Berlin: Forgotten personalities and the changeable history of a special house

Berlin: Forgotten personalities and the changeable history of a special house

Mari Cantu, Marian Kiss and Philipp Dietrich have created an exhibition on the past of a house in Berlin. Through their research in address books, they have discovered names and professional names of people who were once pioneering personalities but are largely forgotten today. These people include the writers and early women's rights activists Jenny Hirsch and Franziska von Kapff Essenther as well as the well -known writer, stage author and theater director Paul Blumenreich, co -founder of the theater of the West. The exhibition is intended to recall these people.

The property on which the house is located was built in 1854, while the second house, which is now a listed building, was built in 1885. The ownership of the house has often changed over time, which reflects the speed of progress and the beginning of the modern age. After the Second World War, Potsdamer Straße, once an important business street, became a dead end due to the division of the city. The area, once considered "home-style", changed into a red light district with the "Hotel Potsdam" in the high parterre, which became one of the first brothels in West Berlin. Drug trade was also a challenge in this area.

In the early 1980s, Mari Cantu, Marian Kiss and Philipp Dietrich moved into the house with their young children. In the exhibition, the history and personal memories of the residents of the neighborhood are mixed with documents and report on how to experience their relationship with this place and its newly discovered history.

The exhibition is funded by the decentralized cultural work Tempelhof-Schöneberg.

Source: According to a report by www.berlin.de