By Sabine Klier
Tough neighborhood outside, a glamorous world inside.
Wednesday evening on Wriezener Strasse: men in ironed shirts lead women in glittering dresses on graceful high heels onto the dance floor.
You’ve dressed up for the tango night. Highly concentrated, with a blissful smile on their faces, the couples merge to the rhythm of the music. The Wedding Ballroom, adorned with ancient columns and sparkling crystal chandeliers, offers an intoxicating backdrop.
In the 80s, the rocker club “Lonesome Hunters” still celebrated wild parties in wild Wedding – between black painted walls to which they had nailed their worn boots.
Ballhaus Wedding is the youngest revived ballroom in the capital.
The director and actor Robert Bittner (45) and his fiancé Djamila Rempel (44) fulfilled their common dream.
With its ornate chairs, chaise longues, gold-framed mirrors and old chandeliers, it seems as if time has stood still here for a long time.
But the Ballhaus didn’t always look like this. “I bought all the furniture and lamps cheaply on Ebay classifieds, and some were given to me as gifts. I repaired everything myself, reupholstered the chairs and sofas,” says Bittner. And with great attention to detail.
Robert Bittner (45) and Djamila Rempel (44) fulfilled their dream with Ballhaus Wedding. It was once an inn with a ballroom, later it served as a motorcycle repair shop for rockers. He restored the Belle Époque-style furniture himself. In their cultural venue they organize dance evenings (tango, salsa, rock’n’roll), concerts, theater and film performances Photo: Olaf Selchow
“This ballroom is the oldest surviving one in the capital,” he emphasizes. “There used to be around 220 in Berlin.”
The ensemble built in 1889 has an eventful history. There used to be an inn in the front building, and the one-storey ballroom with a bowling alley on the courtyard side. Up until the 1920s, lavish parties were celebrated there.
“In the 1930s, a gilding workshop and a glazing workshop worked here,” says Bittner. The restaurant was later converted into an apartment. In the 80s the rockers came to Wedding. After the Wall came down, a woman from Munich bought the ballroom and had it extensively renovated. “In the conservatory there is wooden parquet from the Babelsberg film studios, on which Marlene Dietrich danced in “Der Blauen Engel”,” says Bittner proudly.
Until 2020, the 133 square meter room was operated by the owner as a ballroom studio, rented out for weddings and film shoots. Til-Schweiger’s film “Zweiohrküken” and Karoline Herfurth’s film “Beautiful” were filmed here.
Looking for a wedding location, Robert Bittner and Djamila Rempel discovered the hall and fell in love with it. During the Corona period, they transformed the premises in the style of the Belle Époque.
Shoes and clothes are sold in the Peacock Room on Tango Night. Luisa (20) is advised by Djamila Rempel (44). Photo: Olaf Selchow
And there is even a small mirror: in what is probably the most beautiful toilet in town, 24 ornate mirrors hang from the ceiling.
The atmospheric atmosphere inspires the visitors. “Originally, I had energy-saving lamps in the old chandeliers. But the light wasn’t pretty. I exchanged them for 290 light bulbs,” explains Bittner with a laugh.
In the cultural venue, the program changes from tango to rock ‘n’ roll, theatre, variety shows, concerts, films and readings.
Robert Bittner can’t dance the tango, he leaves that to his fiancé. He says, “I enjoy it when people come and have fun.”
► On Sundays, the ballroom is also open during the day: from 1 to 3 p.m. there is a brunch with live music.
Wriezener Strasse 6, Wedding, www.ballhauswedding.de
These are Berlin’s ballrooms
► Homeport Neukölln
Karl-Marx-Strasse 141, Neukölln, heimathafen-neukoelln.de
In 1875 the Niesigk’sche salon with inn, salon and ballroom was built. In 1905 it became a theater and ten years later a cinema. He remains suspended between 1968 and 1990. Since 2009 there have been concerts, theater and burlesque shows in the renovated building Photo: Stephanie Lehmann
► Clarchen’s ballroom
Auguststrasse 24, Mitte, claerchensball.haus
Opened in 1913 by Clara and Fritz Bühler, it was soon just called “Clärchens”. While the high society was celebrating upstairs in the Hall of Mirrors, which has been preserved in the original, everyone else was dancing in the ballroom. Today we invite you to salsa, swing, disco-schwoof and tango. Photo: picture alliance / Zoonar.
► Ballhaus Berlin
Chausseestrasse 102, Mitte, www.ballhaus-berlin.de
It had many names: “Zum Alten Banden” (1905), “Schwankes Festställe” (in the 1920s), “Behrens Casino” (after World War II) and since 1975 Ballhaus Berlin. Varieté, concerts, theater and party nights are offered in the historic ambience Photo: Facebook/Ballhaus Berlin