One of the few deep memories I carry with me in life, is the concert of FM Einheit and Caspar Brötzman Massaker in Tacheles, the art and cultural center in the Oranienburgerstrasse, about ten years ago.

I am sure it wasn’t called the ‘art and cultural center’ back then! Back then, it was a squatted ruin of anti-establishment activities in a street which was best known for the street prostitution. An old, dumped MIG airfighter dug its nose into the ground, a bus was put upward with its nose down, its tail pointing in the air. One may wonder: why the hell where you there for? Well, I was there for the same reason as the dozens of middle class youngsters, established fiftiers and tourists are there now! Only, one minor difference, the avant garde artists and performances that shook the place up back then, have sunken into a muddy pool of established income. These, things happen, you are young and rebellious, time is mild and tolerant, and life becomes sweet. I never pretended I was gonna change the world, the world I take as it comes, and I am fine. I always have been fine, and most likely I will too. But my memories are past, and I should seek new ones in other parts of town.

Tacheles holds lectures now, they organize courses, the workshop has turned into a gallery, and further … nothing, Tacheles is still Tacheles, but not as I remember. All that needed to be said, has been said. The Oranienburgerstrasse is now a street with many hip and popular ‘bar – cafe – restaurant’ businesses, an old orange Mercedes van turned ‘Becker’s Frites’ Imbiss, the old Postfuhramt and the beautifully restored New Synagogue, in front of which three police officers quietly chitchat. I will take my parents here when they visit soon.

Alter Jüdischer Friedhof
Sophienkirche

We head for the Hamburger Bahnhof. On our way, we take the route along the Friedrichstrasse, Oranienburger Tor, to the Chausse Strasse. Here, we walk into the Französischer Friedhof, and to our surprise, we discover that the very same Louis Ravene whose castlewe visited in Cochem, in the Mosel Valley in the Rhein Land, and whose name the pension and the street of our pension was carrying, now in his bombastic tomb has been laid to rest in this cemetary. This French cemetary lies right in front of the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof, where many of Germany’s great historical man lie burried. The side alley leads you to the burial place, with next to the small chapel in front of a small undestined temple, a white marble statue of Luther by the sculpture Schadow stands. We search for minutes for the almost anonymous gravestone of Hegel, finally found next to Fichte’s eroded column. Also, to be found here, the plain and sober stone of Brecht, Schinkel, Heinrich Mann, Stüler and Hoffman’s exhuberant collonade.

Hamburger Bahnhof, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Cy …, Joseph Beuys, Sammlung Marx, Damien Hirsch
Lehrter Stadtbahnhof

Ran for 31 minutes in Volkspark Hasenheide