Soho House Berlin – The long-forgotten »House of Unity«
At the corner of Torstraße and Prenzlauer Allee stands a striking building now known as Soho House Berlin. The listed building is home to a private members’ club with a hotel, restaurants and event spaces. In 2010, it became the first European location of the international Soho House network.
At first glance, there is little to suggest that the building has a history closely linked to the political upheavals of the 20th century. Before it became an exclusive private members’ club, the site was home to a Jewish-owned department store, the central institution of the Hitler Youth and, finally, the SED’s first centre of power. Particularly in the post-war period, the building became an important site in the history of the GDR’s ruling party as the »House of Unity«.
From a credit department store to a Nazi institution
The building was constructed in 1928 and 1929 according to plans by the architects Gustav Bauer and Siegfried Friedländer. The Jewish businessmen Hermann Golluber and Hugo Halle commissioned the Jonass credit department store on the site. Designed in the New Objectivity style, the building offered around 15,000 square metres of floor space, an unusually large area for the time.
The department store’s business model was based on payment by instalments. After making a deposit, customers could pay for goods in several instalments. The store therefore catered particularly to people on lower incomes living in the surrounding area. This concept made Jonass an early example of modern consumer credit.
When the National Socialists came to power, conditions changed fundamentally for the Jewish owners. As part of the National Socialist policy of »Aryanisation«, Golluber and Halle lost their company. The building was subsequently used by National Socialist organisations. From 1942, it housed the headquarters of the NSDAP’s Reich Youth Leader, from where the Hitler Youth was organised and administered.
The »House of Unity« in the GDR
After the end of the Second World War and the National Socialist dictatorship, the building was initially taken over by the Soviet occupation authorities. In 1946, it became the headquarters of the leadership of the newly founded Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the SED. The building was given the name »House of Unity«, a euphemistic reference to the forced merger of the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party.
Among those who worked here were Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl. In 1949, Pieck became the first and only President of the GDR. In the same year, Grotewohl became Prime Minister. During the early years of the GDR, the building was therefore a key centre of political decision-making and party activities. At the »House of Unity«, the SED was organised along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This went hand in hand with the implementation of the Stalinist party model, internal party purges and the persecution of political opponents. The SED leadership also ordered death sentences against opponents of the regime on political grounds. The move towards the »accelerated construction of socialism« further exacerbated the GDR’s economic and social problems.
The building assumed particular significance during the popular uprising of 17 June 1953. Alongside the »House of Ministries«, the »House of Unity« was one of the places where demonstrators gathered. The building thus stood at the very centre of the confrontation between the SED leadership and sections of the population.
From centre of power to party archive
In 1959, the Central Committee of the SED moved its headquarters to Werderscher Markt. The former »House of Unity« subsequently became home to the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the SED. Its responsibilities included the academic and propagandistic interpretation of the history of the labour movement from the SED’s perspective. The Central Party Archive was also affiliated with the institute.
From vacant building to today’s Soho House
After the end of the GDR, the building lost its former function. From 1995 onwards, it initially stood empty. In 2007, the German-British investment group Cresco Capital acquired the building for around nine million euros. The listed building was subsequently extensively renovated and converted for a new use.
Soho House Berlin opened in 2010. During the renovation, numerous elements of the historic building were preserved. These include Wilhelm Pieck’s former office, although it is not open to the public. Today, a memorial information pillar outside the building recalls the site’s complex history.
