Brief History of Tacheles and Spandauer Vorstadt

by lolaharney

As Berlin celebrates the twenty fifth anniversary of the fall of the wall, the remnants of the city’s divide and subsequent reunification remain today. Today’s art scene, for which Berlin has been called the contemporary art ‘mecca’, is directly sourced back to the historic post-wall fall artistic boom. One of the most famous spaces that emerged from the post wall period was Tacheles, an artist squat and artist space that served many functions. This text explores the Tacheles case study while discussing the monumental art events in the critical years after the wall fell, such as the “37 Räume” exhibition and the establishment of Kunst Werke which has out survived Tacheles. The immediate post wall fall period and the events specifically in the Spandauer Vorstadt area set the precedent for the current contemporary art in Berlin scene.

Shortly after the fall of the wall, in early 1990, a group of artists known as the Künstlerinitiative Tacheles occupied an abandoned, war damaged building on Oranienburger Strasse in old East Berlin. Tacheles means “straight talking” in Yiddish and refers to the limited freedom of expression in former East Germany. This five-story building has a long, storied history; the building was originally built in 1907 (completed in 1908), as the Jewish department store Friedrichsstadtpassagen (image of space in 1907 from Kunsthaus Tacheles photo archive on website). The space occupied after the wall fall, that became known as Tacheles, was only the entrance to this massive Jewish department store which stretched from Friedrichstraße to Oranienburger Straße. Shortly after it’s opening during World War I Friedrichsstadtpassagen, which cost approximately 7 million German marks to construct, went bankrupt. The complex that was then rented by Wolf Wertheim was again opened as a department store between 1908 and 1994 before it was foreclosed in 1914. It’s use for the next 14 years is currently undocumented.

In 1928 the building was repurposed by the electrical company AEG for their ‘Haus der Technik’, where they presented products and advised clients (image from Kunsthaus Tacheles website). Beginning in 1934 the building was used for Nazi offices, and in 1943 skylights and some passages were closed on the fifth floor of the building to imprison French prisoners of war. During 1945, the building suffered severe damage during the bomb raids (image of damages taken from the Kunsthaus Tacheles or KHT website). In the GDR period, the building was used by the Free Association of German Trade Union, and part of the building was used for a temporary cinema known as Kino Camera. Also, during this period the building partially housed the East Berlin Art School. The German travel agency (Das Deutsche Reisebüro) was also located here during the GDR period and temporarily restored some of the upper floors (KHT website). There were many plans to demolish the building, namely in 1969 and 1977, following engineering evaluations. The developers hoped to constructing a pathway from Oranienburger Straße and Friedrichstraße. In 1980 the remaining dome was destroyed, and the movie theatre was forced to close (image of 1980 demolition from KHT Photo archive above).

Just before it’s final planned demolition in 1990, the fall of the Berlin wall on November 9^th 1989 completely altered the fate of the building. The Künstlerinitiative Tacheles began to occupy the building mere months before it’s scheduled demolition and saved the building through negotiations with the Berlin-Mitte building management organization (image of Tacheles in 1990 from KHT Photo archive). Künstlerinitiative Tacheles proved the building structurally sound, and it was registered as a historical landmark in February of 1992.

Künstlerinitiative Tacheles was a group consisting of twenty artists from East and West. Support for this group was rooted in a political and social desire to unify East and West Berlin; “due to the euphoria of the first year of ‘change’ and the availability of generous funding, the ruin came under the protection of the Monument Preservation Act and in 1993 a sculpture garden was established here that became a setting for the alternative scene”(Boym). Tacheles’ interior was transformed into a small movie theatre, Café Zapata, artists’ studio and an exhibition space.

By 1996 Tacheles, which was registered as Tacheles, e. V., quickly became a hub for creative production with studios and housing for artists. It was a site for breakthrough artistic happenings, including exhibitions by artists such as Mark Divo, musicians Spiral Tribe, theatre group DNTT, performance artist Lennie Lee, dancer/ choreographer Sasha Waltz, and the RA.M.M. Theater, (KHT website). In a 2010 Geothe Institute website interview, Rory Maclean interviewed Tacheles resident Martin Reiter who stated, “Tacheles is [was] part war ruin, part artists’ colony, part anarchic wonderland, and wholly Berlin. Huge murals decorate its blitzed exterior walls. Steel sculptures advance from its doorways onto the street. Its stairwells are layered with two decades of graffiti” (Reiter)(image from KHT).

The area of Spandauer Vorstadt during the immediate wall fall period was ground zero for the earliest artistic organizations and efforts in unified Berlin. In a similar transforming spirit, artistic undertakings were being mirrored mere blocks away. Figures such as Klaus Biesenbach acted on the reality of Berlin in 1990, which had become “a blank slate onto which to project infinitely diverse interests, which entailed corresponding risks and adventures” (Cattelan). Klaus Biesenbach, who is currently Curator at Large for MoMA and MoMA PS1 in New York, wrote in his essay for the 4^th Berlin Biennale, Von Mäusen und Menschen (Of Mice and Men), that “on July 1, 1990, the day that Germany’s monetary system was unified, a few of us got together and decided to found an art initiative”(Cattelan). Biesenbach and fellow figures such as Alexandra Binswanger, Philipp von Doering, Clemens Homburger, and Alfonso Ruigliano coordinated with Jutta Weitz from the Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Mitte for the Zwischennutzungsvereinbarung (literally “interim agreement”) of a former margarine factory on Auguststrasse which is now the home of the Kunst Werke Insitute of Contemporary Art. During this chaotic time where many international visitors “flooded into every courtyard in East Berlin, and made aggressive claims of ownership and suggested that the current occupants vacate the buildings” Biesenbach, inspired by the state of the area’s buildings, conceived of the idea for the now famous exhibition, Berlin 37 Raüme (Cattelan).

The show Berlin 37 Räume took place parallel to documenta 9 in Kassel in 1992 and was an exhibition “that took place in 37 different empty apartments along Auguststrasse in Berlin-Mitte, which at that time was still a no-man’s land in the formerly Eastern section of newly reunified Berlin, where a profusion of DIY cultural projects, squatted houses, temporary clubs, and makeshift bars dominated” (Former West). In the exhibition 37 curators and art professionals were invited to put on a show for one week. The resulting exhibition included work by artists like John Cage and Aura Rosenberg and drew a lot of attention to Berlin.  This exhibition came to represent the quintessential early 1990s Berlin arts scene and put the Kunst Werke Institute for Contemporary Art firmly on the international contemporary art scene.

Tino Sehgal, ‘Kiss’ (performance), 2006 4th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art.

In the years following its reconstruction, KW began to receive institutional funding, partially due to the positive reception of Berlin 37 Räume, while Tacheles served as an interim art center, nightclub, and activist nexus . In 1996 KW, lead by founding director Klaus Biesenbach, established the Berlin Biennale, gaining further funding from the German Federal Cultural Foundation. On the other hand, by 1997 Tacheles’ status in Berlin began to be threatened, “as cultural funding began to drain, excitement for East-West collaboration diminished and real estate prices grew, the status of Tacheles began to be under attack” (Boym). Tacheles withstood numerous buy out attempts by investors, including one offer by ambiguous and anonymous investor ‘Fundus’ from Cologne and various threats of eviction by owners of the building (Boym). In 2012, after years of protest and negotiation, the artists, many of whom had been living there practically rent-free for two decades, peacefully evacuated on September 4^th.

Today one walks by the boardered-up skeleton of Tacheles and wonders what will become of this legendary building which was recently bought by financial services firm Parella Weinberg Partners for an astounding 150 million euros (Forbes). This building holds significant symbolic value and acts as an artifact of the zeitgeist of post-wall fall Berlin. As Boym writes in her book, The Future of Nostalgia, “Tacheles is nostalgic for the bohemian island Berlin and for the time when the East dreamed of the West, which in turn was dreaming of the East” (Boym). Tacheles was founded in an attempt to transform Berlin for the better. Its history is about “the rise and fall of dreams of urban modernity” (Boym). There is no doubt that Berlin is changing, as “real-estate prices in Berlin have risen by 32 percent since just 2007” (Rayasam) . The loss of Tacheles, which many Berliner’s felt quite personally, “commemorates that transient moment when useful objects turn obsolete” or at least in the eyes of the economy (Boym). As Biesenbach writes, “the concern that Berlin might get too crowded or expensive was one of the main motivations for the establishment of KW” (Cattelan). These artistic spaces were created in an extreme, but critical time of change immediately following the Wende and helped consciously shape these changes. In this time of change, Berlin still clings on to abandoned space and alternative art spaces while the public reacts with protest to projects such as Mediaspree. It is more important than ever to refer back to these histories and remember the importance of artistic and intellectual communities for the future of Berlin.

Sources:”Berlin 37 Raeume.” FORMER WEST Research Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Boym, Svetlana. The Future of Nostalgia. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Cattelan, Maurizio, Massimiliano Gioni, and Ali Subotnick. “Introduction by Klaus Biesenbach.” Von Mäusen Und Menschen: 4. Berlin Biennale Für Zeitgenössische Kunst = Of Mice and Men: 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art. Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2006. N. pag. Print.

Cresswell, Tim. “Place: Encountering Geography as Philosophy.” Geographic Thought a Critical Introduction. Chicester: Wiley, 2012. N. pag. Print.

Forbes, Alexander. “Berlin’s Legendary Tacheles Art Squat Purchased for €150 Million – Artnet News.” Artnet News. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

“KUNSTHAUS TACHELES | INSTITUTION.” KUNSTHAUS TACHELES | INSTITUTION. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

“PHOTOARCHIVE | KUNSTHAUS TACHELES.” PHOTOARCHIVE | KUNSTHAUS TACHELES. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Rayasam, Renuka. “‘Cement Gold’: German Property Market Soars Amid Euro Crisis.” (n.d.): n. pag. – SPIEGEL ONLINE. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Reiter, Martin. “Art House Tacheles.” Interview by Rory MacLean. Meet the Germans – Typically German. Goethe Institute, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lp/prj/mtg/men/kun/tac/enindex.htm&gt;