Art and culture don’t alwayshave to be experienced behind closed doors in museums and exhibition spaces. Sure, just last weekend, 75 museums opened their doors to visitors —including special places like the Computer Game Museum. Fascinating insights are guaranteed here. But Berlin is practically crying out for art on the streets— and a true paradise for this is a special place that not everyone knows about. The Haus Schwarzenberg is one of the most unusual places in Berlin-Mitte —and at the same time, one of those places you can easily walk right past without noticing.
Hidden behind a rather unassuming courtyard entrance on Rosenthaler Street lies a cultural microcosm of street art, studios, museums, an independent movie theater, a bar, and Berlin’s subculture. Anyone who steps through the entrance from the street finds themselves in a completely different world within just a few meters. Haus Schwarzenberg is located at Rosenthaler Street 39, just a few steps from Hackescher Markt. From the outside, the entrance initially looks like one of the many typical Berlin courtyard entrances. Behind it, however, lies a courtyard whose walls, doors, staircases, and facades are almost entirely covered in graffiti, murals, stickers, paste-ups, and tags .
This isn’t a traditional, pre-curated street art exhibition. The art is constantly changing; new works are added and others disappear. It is precisely this constant change that defines the character of the place. The courtyard is also known in some circles as “Dead Chicken Alley.” The name comes from the Berlin artist collective Dead Chickens, which is closely tied to the history of the building.
The history of what is now a cultural venue dates back to the 1990s. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, alternative art, cultural, and club projects sprang up in many of the city’s vacant or underutilized buildings. The history of Haus Schwarzenberg is also closely tied to this special phase in Berlin’s history. In 1995, the nonprofit association Schwarzenberg e.V. was founded. Its goal was to preserve spaces within the building complex for independent cultural and social projects . The association continues to manage the venue to this day.
Haus Schwarzenberg, however, is far more than just an extraordinary backdrop for graffiti. Behind the painted facades lie several independent cultural institutions whose themes could hardly be more diverse. One of them is the Anne Frank Center. In its permanent exhibition “All About Anne,” the center explores the life story of Anne Frank and the Holocaust. At the same time, it draws connections to the present and addresses issues surrounding antisemitism, discrimination, and social coexistence .
The Otto Weidt Museum for the Blind is located in the same building complex. During the Nazi era, Otto Weidt employed mostly blind and deaf Jewish people in his workshop for brooms and brushes. He tried to protect his employees from persecution and deportation. Today, visitors can tour the historic rooms of his former workshop. Admission to the museum is free.
The “Monster Cabinet” by the artist collective Dead Chickens offers a particularly striking contrast. In dark basement rooms beneath the courtyard, you’ll find bizarre mechanical monsters, metal figures, and kinetic artworks. The building also houses Kino Central, a small independent arthouse cinema. Instead of a typical multiplex lineup, it screens independent films, international productions, and films outside the mainstream , among other things.
