Choir history

The choir was founded in 1961 by cantor Herbert Hildebrandt. Hildebrandt's previous place of work, the Church of Reconciliation, was located directly on the line of the Wall on the street called ‘Bernauer Strasse’. It could no longer be used from August 1961 onwards and was later blown up by GDR border troops. The Berlin Cathedral also lost its choir due to the construction of the Wall. The State and Cathedral Choir, which previously performed at concerts and services in the Berlin Cathedral, had been affiliated with the University of Music (now the University of the Arts) since the 1920s and remained in the western part of the city.

Therefore, the first choir rehearsal of the newly founded Berlin Cathedral Choir took place on October 16, 1961 under the direction of cantor Herbert Hildebrandt. Rehearsals initially took place in the “Youth Room” of the Berlin Cathedral, which was located in an undamaged part of the church. Later, the choir found rehearsal locations in other inner-city churches for many years, because the Cathedral itself was still a ruin at that time.

During the GDR era, church choirs were not only musical ensembles, but often also refuges for open thoughts and words, a counterweight and a spiritual home in the atheistic state. Accordingly, they were viewed with suspicion by the GDR gouvernment. For a long time, the the Berlin Cathedral Choir, called itself ‘Berliner Domkantorei’, was neither allowed to advertise publicly nor sell tickets. In order to be able to advertise, a “circle of listeners” was set up and informed, in a more informal way, i.e. by post. The costs even for large concerts had to be paid solely from the collection.

Until the re-inauguration of the Berlin Cathedral, which was destroyed in the war, in 1993, the Berliner Domkantorei sang in various churches in Berlin: in the Bartholomäuskirche, the Sophienkirche, the Zionskirche, the Marienkirche and in the Gethsemanekirche. On April 5, 1990, the choir took part in a service for the GDR's first freely elected People's Chamber. In the summer of 2003, Herbert Hildebrandt left office due to age. Tobias Brommann succeeded him as cathedral cantor. Many great oratorios, from baroque to contemporary, were performed under his direction. He led the choir until 2021. In July 2022, Adrian Büttemeier began his work as the new cathedral cantor at the Berlin Cathedral.

Founder of the Choir

Founder of the choir was church music director Herbert Hildebrandt, born in 1935 in Adlig Kessel/East Prussia. He had an unsettled childhood and youth: his path led from Königsberg via Sopot, Demmin and Rügen to Berlin. He completed his church music studies in Halle/Saale from 1953 to 1958.

His first job as a church musician was at the Church of Reconciliation in Berlin-Mitte, which was right on what was then the sector boundary. Due to the construction of the Berlin Wall, the community and the very good church choir were divided. The church was later blown up by GDR border troops on direct instruction of the government.

Herbert Hildebrandt founded the Berlin Cathedral Choir from the remaining members of his original choir and other choir singers who had become “homeless” due to the division of Berlin. He was cantor at St. Bartholomew's Church from 1962 to 1983 and initially only served on an interim and part-time basis at the Berlin Cathedral. From 1983 to 2003 he was the full-time director of the Berlin Cathedral Choir.

He also created numerous choral movements, primarily for use in church services. A collection of sentences from the Evangelical Church Hymnal was published in 1979, as was a booklet with arrangements of European Christmas carols. He was also involved in the publication of works by old masters and archived the cathedral choir's music library, which contains around 10,000 church music works.

Herbert Hildebrandt died on December 24, 2019.