"Dare to have culture!" – World literature around the Steinplatz

The plan to erect a bronze elephant in honour of Baron vom Stein inspired Christian Morgenstern to write his poem "Vom Stein-Platz zu Charlottenburg". In the first third of the 20th century, the area belonged to the "industrial area of the intelligentsia" around Kurfürstendamm and was a popular place for intellectuals to live. For example, Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel fled into exile from the "knee", today's Ernst-Reuter-Platz, in 1933. The Renaissance Theatre, temporarily directed by Ferdinand Bruckner, caused a sensation with its modern drama, but the Reichsschrifttumskammer also had its headquarters in the same building during the Nazi era. After the war, Walter Höllerer, as a professor of literature at the Technical University, once again made Steinplatz a meeting place for contemporary authors from Germany and abroad. The booksellers' cellar, legendary pubs such as the "Dicke Wirtin" and the "Zwiebelfisch", bookshops, second-hand bookshops and the Schiller Theatre keep the tradition alive – as does the Vagantenbühne, which cooperates with the "Scenic Writing" course at the University of Arts.