Witnessing history can be pretty intense
(…)
Stefan Schilling [artist and former Tacheles squatter, currently compiling a book about the squat]: When the police didn’t intervene in the squatting of the Eimer, the time was ripe for another building. A date was set: February 13 at 1 p.m. The guys from Freygang had an old fire truck. They drove up to the ruins of this huge department store with the siren sounding and entered the building.
Katrin Massmann: I went there, and there were actually banners hanging on the building, declaring that it had been occupied. Thus the Tacheles was established. The name was apt, as “Tacheles” is originally a Hebrew word meaning “straight talk.”
Ben De Biel: The Tacheles building is an architectural monument, the first steel framed building in Berlin. The building was built with much more steel than was actually needed, because at the time there was still no knowledge of how amazingly strong steel really is. But it was clear to the squatters: although half of the building had already been demolished before it was squatted, it would still last forever.
Stefan Schilling: Some of the squatters had already gained experience in the West Berlin scene. They knew that you have to hold a squatted house; you can’t just go home at night. There were probably two couples who held it for the first week. It was a cold winter, and there was no heating.
Ludwig Eben: I remember we went into a bar. You could go in from the side through the hallway, or climb through the window. There were a few sofas, and you bought your beer through a door that had been transformed into a kind of hatch. There was a big joint being passed around, and we heard about the Tacheles. So we went there. It was March. At the Tacheles, there were just a few people who had formed an association and declared the building occupied. But these few people were nowhere near enough. So we simply joined the group.
