St Hedwig's Cathedral

St. Hedwig's Cathedral
St. Hedwig's at the Bebelplatz
Basic information
Location	Friedrichstadt, a historical neighbourhood of Berlin-Mitte
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
District	1st deanery Berlin-Mitte
Province	Archdiocese of Berlin
Country	Germany
Year consecrated	1773
Website	www.hedwigs-kathedrale.de
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, Jan Bouman the Elder (1747-1773), Max Hasak (1886-1887), Clemens Holzmeister (1930-1932), Hans Schwippert (reconstruction 1952-1963)
Architectural style	Neoclassical
Completed	1773, 1887 (dome), 1932 (interior), 1963 (reconstruction)
Direction of façade	north-west

St. Hedwig's Cathedral (German: Sankt-Hedwigs-Kathedrale) is a Roman Catholic cathedral on the Bebelplatz in Berlin, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Berlin.

St. Hedwig's Church was built in the 18th century following a request from local parishioners to King Frederick II. He donated the land on which the church was built. The church was dedicated to the patron of Silesia and Brandenburg, Saint Hedwig of Andechs. It was the first Catholic church built in Prussia after the Reformation. The building was designed by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff and modelled after the Pantheon in Rome. Construction started in 1747, but interrupted and delayed several times by economic problems. It was not opened until 1 November 1773, when the king's friend, Ignacy Krasicki, the Bishop of Warmia (later Archbishop of Gniezno), officiated at the cathedral's consecration.

After the Kristallnacht pogroms that took place on the night of 9–10 November 1938, Bernhard Lichtenberg, a canon of the cathedral chapter of St Hedwig since 1931, prayed publicly for Jews at evening prayer. Lichtenberg was later jailed by the Nazis and died on the way to the concentration camp at Dachau. In 1965, Lichtenberg's remains were transferred to the crypt at St. Hedwig's.