The history of the Forum begins in 1972 with the purchase of a pair of houses in the border zone of West Berlin. It leads through an adult education centre, workshops and kindergartens, through the fall of the Wall, which turned an edge of the city into its middle overnight, to the new building, the energy retrofit and the Klaus Novy Prize in 2022.
We have divided it into four chapters, from the Thorschreiberhaus of 1799 to the present day. If you want to go deeper: Jan Michael Leisse wrote a detailed chronicle of Köpenicker Straße 174 in 2002, going back to the royal Thorschreiberhaus of 1799. Much of it has gone into these pages.
1972Purchase of Köpenicker Str. 174 and Eisenbahnstr. 21
1986Purchase of Köpenicker Str. 175
1993Founding of the housing co-operative eG
2016New building Köpenicker Str. 172/173 occupied
2022Common room and Klaus Novy Prize
The history in detail
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Before the Forum
Thorschreiberhaus, ballroom, Florida Bar and decline: the prehistory of Köpenicker Straße 174.
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Founding and early years
From the purchase for 450,000 marks through the adult education centre, workshops and kindergarten to a block of six buildings.
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The fall of the Wall and change
From the edge of the city to its middle, one association becomes three, and a restaurant becomes the target of attacks.
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New building and modernisation
A new building with a lift, an energy retrofit of the older stock, and after fifty years finally a common room.