A city for the artists

In 1926 was the Künstlerkolonie (Artist’s City) founded, around Laubenheimer Platz, today called Ludwig-Barnay-Platz. It occupied three blocks, and the plot was purchased by the associations of theatre workers and writers. The idea was to make it possible for artists and writers to live in reasonable priced flats which, as opposed to the ill-reputed « mietskasernen », would have some greenery around. 

Among the inhabitants were actors like Ernst Busch, Lil Dagover, Brigitte Helm, Steffie Spira, writers like Sebastian Haffner, Arthur Koestler and Manès Sperber, the philosopher Ernst Bloch, the psychanalist Wilhelm Reich, the would-be film director Douglas Sirk.

 

They had to constitute a self-defence force to protect themselves against attacks by prowling Nazi thugs. In 1933 the colony was dismantled. Many of its inhabitants were arrested by the Nazis and most of them left the country.

Ludwig-Barnay-Platz today

   

Recent pictures of the former Künstlerkolonie:
 

"To the memory of the politically persecuted of the Kolonie"

The actress Steffie Spira lived in this house at Bonnerstrasse 9