The Beginning

In January 1859, German-American Methodist Episcopal (ME) missionary Ludwig Nippert received approval to hold church services in the large hall of his apartment on Klosterstraße. The first worship service took place on the first Sunday of the year, with an English service at 16:00. Viewing “church” as a community of believers rather than a building, this gathering marks the earliest recorded worship service of what would later become the American Church in Berlin.

A Chapel is Built

In 1876, German- and English-language services moved from a series of preachers’ apartments into the newly built Methodist Episcopal (ME) Chapel on Junkerstraße, soon known as the American Chapel. English services were led by ME missionaries and American postgraduate theology students from Berlin University (now Humboldt University). The services were ecumenical and non-denominational, attracting a diverse English-speaking congregation, including American students, Legation personnel, business professionals, and members of Berlin’s permanent American community.

In 1880, the Rev. Dr. J. H. W. Stuckenberg, a retired Lutheran professor, arrived in Berlin and became a guest preacher. He later joined the chapel committee and, by 1886, became the first full-time pastor of the American Chapel. Under his leadership, the chapel was renamed the American Church, and its first constitution was established. He also supported the church’s Ladies’ Union in launching a fundraising campaign to build an independent American Church.

A Beginning and an End

The Rev. Dr. James F. Dickie, a Presbyterian, led the church from 1894 to 1908, holding ecumenical services in English at the YMCA’s great hall on Wilhelmstraße. During his tenure, he successfully completed a fundraising campaign for the construction of the American Church in Berlin at Motzstraße near Nollendorfplatz. The church was consecrated in 1903 and served as ACB’s home through World War I, the Roaring Twenties, and the 1930s.

In 1941, the church’s pastor, Rev. Stewart W. Herman, was forced to close the church and leave Germany. Two years later, in 1943, bombs destroyed the building. Before his departure, Herman managed to save a limited number of church records, which later became the foundation for his 1978 history of the American Church.

From Division to Renewal: The Rebirth of ACB

In 1946, the Rev. Dr. Arthur R. Siebens, a Presbyterian minister, was sent to Berlin by the American and Foreign Christian Union (AFCU). Encouraged by the American military government, he sought to reestablish the ecumenical, non-denominational American Church as part of Berlin’s post-war healing process. However, in 1955, a group of American Lutherans, desiring a more liturgically Lutheran worship service, separated and eventually formed their own congregation.

In 1961, these Lutherans officially organized the Lutheran American Church in Berlin (LACB), moving their services to the Alte Dorfkirche in Zehlendorf in 1964.

Under the leadership of the Rev. Alan C. Bray (pastor from 1986 to 1991), LACB changed its name to the American Church in Berlin (ACB) in 1987. ACB legally inherits the history and lineage of the pre-war ecumenical and interdenominational church and maintains a relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) through ELCA Global Mission.

Charles H. Eypper, M.A.

Church Historian