Time Travel in the Old Tiergarten District

Today, the Kulturforum, with its museums, libraries, and philharmonic hall, forms a globally unique ensemble of modern architecture, which will soon be complemented by the “berlin modern” museum for 20th-century art, currently under construction.

However, hardly anyone knows that this area was already a place of cultural awakening 100 years ago—albeit in a completely different form. The Tiergarten district at that time was one of the most elegant residential and business quarters in Berlin. Wealthy entrepreneurs, cultural figures, and intellectuals lived in magnificent houses around Matthäikirche, united by their passion for art, literature, music, and fashion.
The Kunstbibliothek, which is conducting intensive research into this lost “Atlantis of modernity,” invites visitors on a fascinating journey into the past of the Kulturforum with its presentation. Suddenly, memories emerge of people who once lived for the arts – and to whom we owe so much to this day.

The Tiergarten district – a forgotten world

Since the 1860s, the Tiergarten district has been considered one of the most beautiful districts in Berlin.
A place of “summer retreat” with extensive gardens soon developed into a sought-after residential area. In the 1910s and 1920s, the district became the “place to be” for artists, art dealers, interior designers, fashion designers, and photographers. The radical break caused by National Socialism, war destruction, and post-war demolition left little of its former glory. Today, the district lives on as a myth: of more than 529 house ensembles, only 17 remain.

The Kulturforum – a center of international arts even 100 years ago

The presentation focuses on the glamorous era of the early 20th century, when the Tiergarten district with its cultural networks developed into a center of modernism – a place of art collecting, art dealing, fashion, photography, and interior design. Even then, the area around Matthäikirche was a “Kulturforum.”

The narrative focus follows selected personalities who significantly shaped the fame of the district:
Fashion journalist Julie Elias, for example, invited her artist friend Max Liebermann and numerous prominent guests to dinners and “tango cocktails” at Matthäikirchplatz. Julius Elias and gallery owner Paul Cassirer inspired the neighborhood with their enthusiasm for Van Gogh and the French Impressionists. Art collectors such as Eduard and Johanna Arnhold and Oscar Huldschinsky transformed their private homes into museums full of masterpieces. Interior designers such as Leni Michels-Fougner and Paul Huldschinsky created prestigious living spaces, while fashion designer Erna Becker designed Marlene Dietrich's wardrobe. And last but not least, Julie Elias, chronicler of the Tiergarten, continues to provide us with vivid insights into Berlin's creative haute couture scene.

The past of the Tiergarten district and the future of the Kulturforum

This unique cultural heyday ended in 1933 with the disenfranchisement, robbery, and murder of many residents who were persecuted as Jews or democrats. World War II largely destroyed the district, and with it faded the memory of prominent residents, outstanding art collections, and creative achievements.

With its current presentation, the Art Library is also looking to the future of the Kulturforum. In the new “berlin modern” building, it will be represented with an exhibition platform for its collections on graphic design, architecture, design, photography, book and media art. The history of the Tiergarten district as a hotspot of European modernism will play a central role in this new branch.

• The project “Art History(ies) of the Tiergarten Quarter” was funded in 2022/23 by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).
  
• Research team: Dr. Gesa Kessemeier, Dr. Joachim Brand
  
• A special exhibition of the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlinby the Art Library - Berlin State Museums