The facade of the Ehemalige Jüdische Mädchenschule
When you arrive at ** Ehemalige Jüdische Mädchenschule **, a former Jewish girls' school, the red gate seems to be bolted shut and the brick facade announces no activity. There is a desire for anonymity bordering on secrecy. And yet inside they work three restaurants and three art galleries.
On the ground floor, a corridor with old sepia images of girls who studied at school leads to ** The Kosher Classroom **, a theme restaurant located in a classroom and specialized in kosher cuisine (its menu includes courses and tastings) . On this floor there are also ** the Mogg & Melzer canteen **, with its pastrami to go, and the elegant German cuisine restaurant that is located in the old gym: ** Pauly Saal **, led by chef Siegfried Danler.
The Kosher Classroom: pastrami to go
If you go up the stairs you run into the galleries CWC Gallery Y Eigen + ART Lab , designed for exhibitions of international artists. Finally, on the top floor, the gallery appears Michael Fuchs , named after the instigator of this invention that opened its doors last February. At the moment, an exhibition featuring the Mongolian-born artist Gama is on the bill.
Ehemalige Jüdische Mädchenschule: art and gastronomy
The Ehemalige Jüdische Mädchenschule is in **Scheunenviertel (Mitte)**, the neighborhood of the Höfe , internal courtyards connected to each other packed with art galleries, designer cafes and signature boutiques . It was the main Jewish quarter of Berlin and is located near the famous Oranienburgestrasse synagogue. Gilded brass plaques on the cobblestones commemorate neighbors who died at Nazi hands.
This is the case of the creator of the building creator himself, Alexander Beer (1873-1944), a Jewish architect with a very curious last name for a German (Beer means beer in English), and that causes confusion when the history of the building is explained to you in English. Beer opted for the functional Neue Sachlichkeit style, the artistic movement linked to the Weimar Republic and which, applied to architecture, opted for simplicity and pragmatism as opposed to expressionist excesses. The New Objectivity, like other things, ended with the arrival of the Third Reich, a regime with quite subjective ideological lines, and Beer at the Terezin Nazi concentration camp, where he was killed in 1944.
To know more:
- All information about Berlin
- Berlin Traveler Guide
- Destroy all your Berlins - Good bye, Tacheles - Mini-guide to a cinematic Berlin
A corridor of the old school
The bar of the Pauly Saal restaurant