Tacheles

The five-story building on Oranienburger Strasse in what used to be the Jewish quarter of Berlin, the Scheunenviertel, has a rich and colorful history. Constructed by Franz Ahrens between 1907 and 1908 and called the Friedrichstrassenpassage, it was one of the first modern shopping arcades in Berlin. But in August 1908, only half a year after the opening, the management of the arcade had to declare bankruptcy. The building was then let to Wolf Wertheim, who ran it as a department store between 1909 and 1914.The building was sold at auction just before World War I. After the war, the AEG company used it as a showroom for its new electric appliances; during this period it even hosted one of the first German television transmissions. Starting in the 1930s, the building was increasingly used by various organi-zations of the Nazi party, eventually becoming the central office of the SS. It was severely damaged during World War II.In the years after the war the building continued to deteriorate, and there were several plans for its complete demolition, but these were never fully implemented. And then, three months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in February 1990, a group of creative individuals calling themselves “Künstler-initiative Tacheles” (Artists’ Initiative Tacheles) occupied the damaged five-story building and turned it into a vibrant and thriving center of alternative art and culture.The group called itself Tacheles, a Yiddish word meaning straightforward talk. It hoped to encourage a kind of unlimited artistic freedom to contrast with what had existed in the former East Germany.The building was saved again and again through countless negotiations with the building management,and in the end its supporters succeeded in having it recognized as a historic landmark. Over the years, Kunsthaus Tacheles – with its outdoor murals and sculptures, with its graffiti-filled hallways and stair-ways – became a symbol of experimental production as well as alternative lifestyles. Over the years it was the venue for countless well-attended happenings, performances and exhibitions. When I stepped through the doors of the Tacheles as a child, I always felt like the four children in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia, who entered another world through the door of an old cupboard. What I saw reminded me so much of the art at the Berlin Wall! Here were many people of various back-grounds and nationalities using a wide range of working mediums and styles and creating one giant piece of art: the Tacheles.But it didn’t last. The artists’ lease ended in 2008, and after staying on for another three years – once again as squatters, at times without electricity – they were finally evicted by the municipal authorities in September 2012. The artists and their Berliner friends and supporters mourned the loss of a won-derful alternative venue where the spirit of modern subculture was kept alive. Today, the Tacheles is an abandoned giant surrounded by a huge development site.