Museumsportal Berlin

The Hugenottenmuseum (Huguenot Museum) at the dome of the French Cathedral (Französischer Dom) was established in 1935, on the 250-years jubilee of the Edict of Potsdam. By this Edict of the Great Elector, starting from 1685, about 20,000 French religious refugees found shelter in Berlin and the Mark Brandenburg. Their history is told in the museum with documents, engravings, books, manuscripts, and medals. The Consistory of the French Church at Berlin is responsible for the museum.

The exhibition goes into details on the theological and historical reasons which led to the flight of the Protestants from France, and it explains the development of French colonies at the Mark Brandenburg. Here, it is quite visible, how the technically well educated immigrants contributed to the rise of Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th century. Some prominent members of the reformed congregation of Berlin get introduced, e. g. the painter and etcher Daniel Chodowiecki and the poet Theodor Fontane.

The building history of the cathedral and of the neighbouring church Französische Friedrichstadtkirchedoes also get documented. This unadorned baroque building was erected by the Berlin Huguenos in 1705, with their own money and by their own craftsmen. In 1780, Frederick the Great commissioned to build the representative tower construction, as equivalent to the German Cathedral (Deutscher Dom).