E It’s news that you no longer expect in Berlin: Kino International is opening two months earlier than planned. After more than a year of complete renovation, it shines in its former glorywhich already delighted GDR head of state Erich Honecker at numerous premieres. Film and architecture fans who appreciated it for its unique 60s chic are delighted. The International is fit for the next decades of cinema culture.
The treatment of Kino International is an outstanding example of responsible handling of the GDR’s architectural heritage. Instead of demolishing the SED regime’s flagship cinema, which was built in 1963, the Yorck cinema group took over the cinema after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The new operator preserved the building not only in its form, but also in its use: the International continues to be a popular premiere cinema.
Other architectural icons of the GDR, however, are given significantly less appreciation. The sports and recreation center (SEZ) on Landsberger Allee is set to fall victim to the wrecking ball on March 2nd. For the SED leadership, the futuristically designed leisure complex, which opened in 1981, was another prestige project that was intended to prove the superiority of socialism.
Rammed and neglected
After operations in the SEZ gradually ceased after reunification, it went to an investor for a symbolic euro who promised to revive the leisure complex including a fun pool. But instead there were years of neglect and vacancy. In 2023 the SEZ went back to the state of Berlin. The Senate wants to demolish and build apartments. This is legally possible because, unlike Kino International, the SEZ is not a listed building.
The protests from residents, architects and environmentalists went unheard. Berlin needs housing more urgently, the Senate says. The last hope is a lawsuit with which the associations “Common Goods in Citizens’ Hands” and Naturfreunde Berlin want to prevent demolition.
The activists want to have the complex declared as a monument by a judge. Most recently, last December, 150 scientists spoke out in favor of preserving it. The activists hope to be able to at least postpone the demolition with an interim injunction.
It is a tragedy that the demolition opponents have to go to court to stop the Senate from destroying the city’s architectural memory. Preservation is not just a question of monument protection, but above all an ecological one. It is madness to tear down swimming and sports facilities just to rebuild them somewhere else. The densely populated district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is extremely undersupplied in this regard. Renovation and reopening would be the simplest, most ecological and most obvious solution here. If it’s international at Kino, why not at SEZ?