History   

A short historical outline

The name of the „Alte Feuerwache e.V“ is closely connected to the building in Axel-Springer Str. 40/41, previously named Lindenstr 40/41.
The main fire station was situated in this building for almost 100 years, from 1864 to 1961. So-called degenerate art was destroyed here during the Nazi regime. This chapter in history was very significant during the formation of the building. There is an art monument on this subject in the shape of a fountain in the middle of the green courtyard.

  

The Fountain Memorial
(ODIOUS artist group, 1996)

Broken picture frames made of steel, with the word „entartet“ (trans. degenerate) cut in it. The word „ART“ is recognizable with the help of a mirror. Was art, in fact, destroyed here?

Following the end of the Berlin Olympics in 1936, Hitler started a „cleansing war“focused on the cultural field. All modern sections of museums were closed to the public. The best pieces of new art were disdained in propaganda exhibitions. The works of artists such as Nolde, Schmitt, Rotluff, Kirchner, Kokoschka, Corinth, Barlach, Grozy, Chagall, Kandinsky and others were defaced with ugly, insulting comments in small exhibition halls. These art pieces were presented as „ungerman“and „degenerate“to the public.

16,558 paintings, sculptures and graphics were put in storage on September 1937 in the Viktoria warehouse of the Berlin harbor in Koepenicker Str 24a in Berlin Kreuzberg. Following this, there were extensive buying and trading activities being made under the leadership of Goebbels. On the 20th of March 1939, Goebbels initiated the burning of the rest of the „worthless“art pieces as a result of the danger of the depot collapsing. 1,004 old paintings, 3,825 watercolor paintings, drawings and graphics were supposed to burn in the courtyard of the main fire station in Lindenstr.40/41.

Whether this in fact occurred is uncertain. There are a couple of clues that lead to the assumption that a burning in the courtyard of the main fire station took place on the 20th of March 1939. Officially, the talk is of an „arson exercise“. The documents of the fire station were destroyed during the chaos of war and other papers shedding light on the matter are missing. The fact that neither the confiscated art pieces nor the works approved for burning were found, speaks for the burning taking place.

 
 
 

  

The main fire station moved to Charlottenburg in 1961. The owner, the district exchange of Kreuzberg, leased the building.

In 1983 the idea of erecting a house to accommodate a neighborhood meeting point was formed when southern Friedrichstadt built a new residential quarter with formidable architecture as part of an international construction exhibition in Berlin. New ways to make current youth and neighborhood facilities would help the residents create high living standards in their environments.

In January 1985 a contract was signed between the „Bund Deutscher PfadfinderInnen e.V.“(abbr. BDP, trans. German Scout Association) and the district exchange of Kreuzberg, making the BDP the main tenant of the building and allowing the concept of the future neighborhood meeting point „Alte Feuerwache“ to be fulfilled. Therefore, major structural changes were necessary. The construction project began in 1987 and ended in 1996.

The support association „Alte Feuerwache e.V“was founded in 1989. The Berlin Wall was directly across the front door. The „Alte Feuerwache“in Kreuzberg is in the center of a rapidly changing metropolitan city, which was known for its calm niche in the past. The former East Berlin district of Friedrichshain and the former West Berlin district of Kreuzberg were united and became Friedichshain-Kreuzberg. Geographically speaking, the „Alte Feuerwache“lies exactly in the middle of Berlin.
  
  
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