A presentation with free admission by the Kunstbibliothek (Art Library) recollects the creative, art-loving populace of the area around the former Matthäikirchplatz (St. Matthew’s Church Square) a century ago. Images and texts about the lives and activities of famous residents recall a glamorous era brutally ended in 1933 by the National Socialist regime.
Today’s Kulturforum is home to a unique modernist architectural ensemble of museums, libraries and the Philharmonic Hall – soon to be complemented by the berlin modern: Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts (Museum of the 20th Century) presently under construction. Few people know that the current Kulturforum and its surroundings were already the site of a thriving cultural scene and an emerging modernism one hundred years ago. The neighbourhood, however, looked quite different back then when the Tiergarten district was one of Berlin’s most elegant residential and commercial areas. Wealthy entrepreneurs, members of the cultural scene and intellectuals lived in magnificent houses in the vicinity of the Matthäikirche. Joining them all was their passion for art, literature, music and fashion.