The story of the American Church in Berlin begins in January 1859, in the large hall of a missionary’s apartment on Klosterstraße. Ludwig Nippert, a German-American Methodist Episcopal missionary, had just received approval to hold English-language worship services for the growing number of English-speaking residents in the city. On the first Sunday of the year, a small group gathered in his home for prayer, scripture, and song. It wasn’t a grand building or a formal congregation—just people coming together in faith. Yet that simple gathering became the seed of a community that would continue through war, reconstruction, and generations of change. 

As the English-speaking population in Berlin grew, so did the need for a consistent place to worship. By 1876, after years of meeting in various apartments, the congregation moved into the newly built Methodist Episcopal Chapel on Junkerstraße—soon affectionately called the American Chapel. Services were led by missionaries and American theology students studying at Berlin University, and from the beginning the congregation reflected the international character of the city. Diplomats, university students, businesspeople, travelers, and long-term residents all found a spiritual home there.

In 1880, the community welcomed a retired Lutheran professor, the Rev. Dr. J. H. W. Stuckenberg, whose leadership would shape the church for years to come. By 1886 he had become the congregation’s first full-time pastor, guided the renaming of the American Chapel to the American Church, and worked with the Ladies’ Union to raise funds for a dedicated church building. His tenure helped establish both the identity and the stability of the English-speaking Protestant community in Berlin.

Under the next pastor, the Rev. Dr. James F. Dickie, the congregation worshipped for a period at the YMCA’s great hall on Wilhelmstraße while continuing the fundraising effort. Their persistence paid off. In 1903, the American Church on Motzstraße near Nollendorfplatz was consecrated—a strong and beautiful home for worship. It carried the congregation through World War I, the interwar years, and the uncertain times of the 1930s.

The church’s story took a painful turn during World War II. In 1941, the pastor, Rev. Stewart W. Herman, was ordered to close the church and leave Germany. Two years later, the Motzstraße building was destroyed in the bombings of 1943. Before leaving, Herman managed to preserve a small collection of church records—fragments of memory that later helped him write the church’s history and keep its story alive.

After the war, Berlin was a city rebuilding itself, and the English-speaking Christian community sought to rebuild as well. In 1946, the Rev. Dr. Arthur R. Siebens was sent by the American and Foreign Christian Union to help re-establish the American Church. His work, supported by the American military government, helped revive a congregation shaped by ecumenical cooperation and a desire for healing.

By the mid-1950s, differences in worship style led a group of members to form a separate Lutheran congregation. These members officially organized as the Lutheran American Church in Berlin (LACB) in 1961. They worshipped at the Alte Dorfkirche in Zehlendorf and later, under the Rev. Alan C. Bray, adopted the historic name American Church in Berlin (ACB) in 1987. Today’s ACB inherits the legal and historical continuity of the earlier congregation, while remaining firmly ecumenical, international, and independent in identity.

In 2002, the growing congregation relocated its English-language services to the Luther Church on Dennewitzplatz in Schöneberg. Five years later, in November 2007, ACB purchased the building, giving the community a permanent home once again.

Over the years ACB has continued to serve Berlin through ministries such as the Laib und Seele food distribution program, community partnerships, and various cultural and educational initiatives. These efforts reflect the same spirit that shaped the earliest gatherings in 1859—a desire to worship together, to serve the city around us, and to offer welcome to those who come seeking community.

Today, the American Church in Berlin is a vibrant, diverse congregation of people from many nations and traditions. United in worship and in service, we continue to live out our calling as an ecumenical home in the heart of Berlin.