Christuskirche

The original building was a hall-type church with a three-sided, pewed gallery and more than 1,200 seats. In the night of 20–21 April 1944, the church was severely damaged during the Second World War. In 1951, a plain steel-framed nave with 520 seats was built in just nine months, modelled on Otto Bartning's steel church — and consecrated on the Second Sunday of Advent as the first new church building in Cologne after the war. Standing between the Stadtgarten and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring, the church — often affectionately called the "Old Lady" — became a distinctive landmark: a blend of Neo-Gothic tower and austere post-war nave.

Discussions about restructuring began in the 1970s as the surrounding area lost residents to office conversions. A demolition order from 1980 was halted by the city conservation authority. In February 2014, the nave was demolished while the listed elements — tower, gallery and vaulted cellar — were preserved. In their place arose a smaller nave alongside residential and commercial buildings with parish rooms, designed by Klaus Hollenbeck Architekten and MAIER ARCHITEKTEN. The Protestant congregation managed the project themselves for around €9.1 million, largely keeping within budget. Both the demolition and the new build met with resistance from the public and within the congregation.