the arch in the central nave is 22 m.
• Tower height is 100 m
• Gedachtniskirche has 36 windows and is created in the historic style.
• More than 36 galleries.
• The dais at the Lord's Table is a more recent addition
• The reading desk is characterized by a grand structure with a variety of materials.
• The original organ of the church is no longer available here; the current organ came from an organ work shop in Bielefeld.

The Gedachtniskirche is now the main evangelistic church in the Palatinate, whose main administrative centre is situated very close to the Speyer cathedral.