Berlin Kreuzberg SO36 - Before and After the Fall of the Wall
Kreuzberg, a district in the center of Berlin, suddenly found itself on the fringe after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Surrounded on three sides by the wall, important transportation lines were cut off, bridges over the Spree river were closed, and local manufacturers suddenly lacked thousands of workers who were no longer able to get to work.
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- Sebastianstraße
- (© Peter Frischmuth)
Kreuzberg, and especially the area of Kreuzberg which is referred to as “SO 36” after the former ZIP code “Southeast 36,” had turned into the dead end of the city overnight. In hardly any other district of Berlin was the Berlin Wall as omnipresent as in Kreuzberg SO36. And yet, the “Kiez” (or neighborhood, in the Berlin dialect) was bustling with life. Despite the shadow of the Wall, a colorful subculture soon developed which was known far beyond the city limits of Berlin. In SO36 workers, students, Turkish immigrants, and squatters lived peacefully side by side.
Photographer Peter Frischmuth has taken pictures for major German magazines such as Der Spiegel, Focus and Stern. About his first visit to Berlin in December of 1973, at age 16, he wrote: "I will never forget the view from the window of the PanAm at the landing approach at Tempelhof Airport. It was already dark as the plane pushed its way through the clouds. Underneath me a bright bang of glaring lights that cut the city in two. The wall, the death strip – my first impression of Berlin."
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- Skalitzerstraße
- (© Peter Frischmuth)
When he went to Berlin again in 1982 to photograph scenes of life in Kreuzberg, he was still an unknown photography student from Dortmund. In 2006, almost a quarter of a century later and seven years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Peter Frischmuth returned to Berlin to retrace his steps to the same places and the same people. Comparing these two series of images, from 1982 and 2006, demonstrates not only what has changed over time but also what has remained constant.
The damage SO36 suffered as a result of being divided from the rest of the city by the Wall has since healed, and Kreuzberg is, once again, back in the heart of the city.
These photographs are being presented in the US and Canada for the first time as part of a cooperation between the German Embassy in Washington, DC and the Consulate General in New York. The exhibition opened in New York City, where it was displayed October 27 through December 12, 2008, before continuing on its route, which includes stops in Toronto, Montreal, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. An additional stop in Miami is currently under consideration.
Exhibition Schedule: | |||
| Through February 26, 2009 | Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2 Bloor Street East - 25th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada Consulate General - Toronto Website | ||
| March 6 – 13, 2009 | Université de Quebec à Montréal, hall d’entrée du Pavillon de design, 1440, rue Sanguinet, Montréal, Québec, H2X 3X9, Canada Consulate General - Montreal Website | ||
| March 26 - May 22, 2009 | Goethe-Institut Washington, 812 Seventh Street NW, Washington, DC 20001 Goethe-Institut Washington Website | ||
| June - July 2009 | San Francisco (TBD) | ||
| September - October 2009 | California State University of Long Beach (CSULB), 1250 N Bellflower Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90840 Consulate General - Los Angeles Website | ||
| November 9 – December 18, 2009 | Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta, 1197 Peachtree Street NE, Colony Square, Plaza Level, Atlanta, GA 30361 Goethe-Zentrum Atlanta Website | ||
| January - February 2010 | Miami (Pending) | ||
The above-listed schedule is subject to change. For updates, please click on the link or check back for additional information.
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