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CULTURE

From art squat to Berlin gentrification lightning rod

Berlin's Tacheles art squat, a symbol of the anything-goes vibe of the city after the fall of the Wall, is completing a disputed transformation into offices, shops and luxury flats.

Tacheles
Tacheles, which means "straight talk" in Yiddish, was a popular department store in the early part of the 20th century. Photo by Nils Schirmer on Unsplash

An outlet of the Fotografiska museum chain is set to open inside the hulking, battle-scarred edifice on September 14 and the first residents of newly built homes will move in this autumn.

When it is completed, planned for the end of 2024, the complex will boast 265 apartments sized from 25 to 360 square metres (269 to 3875 square feet) as well as new digs in the German capital for the likes of Netflix and Pfizer.

Of the 176 apartments available for purchase – with prices per square metre ranging from 9,500 to 30,000 euros ($10,300 to $32,600) – around 45 are still for sale, according to developer PWR.

The remaining 89 apartments are reserved for rental.

Investment fund Perella Weinberg Real Estate bought the property encompassing 25,300 square metres in 2014 for 150 million euros — a steal in the current market.

In addition to the historic building that will house Fotografiska Berlin, the site will include an ultramodern open-air shopping plaza and glass-and-steel office compounds.

Tacheles, which means “straight talk” in Yiddish, was a popular department store in the early part of the 20th century but suffered damage during World War II and was partially demolished by the East German communists.

Young artists flocked to east Berlin after the fall of the Wall in 1989, drawn by the low cost of living, and squatted disused buildings including the dilapidated five-storey complex on Oranienburger Street.

At its peak as a subculture mecca, the graffiti-covered Tacheles housed a cinema, restaurant and bar as well as art studios and galleries, drawing about 400,000 visitors a year.

However, in 2012, bailiffs and police evicted the artists to make way for construction work, signalling the end of an era.

“Between 2010 and 2012, we were threatened, offered money to leave and had our electricity cut off,” Bruno di Martino, a 56-year-old Frenchman who had his studio at the Tacheles since 2006, told AFP.

Waves of displacement

“After the downfall of the communist regime in the former GDR in 1990, it was no longer clear who owned the buildings,” said Hanno Hochmuth, historian at the Leibniz research centre in Potsdam.

The chaotic conditions allowed for creative ferment, making the “new” Berlin a unique attraction with countless blank slates for development.

“In East Berlin, many properties were returned to their former owners or their descendants, and this almost always resulted in resale to real estate speculators,” Matthias Bernt, an urban planner at the Leibniz centre, told AFP.

Property prices soared, touching off waves of displacement from the heart of the city that have gathered pace in recent years.

‘Playground’

Bruno di Martino was among those impacted. When forced to leave Tacheles, he set up his studio in the Friedrichshain district on another disused site, RAW, previously owned by the German railways.

For him, the new Tacheles complex is “a pure profit project aimed at the privileged few”.

“Berlin used to attract tourists for its artists, its underground, its alternative side, but all that is in danger of disappearing,” he said.

There is a certain irony that the Fotografiska photography museum is moving into the building where art was once made. A top-to-bottom renovation has nevertheless retained some of their graffiti and artwork.

“We think it’s important to continue the spirit of the building,” Fotografiska executive chairman Yoram Roth told AFP. “It was a creative hub. It inspired creativity”.

Born in West Berlin and a descendant of Holocaust survivors, Roth rejects criticism of the city’s rampant real estate development.

“There is this romantic view of what happened here after the Wall fell,” he said.

“People want to keep certain things for ever in a certain way. But I think it’s also important to remember that whatever happened there was born out of serious tragedy,” including two world wars and the Cold War.

Roth said Berlin was calling time on the city as a “playground” of vacant lots and squatted property.

“It’s normal to expect this space to fill back in with something.”

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CULTURE

Barbaras Rhabarberbar: How a German tongue-twister became an unlikely viral hit

A tongue-twisting German rap about rhubarb has become the latest unlikely musical hit to storm the internet, racking up millions of views and inspiring a viral dance routine.

Barbaras Rhabarberbar: How a German tongue-twister became an unlikely viral hit

The song by musical comedian Bodo Wartke was first posted on YouTube in December 2023, but took off earlier this year thanks to a dance video made by two Australian students.

In May, the track briefly reached number 12 in the TikTok music charts, ahead of US R&B superstar Beyonce.

The charm lies in the song’s tongue-twisting title, “Barbaras Rhabarberbar” (Barbara’s Rhubarb Bar) — a bit like the German equivalent of “She sells sea shells”.

The song tells the story of Barbara, a woman famous for her rhubarb cakes who decides to open a bar in her village.

As the song goes on, Barbara is joined by an ever-growing cast of people whose names add to the tongue-twister — such as barbarians and barbers.

Wartke, 47, teamed up with German content creator Marti Fischer to make the video, the two men taking turns at the microphone to recite the tricky lyrics.

47 million views

Wartke is delighted with the unexpected success of the song, though he admits he doesn’t actually like rhubarb very much, “except when it’s made into a crumble or jam with strawberries”.

“Even in our wildest dreams, we could never have imagined such success,” said Wartke, who has been performing as a cabaret artist in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for 27 years.

“Barbara’s Rhubarb Bar” has racked up more than 47 million views on TikTok and has been translated into several languages.

It has also inspired all manner of copycat dance videos, including underwater, on ice skates and on rollerblades.

Wartke, who performs comic songs on the piano, once wanted to be a German teacher and has a penchant for a linguistic challenge.

He has recorded several other songs based on tongue-twisters, such as “Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische” (“Fisherman Fritz catches fresh fish”).

“Until now, I always thought I was talking to a German audience. I thought you had to understand the meaning to appreciate it,” said Wartke, who grew up in northern Germany but now lives in Berlin.

“But apparently this kind of alliteration combined with hip-hop has an appeal beyond the meaning of the words,” he said.

READ ALSO: 8 German tongue-twisters to leave your mouth in knots 

Image problem 

Wartke hopes the song will do something positive for the image of the German language around the world.

“Lots of people think that Germans have no sense of humour, don’t know how to have fun and that German is an aggressive language,” he said.

“Now they’re reconsidering their prejudices, which I am delighted about. People write to me saying that our song has made them want to learn our language.”

As if to dispel any last perceptions that Germans are serious and boring, Wartke and Fischer have posted a video of themselves doing the dance, with Wartke wearing a pink suit.

“Dancing is not our speciality at all, we had to do a lot of practising,” he said.

Buoyed by their success, the duo are thinking of taking a Barbara-based comedy routine on tour to non-German-speaking countries.

“The songs would remain in German but we would present them in English,” Wartke said.

There has even been talk of the Eurovision Song Contest — and with Germany having finished in last place in 2022 and 2023, Barbara could only raise the bar.

By Céline LE PRIOUX

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