Berns Salonger

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Main access to Berns Salonger (2008)
Interior (2011)

Berns Salonger (in Sweden often in the short form Berns ) is an internationally known Unterhaltungsetablissement, restaurant , hotel and nightclub in the center of the Swedish capital Stockholm . It is one of the landmarks of the city and is located directly on Berzelii Park in the Norrmalm district .

History and present

On behalf of the German-born Stockholm confectioner Heinrich Robert Berns, a sumptuous salon with an evening restaurant was built in the years 1862–1863 . The architects of the historicist- style building were Johan Fredrik Åbom , Magnus Isaeus and Gustaf Wickman . It was opened as Berns Salon in 1863 and served the prosperous Stockholm bourgeoisie as a social and cultural meeting place. In the first twenty years of its existence, the dining and drinking guests were offered salon music in keeping with contemporary tastes by a permanently employed orchestra , which at times even performed symphonies . Especially the Stockholm Jeunesse dorée , including the young August Strindberg , found a meeting place here. Strindberg created an unflattering literary monument to the idle hustle and bustle in Berns' salon with his satirical novel The Red Room in 1879.

One of the catering areas in Berns Salonger , with pomp and chandeliers and galleries on the upper floor (1880)

During an expansion in the 1880s, the establishment was expanded and the interior design was even more luxurious, and then renamed Berns Salonger (Swedish plural for salon ). The ornate chandeliers that still exist today were also installed at this time . Since the 1890s, the entertainment restaurant has developed into a venue for the revues that have come into fashion . In 1928 the newly built film, revue and musical theater Chinateatern was integrated into the building complex as an independent structure.

During the following decades, the Berns developed into one of the leading international establishments of this type in Scandinavia, survived several economic crises and changes of ownership and was last extensively expanded, renovated and modernized in 1980. The Berns Salonger currently includes a boutique hotel , conference and party facilities, the restaurants Berns Asiatiska and Bistro Berns in Berzelii Park, several bars , a night club and a concert stage . There is also daytime access to the conference room of the Chinateatern .

In addition to concert events , such as Bob Dylan's kick-off event for his 2009 tour, it is currently also hosting fashion events, art and design exhibitions, and business conferences. The entire complex has 1200 seats. The owner is currently the investment company London & Regional Properties Limited (L 6 R) based in London.

In 1985 the building was placed under state protection as Byggnadsminne .

politics

For several years now, Berns Salonger has regularly been the scene of political demonstrations and blockades by the Swedish syndicalist grassroots union SAC . It represents the interests of cleaners mostly from South America and Mongolia , in the hotel of Contractors are busy - from the perspective of SAC to inhumane conditions: mostly illegally in Sweden employees would have to view the SAC to dumping -Löhnen in part 22 -Work hourly shifts 7 days a week and spend their nights rest on cardboard boxes in the hallways of the building. The hotel management has so far contradicted the allegations and responded legally. The Swedish media reported extensively on the conflict and the blockades in front of the Berns .

In 2006 the building was the target of a protest by the Swedish Robin Wood group against the energy company Vattenfall , whereby the facade above the main entrance was covered with a labeled banner ("Smutsig energi har ett namn: Vattenfall"). In April 2009, during a press conference in Berns , two environmental activists attacked the then CEO of Vattenfall, Lars Göran Josefsson , with paint bombs.

Trivia

The entertainment writer Alice Ekert-Rotholz has her novel Mohn in den Bergen (1961) set in part in Bern's Salonger .

Berns Salonger (drawing by Herman Feychting in Ny Illustrerad Tidning , 1887)

“The Americans looked around in amazement. Nowhere else in Europe had they seen anything like Bern's Salonger . The pompous chandeliers, the long galleries, the solid sofas, from which you didn't want to get up again, the whole old-world atmosphere formed a startling contrast to the new Stockholm, the airport, the world-class traffic on Stureplan, the new residential areas in the southern suburbs which showed the ultimate in light and measured elegance of living. - Berns Salonger was the Swedish land of milk and honey, an island of comfort and material enjoyment. "

- Alice Ekert-Rotholz : Poppies in the mountains

literature

  • Björn Ivarsson Lilieblad: Moulin Rouge på svenska. Varietéunderhållningens kulturhistoria i Stockholm 1875–1920 . Linköpings universitet , Linköping 2009 (Swedish).
  • Lennart Jarnhammar: Berns . Stockholm 2003, ISBN 91-631-4230-9 (Swedish).
  • Pelle Snickars: Snusk på scen blev ett rent nöje . In: Svenska Dagbladet , June 7, 2009 (Swedish, svd.se )
  • Fredric Bedoire, Henrik O. Andersson: Stockholms byggnader. En bok om architecture and cityscape in Stockholm . 3rd, revised edition. Bokförlag Prisma, Stockholm 1977, ISBN 91-518-1125-1 (Swedish).
  • Berns salonger . In: Bernhard Meijer (Ed.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 3 : Bergsvalan – Branstad . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1905, Sp. 59 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  • Carl Magnus Rosell: Berns Salonger före 1989. En skrift . Förlag Skandia, Stockholm 1989 (Swedish).

Web links

Commons : Berns Salonger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Das Berns in Strindberg's novel Das Rote Zimmer (German translation) , digitized with permission from Bibliobazaar, 2009, pp. 98, 99 and 151.
  2. ^ Solidarity with the cleaning staff at Berns Salonger in Stockholm . prekaer.info, August 14, 2010. (Non-neutral representation); Retrieved September 17, 2010.
  3. ↑ Artister bojkottar Berns ( Memento of 27 July 2010 at the Internet Archive ). Video stream on svtplay.se, May 14, 2010 (Swedish). News clip about a blockade by the SAC with a police operation in front of the Berns (duration of the video stream: 2:40 minutes); Retrieved September 17, 2010.
  4. ↑ Fredrik Hielscher / TT : Blockad mot Berns “utpressning” . In: Dagens Nyheter , June 9, 2010 (Swedish); Retrieved September 17, 2010.
  5. ^ Robin Wood genomför protest action mot Vattenfall ( Memento from May 6, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). Short report on bisonblog.blogs.com, April 27, 2006 (Swedish) with photos by the freelance journalist Fredrik Wass; Retrieved September 17, 2010.
  6. ↑ Activists buzz Vattenfall CEO with paintbombs . thelocal.se, April 29, 2009. (English); Retrieved September 17, 2010.
  7. ↑ Alice Ekert-Rotholz : Poppy in the mountains . Novel. 4th edition. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1962, pp. 77, 81 and 82 ( books.google.de )

Coordinates: 59 ° 19 ′ 56.6 ″  N , 18 ° 4 ′ 25 ″  E