in the heart of things

This building, in which the HANNAH ARENDT THINKING SPACE temporarily opens up to the public, is the former JEWISH GIRLS? SCHOOL. Designed by Alexander Beer in 1927/8, its modern architecture embodies openness.

When Jewish pupils were expelled from all other schools in 938, the attendance here increased at times from 300 girls to more than 1,000. In 1942 the Jewish schools were closed. The headmaster and his wife committed suicide to avoid deportation. The architect Alexander Beer was deported to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt (Terezin). It is also known that other teachers and pupils were deported.

The brick building opposite was constructed by Eduard Knoblauch in 1861 as the JEWISH HOSPITAL. When this institution moved to another location in the district Wedding, the building first accommodated refugee children and later the Jewish children?s home AHAWAH (?love?). More than 100 children emigrated to Palestine thanks to a committed carer, but many others were killed in Auschwitz. Between 1941 and 1943 it was a collection point for Berlin Jews before their deportation to the death camps. In 1943 the building was declared ?judenrein? and was taken over by the HITLER YOUTH.

After the war, a public school was re-established here which in the 1950s was named after Bertholt Brecht. But the history of the building remained unknown to the pupils and alumna Regina Scheer only found out about it after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when the edifice was returned to the JEWISH COMMUNITY OF BERLIN. In 1996 the BERTOLT BRECHT SCHOOL was closed due to a shortage of pupils. Since then this building and the AHAWAH buildings have only been reanimated to host occasional artistic events.

text on the wall