Since its founding as a theater in 1996, the Sophiensæle has been an important center for the independent performing arts. But the history of the building goes back a long way:

Erected at the beginning of the 20th century as a clubhouse for the Berlin Craftsmen's Association it was a place for professional training and further education, exchange and also for culture - for example for Yiddish theater. From the end of the 1910s, the building developed into a central political meeting place for the Berlin workers' movement. When the Nazis came to power, the association was banned and the building was forcibly auctioned off in 1940. During the Second World War, forced labor camps were set up in the building for so-called “Eastern workers”, among others. In the GDR, the building housed the workshops of the Maxim Gorki Theater from the 1950s until the Sophiensæle was founded as Berlin's independent theater after reunification.

What remains visible of this history? How do we encounter it today as a cultural institution? The Sophiensæle invite you to find out more about this history - about ruptures and continuities, then and now.