By Mason Mancini
BERLIN – Two Jewish young adults, Lilli and Estrongo, were strangers in Nazi Germany. A marriage and over 75 years later, their son is working to create religious unity in Berlin, disrupting millennia of division.
Scene One – post-WWII Berlin: With the help of a Christian aunt named Agnes Wertheim, Lilli Schlochauer had been hidden from February 1943 to 1945 in Berlin. Her hair was dyed for protection, and Christian people were helping provide her food to survive. Estrongo Nachama, a Jewish Greek national had been sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943, alongside his parents and two sisters. Estrongo was the only survivor. Schlochauer and Nachama later met, got married, and gave birth to Andreas Nachama.
Scene Two – 1972 Berlin: Andreas Nachama is now in his twenties, studying Judaism to begin his path to become a Rabbi. Yet, his family maintained relationships with Christian people, so he always felt connected to the Christian community. At Free University in Berlin, he began taking courses in other religions during his studies of Judaism. Resultingly, he joined with Christians and Muslims for the first tri-religious talks in Germany.
Scene Three – 2026 Berlin: Andreas Nachama, 74, is a Rabbi, the director of the Topography of Terror Foundation and holds leadership positions in Berlin’s Jewish community. He has also represented Judaism in the House of One movement since 2015, the first ever shared house of prayer for Jews, Christians and Muslims jointly created by representatives of the three religions. After more than 50 years of tri-religious dialogue, this vision is on the horizon of becoming reality.
Background
The House of One, located on the site of Berlin’s first church, is currently a construction site. It will include three separate rooms of worship for each Abrahamic religion. But all people will enter through the same common room, which is intended to promote dialogue, debate and fellowship among the three religious communities. Their motto — “believing differently, acting jointly”.
The concept was initiated in 2010. Since then, representatives of the three Abrahamic religions have been collaborating to conceptualize the theological approach and the architecture. To create the building, House of One receives public funding in addition to individual donations. Germany’s federal government agreed to contribute €25.8 million to this project, along with an additional €15.8 million from the State of Berlin. This funding has been approved, but the team still needs about €2 million from individual donors to begin the building process. Nonetheless, the interreligious dialogue has already been in action, despite being houseless.
Origins of the House of One team
“The heart of the House of One is already beating,” said Kerstin Krupp, the House of One press spokesperson. The House of One team includes multiple clerics, theologians and contributors who have helped bring their mission to life.
A Christian woman, Krupp considers herself “religiously homeless”, having dissatisfaction with the Catholic church because they had no answers to her questions as she tried to understand the meaning behind religion growing up. She later became a political journalist, which made the House of One very intriguing to her because the ambitious concept has naturally become very political. Now, despite being religiously homeless, she has found a home in the House of One as their Head of Communication.
On the other hand, Osman Örs, the House of One education coordinator (Muslim) came to House of One with strong religious motives. Following 9/11, he felt Muslims were perceived differently, leading to much discomfort in his religion. “I wanted to change just the way people look at my religion, and as Muslims in general,” Örs said. He became part of the developing interreligious dialogue in Berlin, joining the House of One in 2016. In his 10 years with the team, the controversial dialogue is often not welcomed, but Örs has felt fulfilled every day he has worked as the education coordinator.
Additionally, Patricia Böckmann, a Christian theological consultant, is one of the theologians within the House of One, educating the public about the purpose behind the project from a Christian perspective. Having studied interreligious theology in France and Morocco, she felt especially impacted by the October 7th attacks in Israel. She said, “the interreligious sphere was becoming more and more important to having voices for peace and for coexistence.” As she became more strongly oriented to this dialogue, she joined the House of One in 2023, and she has been growing in her faith since then as she learns more about the differing perspectives of religion.
The “beating heart”
The House of One currently carries out several activities to promote interreligious dialogue prior to the creation of their historic building.
Workshops – House of One often holds workshops, in which some theologians, often led by Örs, communicate the House of One vision to the public. People of many ages gather in a classroom setting and the team shares the logistics behind the House of One project and the “why” behind it.
Podcast– House of One has a tri-religious podcast called “331 – 3 Women, 3 Religions, 1 Topic”, in which the religious dialogue has been extended online through 100+ episodes. They typically last around 40 minutes, with some recent topics being ritual headgear and motherhood in a religious context. These are linked via the House of One website.
Peace Prayers – House of One holds monthly peace prayers in various locations, typically led by the three clerics, which are open to all. The most recent was held in the historic St. Mary’s church in central Berlin, where the congregation circled up in the candlelit church lobby. Rabbi Andreas Nachama and Pastor Marion Gardei alternated in reciting religious prayers while those gathered stood in silent meditation. The Imam was unable to attend that evening.
Collaboration – House of One extends their dialogue with other organizations internationally to extend the interreligious movement. Right now, there are other tri-religious houses of worship being created, although House of One is the only to be jointly created by representatives of the three religions. House of One serves as a role model for other independent peace movements, Rabbi Nachama said.
A Workshop Experience
A group of 10-20 students from Dominikus Zimmermann Gymnasium (a high school near Munich) attended a House of One workshop to learn about how a tri-religious dialogue works. It was added into their summer field trip schedule because they had learned about it in class and were intrigued.
Among the group in the workshop on July 9, was Maximilian Hugl, one of two teachers. He does not associate with a particular religion, despite attending a workshop that discusses three.
“I think it’s a value that they have always in mind that their religion isn’t the only religion that exists,” Hugl said. “And, yeah, there are other religions there that seem maybe different but aren’t that different as they seem. And yeah, in times where there are so many conflicts in the world.”
Further, Hugl expressed some frustrations regarding religion, commenting about the Christian viewpoint towards homosexuality.
“And the priests bless a tractor but not a gay couple,” Hugl said. “So, I think there is no community and no [togetherness] when a machine can be blessed, but a gay couple can’t be blessed, and I’ve felt that that discussion, strange.”
Theological Conflict
What are some viewpoints of the House of One team members regarding direct theological differences between religions?
Andreas Nachama, Jewish Rabbi
Rabbi Nachama said that politics and egoism are similar, in that people try to gain sovereignty over others and create boundaries between each other, and these divisions extend to religion.
“God has not created the Jew or the Christian. He created a man and a woman in his image, in the image of God,” Nachama said. He encourages coexistence between all men and women, regardless of religion. Otherwise, Nachama said they would be living in a “splendid isolation”.
Osman Örs, House of One Education Coordinator (Muslim):
“There are, of course, people who kind of misuse instrumentalist religion for their own ideology,” Örs said. “There be it violence, be it power, be it bigotry also. And these are, of course, also part of our realities. And these pictures are kind of in the head of the people, I would say. And these pictures, we kind of try to tackle, and to put it in the right perspective.”
Patricia Böckmann, Christian theological consultant:
“Getting into connection to people who have different views of those things helped me develop a better sense of how I understood my own faith in a specifically Protestant way,” Böckmann said. “And in a way, you can only go so far while still just talking to Christians.”
The Final Phase
Roland Stolte, one of the founding fathers of House of One, said that the final phase of planning is upon us. Now, prior to receiving the €2 million required to begin building, the Federal Ministry of Construction is in the process of approving construction plans. Despite delays, House of One expects the construction process will start in early 2028.
The Mission
In a perfect world, Kerstin Krupp wishes that Houses of One would pop up everywhere in the world. Yet, House of One’s overarching mission is not associated with a house.
Believing differently and acting jointly requires no building to be fulfilled. Rabbi Nachama said that anyone can contribute to the mission, even without a multi-million-euro project. He encourages people worldwide to find people at a low scale, begin meeting for interreligious dialogue, and openly discuss certain problems which cause theological differences. He envisions a growing community which tackles these sensitive conversations by bringing people together.
To the people who push back, Nachama said, “they’re missing something.”
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