Berlin

You
 have almost certainly heard the saying that claims &ldquo;a cat has nine 
lives.&rdquo; Well, you could probably say the same for the area around what 
used to be the Kunsthaus Tacheles art center at the intersection of 
Friedrichstra&szlig;e and Oranienburger Strasse in Berlin-Mitte. In fact, the 
site has already enjoyed nine lives: as the Friedrichstra&szlig;enpassage 
department store, as a show room and House of Technology by the 
electrical company AEG, as a prison, as a school for artists, as the 
headquarters of the Free German Trade Union Federation, as a dance 
school, as a nightclub, as a cinema, and finally as an art center. Now, 
the site is about to embark on its tenth life as a new urban quarter.
 Given the excitement surrounding Am Tacheles, we thought we&rsquo;d delve 
into the site&rsquo;s eventful history to uncover five astonishing yet less 
widely known details just for you. <img src="https://localhost/images/librariesprovider2/default-album/20191101_dsc9007-9_panorama_30cm.jpg?sfvrsn=366b3ba9_0" sf-size="63916" />Cyclopean styleThe Friedrichstra&szlig;enpassage&rsquo;s distinctive architecture is widely 
accredited as being a preeminent example of what became known in German 
architectural circles as the &ldquo;Cyclopean style.&rdquo; Based on designs from 
the architect Franz Ahrens, the five-story reinforced concrete structure
 was constructed between 1907 and 1909, cleverly combining the hallmarks
 of both a department store and a shopping arcade. The numbers alone 
underscore the colossal nature of the undertaking: 10,000 square meters 
of floor space, a 150-meter passage and a 48-meter-high domed room with a
 diameter of 28 meters. It was the building&rsquo;s monumental scale that 
earned it the moniker of &ldquo;Cyclopean.&rdquo; In German architecture, the 
Cyclopean style describes architecture that eschews traditional 
standards and embraces large-scale physicality.<div><div>Europe&rsquo;s longest pneumatic tube systemMeasuring 21,000 meters, Europe&rsquo;s longest pneumatic tube system 
served a central point-of-sale terminal with 150 cash registers in the 
Friedrichstra&szlig;enpassage. This was a particularly innovative concept at 
the time and allowed many stores to join together as a retail 
association and conclude their sales at a central terminal. Using air 
pressure, cartridges with money and receipts were sent to the central 
cash desk in a matter of seconds. After a sale was logged, the 
customer&rsquo;s receipt and change were then transported back via the same 
system. In architectural terms, the stores also overlapped, as is 
usually the case in a passageway, and their sales and display spaces 
merged into one another. However, the innovative business model 
developed by Otto Markiewicz wasn&rsquo;t enough and the 
Friedrichstra&szlig;enpassage failed only six months after opening. In 1909, 
the department store mogul Wolf Wertheim rented the complex and 
transformed it into a department store that would last until 1914. <img src="https://localhost/images/librariesprovider2/default-album/nils-schirmer-2k1uiuplvvg-unsplash.jpg?sfvrsn=d297e96e_0" sf-size="158719" />Blue, red and yellow hallAmong the Friedrichstra&szlig;enpassage&rsquo;s absolute highlights were its 
special halls. These were designed to give tenants the perfect spaces to
 present their wares. These unique showcases included the Blue Hall, 
whose walls were partly covered in blue velvet. The hall&rsquo;s ceilings 
soared to an impressive 7.5 meters high and the upper section of the 
hall was covered with modern Silhyo panels made of porcelain enamel. The
 high-end interior was rounded off with a bronze bay window, ceiling 
frescoes, wooden mosaic windows and windows with lead glazing. The Red Hall featured floor-to-ceiling mahogany wall paneling and was 
complemented by a gallery, also in mahogany. This hall also boasted a 
wooden mosaic floor and a richly decorated ceiling. The two-story Yellow Hall was named for the pillars supporting the 
overhead gallery, which were clad in yellow Siena marble. The gallery 
housed light polished oak dressing rooms for the store&rsquo;s female 
customers. Many years later, this Yellow Hall became the Kunsthaus 
Tacheles theater hall.</div></div><div><div>The birth of the show roomYou probably think of show rooms as something entirely modern. In 
fact, the show room concept was already popular in the 1920s &ndash; in a 
particularly splendid way. In 1927, the electrical company AEG moved 
into the former Friedrichstra&szlig;enpassage department store and created a 
show room to display its products and advise its customers. As a result,
 this monumental building was given a new name, &ldquo;House of Technology,&rdquo; 
&nbsp;which it kept all the way through to 1945. On the first floor alone, 
AEG had 20 large display windows. In addition, the building gave AEG 
more than 10,000 square meters of sales and office space. In special 
rooms, the company could showcase its entire product range. There was 
even customer consultation service in a specially equipped lighting 
demonstration room, while cooking demonstrations highlighted the 
benefits of the latest home appliances. After the Second World War, the building served as a school for artists,
 a cinema and as the headquarters of the Free German Trade Union 
Federation. In the 1980s, the East German government had the famous 
domed building demolished. At the time of reunification, the site&rsquo;s 
remaining structures were scheduled for demolition, although this was 
prevented by an artists&rsquo; collective, who occupied the site and turned it
 into an art and cultural center.A new slice of cityFrom its early life as a magnificent shopping arcade and department 
store to twenty years as a near-derelict but vibrant art center, a new 
slice of Berlin is now being created on the site of the former Kunsthaus
 Tacheles. Combining living, working and shopping, the quarter&rsquo;s master 
plan is the brainchild of the Swiss architects Herzog &amp; de Meuron, 
who also famously designed the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, the 
Allianz Arena in Munich and the National Stadium in Beijing. The new life of AM TACHELES has just begun: Construction work is in full swing and is expected to be completed in 2023.Click on the links to learn more about AM TACHELES and VERT by Herzog &amp; de Meuron, the first of the quarter&rsquo;s five stunning residential buildings.Photos: Stairs AM TACHELES Showroom (1): Tim Kr&uuml;ger Construction site (2): Christian von Steffelin Construction site&nbsp;(3): Nils SchirmerSources: <a href="https://industrie-kultur.de/ik/2017/01/26/berlin-von-der-friedrichstrassen-passage-zum-tacheles-eine-fruehe-mall-und-ihre-wechselvolle-geschichte-fotoausstellung-im-deutschen-technikmuseum/">https://industrie-kultur.de/ik/2017/01/26/berlin-von-der-friedrichstrassen-passage-zum-tacheles-eine-fruehe-mall-und-ihre-wechselvolle-geschichte-fotoausstellung-im-deutschen-technikmuseum/</a> <a href="https://berlingeschichte.de/lexikon/mitte/f/friedrichstrassen_passage.htm">https://berlingeschichte.de/lexikon/mitte/f/friedrichstrassen_passage.htm</a> <a href="https://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/denkmal/liste_karte_datenbank/de/denkmaldatenbank/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09035146">https://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/denkmal/liste_karte_datenbank/de/denkmaldatenbank/daobj.php?obj_dok_nr=09035146</a> <a href="http://www.bushtrash.de/bilder/tacheles/tacheles.htm">http://www.bushtrash.de/bilder/tacheles/tacheles.htm</a>&nbsp;</div></div>

AM TACHELES: Five amazing details about the history of the site in Berlin-Mitte

You have almost certainly heard the saying that claims “a cat has nine 
lives.” Well, you could probably say the same for the area around what 
used to be the Kunsthaus Tacheles art center.

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