Tacheles. It used to be (and was for 20 years or so) an awesome squat in the middle of Berlin. It is no more, having been evicted late last year.

After the fall of the wall, there was an old bombed out department store on Oranienburgerstraße in the area of Berlin known as Mitte. A bunch of artists decided to squat it. It’s a pretty big building, and although huge chunks of it were missing due to bombing, what remained was structurally sound.

Renaming it the Kunsthaus Tacheles (Tacheles art house), the artists built studios, a cafe, bars, a nightclub...they tried to work with the landowner to get assurances that they’d be able to stay, and they did, for nearly 20 years.

That all ended with the gentrification of bits of Berlin. Suddenly the building was worth more. The guy who owned it crafted huge plans to knock it down and replace it with a mall. The squatters fought eviction. The owner gave up and sold the building to a bank. Now the squatters had to face challenges both through legal means  and via intimidation, ultimately losing to the courts last year. So on September 4th, after 22 years, the remaining artists were evicted and the doors were sealed shut. I cycled past it (as I do every day) as it happened. There was no mobile phone/data reception near there. Very odd.

www.kunsthaus-tacheles.de

For months, all that could be seen of the place was the outside - the final legal demand had been taken apart, page by page, each page tied to cord and strung up high, hanging down onto the street. The graffiti on the outside reads “where now?” and other things. The guy who creates huge metal sculptures is still out back, possibly. It’s been quiet out there for a while, even he may have gone. Some of the artists have founded another Haus in hipsterville in the south east of Berlin. Some have created online exhibitions. The name lives on.

And then last night, as I cycled home, I notice film crews, lights, music. Looking back from Friedrichstraße I could see the back all lit up, where we used to chill out, drink and plan bits of Nokia’s online presence. And there was a fake disco happening on the 5th floor, up where the cinema used to be.

Left me with pangs of longing...