Common Places // Page 11 // Markus Spring Photography

Here’s looking at you, kid

Sorry for the blatant misappropriation, I just couldn’t help abusing this famous quote.

The exhibition was wonderful, the more so as we came early, before the crowds flooded the not-so-big rooms.

The “Hawks” were the socialist youth organisation, back in those days when socialism was a power in the society. Now? Closed. Society indulges in consumerism without bounds, binge drinking, binge streaming and self-made alternative facts.

Berliner Asyl Verein

Asylum main Building

Bound for demolition with the wrecking ball already at work, at least this main building was rescued in 2015 only and now is mainly managed by a non-profit organisation.

And it’s a place full of cultural and political history: In the Weimar Republic, it was visited by Rosa Luxemburg, Hans Fallada, Carl von Ossietzky, Erich Kästner and Heinrich Zille among others. It seems only logical that it later served as movie set for Fritz Lang, Volker Schlöndorf and Rainer Maria Fassbinder.

Asylum Front Door

No reason for romantic feelings here – the “Wiesenburg” Asylum was home for up to 700 homeless men in the middle of the 19th century. But it was also ahead of its time, erected along the line of thought that imprisonment is not the answer for homelessness, which was the usual way of acting back in those times.