The cathedral's original architect (commissioned by Bishop Augustin Henninghaus) designed a three-aisled Gothic church, but the World War I conquest of Qingdao by the Japanese on November 16, 1914, put an end to the cathedral plans. The city reverted to Chinese rule in December 1922, under control of the Republic of China. The Vicariate Apostolic of Southern Shan-tung was renamed the Vicariate Apostolic of Yanzhoufu on December 13, 1924, and on February 22, 1925, the Apostolic Prefecture of Qingdao was established from its territory, with Bishop Georg Weig, SVD, appointed prefect on March 18 of that same year. On June 14, 1928, it was elevated to a Vicariate Apostolic. When construction resumed, the original Gothic plan no longer seemed appropriate for the modern townscape of Qingdao. Father Alfred Fräbel designed the present neo-Romanesque structure, built during the tenure of Bishop Weig, who is entombed in the cathedral.