Info:

The first Atonal Music Festival opened its doors here in 1978 and offered the legendary ?Fischlabor? (Fish Laboratory) the proper space for countless projects. The first show by the Dead Kennedys made SO 36 THE punk club in Berlin. In 1983 this came to a sudden end, when the last property manager, which had called the hall ?SO36 Merhaba?, went bankrupt and the hall was closed. In 1984, the hall returned to life briefly when the International Architectural Exposition moved in. ?IBA on Location? presented their exhibition in the space, which was now called ?ESSO?. When the squat ?Kuckkuck? (Art and Cultural Center at Anhalter Bahnhof) was evicted by police five weeks after the opening of the Architectural Exposition, the squatters claimed the right to a space and threw the exhibitors out of the SO36 and moved in themselves. A remnant of this episode is that S.T.E.R.N., Inc., presenter of the IBA, remained the main tenant of the hall.

In 1985, plans were developed to turn the building into a cultural center. Again and again, art projects opened in the venue. But critics of the building?s physical condition, as well as the frequently wild conditions outside the SO36 and the noise pollution for the neighbors, did not give up. The evacuation of the space by the police in 1987 was the final climax of these confrontations. In 1990, after renovations, SO 36 was reopened, run by the organization Sub Opus 36 e.V., which still runs the space today. SO 36 is an exception in the Berlin club landscape, which is known for constant fluctuation: while new clubs always open, are ?in? for a while, only to shut down, used up after a while, SO 36 has a rare continuity as an innovative place rich in its tradition through its integration in a vibrant district.