By Gunnar Schupelius
Town halls have an important function, which also includes the social life that always took place in the Ratskeller. Most have been closed. That was a mistake, they should be reopened, says Gunnar Schupelius.
The Ratskeller was once a well-known address in the district that hardly exists today. Only the town halls of Schöneberg, Köpenick and Reinickendorf maintain the tradition.
The Ratskeller Charlottenburg was recently closed (Otto-Suhr-Allee 102), a popular meeting place run by the tenant Angelika Scholtz. There was a regulars’ table at the other. The AfD also liked to gather there.
That was a thorn in the side of the red-green-red majority in the district. The Ratskeller was “one-sidedly occupied”, claimed City Councilor Oliver Schruoffeneger (Greens). District councilor Niklas Schenker (left) promised that “this meeting point would dry up”.
Then left-wing extremists attacked. At 3 a.m. on May 28, 2018, they smashed the windows of the Ratskeller with stones. “Anyone who entertains the AfD must expect glass breakage,” it said in their letter of confession.
Seven months later, on December 31, 2018, the Ratskeller was closed. All parties voted in favour, except for the FDP and the AfD. City councilor Schruoffeneger promised to re-advertise the operation. The future tenant should present “a concept for promoting democracy”. To this day we don’t know what that meant, the call for tenders never existed.
Many politicians and residents are still angry. “I find it a shame that this traditional restaurant has been buried,” writes Ilka-Maria Pollock, a reader of the BZ. She was an “80-year-old Charlottenburg resident” and asked us to ask again.
We did, the response from the district office is amazing: The Ratskeller was closed “due to very outdated technology and structural defects in the kitchen area”. Not a word about the political motivation.
Secondly, it is said that the Ratskeller is needed as an alternative area. The district library is currently moving in there, and its rooms (Otto Suhr Allee 96) are being renovated.
Finally, we were instructed with these words: “The operation of a restaurant is not the task of the district”. The state “should only take on as many tasks as necessary”.
That’s true, but “the state” doesn’t run the Ratskeller at all. Those were tenants like Angelika Scholtz. They did a good job and still do when you let them do it.
This is proven by the last three remaining Ratskeller in Köpenick (“hearty German dishes”), Reinickendorf (“stylish, rustic restaurant with beer garden”) and Schöneberg. There in the “wood-panelled dining room” “John F. Kennedy was already a guest”.
The end in Charlottenburg was scandalous and particularly inglorious. Other Ratskeller disappeared unnoticed. Pankow, Zehlendorf and Spandau, for example, simply remained empty, in Lichtenberg there is art instead of beer.
Town halls have an important function, which also includes the social life that always took place in the Ratskeller. It is dying out and with it a valuable tradition.
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