The Luther Church is located on Wiesbaden's Gutenbergplatz, in the immediate vicinity of the Ringstrasse. It was built in Art Nouveau style and has a white plaster facade. The outstanding feature is the 50 m high tower and the extensive church roof of 20 m in height, which rises above the ridge at a height of 37 m and is supported by a steel construction that caused a sensation at the time. Due to its location on a hill within the Wiesbaden city center, these elements are particularly effective in terms of urban development. The start of construction, originally scheduled for July 1907, was postponed somewhat: the groundbreaking ceremony was on August 28, 1908, the laying of the foundation stone on November 1, 1908; the inauguration finally took place on Christmas 1910.
The inauguration of the Wiesbaden Ringkirche was just nine years ago when, in 1903, the city's Protestant community decided to build a fourth church after the Marktkirche, the Bergkirche and the Ringkirche due to the sharp increase in population. Since the Ringkirche had been very successful with the architectural forms of the Wiesbaden program, it was used as the basis for the architectural competition announced in 1905. Johannes Otzen, the architect of the Bergkirche and the Ringkirche and co-author of the Wiesbaden program, also took part in the competition. The jury included the nationally known architects Hermann Eggert and Franz Schwechten, the Prussian construction official Richard Saran, who worked in Wiesbaden from 1901 to 1906, and the pastor Emil Veesenmeyer, who had developed the Wiesbaden program together with Johannes Otzen.
Baptismal chapel in the vestibule of the Luther Church After the three best designs were revised again by their authors, the community finally decided on June 8, 1906 in favor of the one by the architect Friedrich Pützer, who had been teaching at the Technical University of Darmstadt since 1900.
"The floor plan of this design is innovative and promises an extraordinarily beautiful interior effect, and in all probability also good acoustics. The exterior has an original and appealing overall appearance and can be adapted to the local building style with minor changes even more than has already happened with luck. In particular, the end of the tower requires a change, which will become necessary in any case during further construction work. [...] The design achieves a great architectural effect with relatively little means and can be seen as an important step on the way to the further development of Protestant church building."
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