Tacheles, art in the middle of Berlin

The "Kunsthaus (arthouse) Tacheles" is a building located in the Oranienburger Strasse in the Berlin district "Mitte".
The ruin, in which many artists work until today, has a long history, beginning in 1907. 1909 a big store named "Friedrichstraßenpassage" was finished and represented one of the biggest shopping malls of Berlin. But half a year after its opening, the big store needed to file for bankruptcy. Until 1928 the building changed owners and functions several times. Afterwards the building was owned by the AEG and finally increasingly by the national socialists (NSDAP). Since 1949 the area belonged to the GDR and the building hosted inter alia parts of the the National People's Army and an artist's school. 1980 parts of the building were torn down.
In 1990 an initiative of artists named "Tacheles" occupied the building. Afterwards the building itself was named after this group. Until Dezember 2008 the Tacheles-initiative could arrange a lease contract with the "Fundus-Gruppe", the new owner of the property. But a new contract couldn't be arranged afterwards again. The "HSH-Nordbank" aimed at a compulsory auction for April 4, 2011. At the appointed day the auction was cancelled in the near term. The ruin of the big store was since years inhabited by two parties: While the "Group Tacheles (Gruppe Tacheles)" (gastronomy and art ateliers in the ground floor) left the building after 21 years by choice, the "association Tacheles (Verein Tacheles)" (art ateliers in the upper floors) still fights for the future of the Tacheles building with inhabiting artists, which still are actively working in their ateliers.
The Tacheles building is a worldwide known main attraction of Berlin. The loss of this institution would be very bitter for the art lovers and generally for the image of Berlin.