Mehringhof
The Mehringhof is an alternative cultural center in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg .
history
At the end of the 1970s, the idea of building an alternative center arose. The school for adult education (SFE) urgently needed larger rooms. People from similarly structured projects teamed up with the students and teachers and in 1979 bought the factory property of the Berthold type foundry in the backyard of Gneisenaustrasse 2 for almost two million marks . The project was organized as a GmbH .
To the founding history
An internal conflict during a meeting of the organization Netzwerk Selbsthilfe about the establishment of its own redevelopment agency to legalize squatted houses in Berlin in the spring of 1982, which was recorded, provides information on the network itself as well as information on the establishment of the Mehringhof.
The two discussants in the “controversy”, which was also published in the Taz at the time , were named: Gerd Behrens was “one of the employees of the Mehringhof tax consulting company who advises projects on taxation free of charge. Co-founder of the Taz and the Mehringhof. "[...] Klaus Werner was the" initiator of the Mehringhof idea. "
With regard to spring 1982: "The Mehringhof was bought by various initiatives and groups [...] about 2 years ago."
Although the Mehringhof had not been occupied, many of the projects there saw themselves as part of the squatting movement in Berlin in the 1980s and the complex offered a wide range of activities. The Berlin investigation committee to determine police attacks also had its office there. After the death of the squatters Klaus-Jürgen Rattay on September 22, 1981, the police searched the office on October 8, 1981 unsuccessfully for "evidence".
Projects in the Mehringhof
Important long-term tenants were next to the SfE the health food store , the Working Group guidance and educational assistance , the Research and Documentation Center Chile and Latin America ( FDCL ), the magazine interaction , a bicycle shop, the electronics company Wuseltronick, graph Druckula , the pubs collective Ex , the Transit book publishing , the International of War Service Opponents (IDK), the Mehringhof Theater and the bookstore and publishing house Schwarze Risse . The Autonomenblatt Interim has a mailbox in Mehringhof. The Tauwetter project and Verbrecher Verlag are also long-term tenants in the Mehringhof.
repression
In June 1986, following a solidarity demonstration regarding the illegal encirclement of over 800 demonstrators, which later went down in history as the “ Hamburger Kessel ”, the police stormed the Mehringhof.
At the end of April 1987, the search of the census boycott office in the Mehringhof and illegally other offices and the confiscation of the leaflets intended for the May 1st trade union demonstration led to clashes on the sidelines of the traditional May Day festival .
In 1999, the Mehringhof was nearly 1,000 officials of Criminal Investigation about BKA to the GSG 9 a raid subjected. There suspected explosives of the revolutionary cells were not found.
Projects
The projects at Mehringhof have currently created permanent jobs for almost 120 people. The projects include gastronomy, the bookstore and publishers, the bicycle shop and, on the other hand, the theater. Social projects are the Medibüro , the outpatient services and home care for sick and disabled people. When working group orientation and education (AOB) adults learn to read and write. At the SfE you can prepare for the exams for the Abitur and the secondary school leaving certificate .
The archive of the FDCL offers material on the resistance in Latin America and the editorial collective of the Latin America News has been reporting on politics, culture and society in Latin America since 1973. The research association for flight and migration is also housed in the Mehringhof.
Financing and organization
The cultural center does not receive any state funding. All important decisions of the Mehringhof are discussed and decided in the monthly plenum .
Further projects from the 1970s / 1980s
literature
- Elisabeth Bolda, Rainer Nitsche, Jochen Staadt (eds.): The Mehringhof. An impossible operation. Transit Buchverlag , Berlin, 1988, ISBN 3-88747-047-8 .
- Burghard Keeve: “The big ship is kept under steam” - The Mehringhof, the alternative showcase project in Kreuzberg, is twenty years old / There is no longer any sense of optimism / A foundation is to secure the valuable property . In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 16, 1999 online, PDF
Movies
- Work in the Mehringhof or paths to paradise . Documentary; Germany; 1985; Direction: Barbara Kasper, Lothar Schuster .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Instead book informs, 1986, debate , p. 37
- ↑ Ed .: Investigation Committee. A documentation: cleared? 8 houses cleared ... Klaus-Jürgen Rattay dead , Berlin, November 1981.
- ↑ Uwe Rada: Chocolate kisses for village postils. In: die tageszeitung , June 21, 1997, mirrored on nadir.org, as of January 29, 2008
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ Kreuzberg Chronicle
- ↑ Peter Murakami: "Terrorist Hunt" in Berlin's Mehringhof. In: Junge Welt , December 20, 1999; also on www.freilendung.de. As of January 29, 2008
- ↑ Martin Beck: History lesson with surprises. ( Memento of the original from August 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Die Rote Hilfe , 1/2002, p. 16 f. As of January 28, 2008
- ↑ Work in the Mehringhof or paths to paradise. In: www.filmportal.de. April 1986, Retrieved November 24, 2019 .
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 32.7 " N , 13 ° 23 ′ 18.5" E