The History of the Atelier Building Käuzchensteig 8-12

The Käuzchensteig atelier building often still is called the the "Staatsatelier" (State Atelier) or "Breker-Atelier" (Breker Atelier). In fact, Arno Breker only worked here for a short period of time, while it played a much more important role for art in Berlin after the war. The building was listed for monument conservation in 1990.

The building with its several atelier rooms was erected in 1939-1942 by the architect Hans Freese. Hans Freese, who lectured at the TH Dresden and followed an invitation to the TU Berlin, used Albert Speer's monumental atelier building for Josef Thorak in Baldham/Bavaria as a guide for his designs, published in “Die Baukunst” in August/September 1940. The groundwork commenced in June of 1939 on a cleared site in the woods, which the city of Berlin ceded to the state “at the request of the Führer”, as noted in the construction papers. At the same time, "Straße 558" was changed to "Käuzchensteig". The plan was for an atelier that was equipped “with all technical amenities of modern times”(crane, hoist, railway access), in addition to which a residence for Breker was to be built. In February of 1942, the work on the atelier building was officially completed (of the residence only the basement walls were partially finished), but Breker received French artists in the completed main hall as early as November 1941, who visited Germany in the course of a propaganda-organized event. Little later, footage for a “Wochenschau” feature on Breker was shot here, which was released by the censors on May 13^th, 1942.

In the course of 1943, when the aerial bombardements began, the atelier became unusable due to the bombs’ detonations, since, as Breker noted in his memoirs: “after almost every attack, the glass skylights were lying on the ground in pieces, a carpet of glass shards covered the figures […], so that work essentially came to a halt.” (Arno Breker, Im Strahlungsfeld der Ereignisse, Preußisch Oldendorf, 1972, S. 297 f.). Afterward, Breker moved his main workplace to Jäckelsbruch Castle that had been given to him as a present by Adolf Hitler on his 40^th birthday and next to which he had the architect Fritz Tamm build him a private atelier. In neighboring Wriezen, after 1940 there was a huge work yard with railway access and a canal harbor, the Arno-Breker-Bildhauerwerkstätten GmbH, as an extension and multiplication of of his models.

The damaged Käuzchensteig atelier building was in the American sector of Berlin and in 1946, as a former state property, it was put under the command of the city magistrate’s administration. Mediated by Adolf Jannasch, the head of the department for fine art with the Senat für Volksbildung, Bernhard Heiliger moved into the eastern part of the building in February of 1949 with the “private atelier” and the adjacent “janitor house”. Until his death 1995, Heiliger lived and worked at Käuzchensteig and presented his lage-scale sculptures on the appendant wooded area. Since 1996, these spaces are home to the Bernhard Heiliger Foundation.

After the war, the central main atelier was a training center for the Berlin Masonry Guild and then it was used as a storage space for film props for a while. In 1964/65, it was used by Emilio Vedova, who lived in Berlin from 1963, by way of a Ford Foundation stipend and at the invitation of Werner Haftmann. In the huge room, the Absurd Berlin Diary was created, a work complex of several painted wood panels, either free-standing or hanging from the ceiling, which was donated to the Berlinische Galerie by the artist in 2002. In 1971/72, the architect Rolf Niedballa partitioned the large atelier into eight smaller ateliers, which are assigned by the DAAD (3 rooms) and the Berlin Senat for Cultural Affairs (5 rooms) to scholarship holders. Renowned artists such as Jean Ipoustéguy, Ouhi Cha, Jinshi Zuh Sarkis, Karol Broniatowski, Laszlo Lakner and Armando called these ateliers home for periods of time.

In 1966/67, the Senate Building Director of the day, Werner Düttmann, had erected the Brücke Museum on the property of Arno Breker’s residence. In agreement with Heiliger, a concrete wall that screens the museum administration from the cul-de-sac of Bussardsteig was extended to the sculptor’s property. The small museum is dedicated to collection and showing works by the expressionist Künstlervereinigung and was founded based on a donation by painter Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. The Brücke Museum uses parts of the basement as catalog storage.

The western wing of the atelier building consists of two rooms, the former plaster atelier and the stone atelier, which was inhabited by the sculptor Christian Theunert and the artist couple Bautz. After that, Wolf Vostell worked here until his death in 1998. The  street-side former plaster atelier was recently given to the Canadian artist Jimmie Durham and his wife, the photographer Maria Thereza Alves, at the behest of the DAAD. In 2006, the artist Elfie Fröhlich moved into the atelier.

This atelier, foundation and museum complex bordering on the Grunewald is a lively art location, where classic modernity, represented by the Brücke painters, the sculptures of Bernhard Heiliger as an important contribution to German post-war art, and the works of contemporary artists coexist.

© Marc Wellmann
Stand Januar 2006