Photo tour with Go2Know on 15 April.

On the way there and back, I started a new series called On the Rooftops of Berlin – always heeding James Prochnik’s advice to have as many projects as possible in order to always find something to photograph :-).

"In 1894, the “Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn AG” built a wagon hall with a smithy and stables for 360 horses on the corner of Gleimstrasse and Schönhauser Allee. However, the location became unprofitable with the inauguration of the Berliner Hochbahn in 1913 and was finally abandoned in 1918. The idea soon developed of converting the remaining 77m long hall, located in the middle of the working-class district and in close proximity to numerous beer gardens, into a movie theater and variety show.

In 1924, the Colosseum cinema opened with a redesigned, classicist exterior in the old horse and bus depot and from then on played out through a truly eventful history. Rebuilt several times but not damaged during any war, the beautiful house functioned as a well-known premiere cinema, as well as a military hospital and kindergarten."

After German reunification, the Brauner family bought the house and saved the cinema. For a variety of reasons, not only the Covid19  pandemic, the Colosseum closed in 2020.

There are plans to renovate the buildings and turn it into offices, as well as a cinema. In the meantime, Go2Know offers a couple of photo ops for amateur photographers while the interior of the cinema is still intact.