A centre of fun in Berlin! (Tacheles)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Tacheles
Date:	25/07/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Awesome building, cool music, cheap drinks

Disadvantages: I'm not a big fan of artists lol

Lying just a skip and a hop away from Alexanderplatz lies Oranienburger Strasse, somewhat of a red light district (maybe not the main one, didn't seem that big) but definitely a place where street walkers are about, at the end of the street is an enormous building called Tacheles (Yiddish for straight-talking and a dig at censorship problems in East Germany), the building itself has quite an interesting history - having been a department store originally and a central office for SS officers before the war, it became a small deteriorated shopping centre during the East German era, parts of it were torn down in the 80s only for the building to be rescued when the Berlin wall came down.

These days it's often dubbed the biggest squat in Europe, the interior of the building gives off a grubby insight to its past, the side walls of the building are graffitied with some amazing designs whilst the inside hosts a range of art galleries and a nightclub at the top. The nightclub tends to play experimental electronic music, beer is cheap and to my knowledge it doesn't seem to close with people hanging out there endlessly at times!

There are all sorts of exhibitions there - particularly photography and modern art ones, I'm not much of an art lover so it happens to be the club at the top of the building or the pub on the bottom which tickled my fancy. It's a cheap, cool place to hang out and is full of lively students and artists most days.

Summary: Well worth a visit at night