It was a balmy summer evening in August 2021 on the Johannes Fest Platz in the south of Lichtenberg in Berlin-Karlshorst. A band played, the audience moved to the music. Later in the evening, people danced exuberantly with blue glowing headphones to techno music at the Silent Disco. In the background, a black lettering on a colourful background hung over the entrance to a massive neoclassical-Stalinist architectural monument: KAHO. Space for culture.
House of Officers, Russian Opera or KAHO: these and many other names were given to a building that illustrates the eventful history of the city of Berlin and the East Berlin district of Karlshorst. This is where most of the soldiers of the Soviet – later Russian – army were stationed in Berlin from 1945 to 1994. After their withdrawal in August 1994, the armed forces not only left behind their headquarters, a KGB head office, barracks and around 300 houses and apartments in what was once the largest restricted area in the city. An impressive neoclassical-Stalinist theatre building also remained – just a few steps away from the S-Bahn station.
At the end of the 1940s, the Soviet military administration had the Karlshorst Drama Theatre built. Initially, only Soviet military personnel, civilian employees and their families were allowed to visit the so-called "House of Officers" from 1949 onwards. From 1945 onwards, people from Karlshorst could only cross the restricted military zone, in which the theatre was also located, with a permit. Even if the restricted area was gradually reduced until 1963, an area around the military administration remained a forbidden zone for the civilian population until the army’s withdrawal in 1994.
In the Karlshorst Theatre, stars like the Russian Prima Ballerina Galina Ulyanova from the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet or the ensemble of the Beijing Opera appeared on stage. For this reason, Berliners also called the theatre the "Russian Opera" or the "Bolshoi of Berlin." Only after 1963 was the GDR population allowed to attend concerts, theatre, films or school performances and celebrate youth initiations there. After reunification, the building continued to operate in the 1990s as the "Theater des Ostens" and later "Theater am Bahnhof Karlshorst" until 2007. After that, the imposing theatre hall remained unused for more than 10 years, and a music school and a restaurant moved into the west wing.
Since 2018, the Stiftung Stadtkultur, a foundation, has revived the theatre. With a new name, the former Russian Opera started into a new future as "KAHO. Raum für Kultur", in English KAHO: space for culture, with an interim programme. Together with people from politics, culture and architecture as well as the Karlshorst neighbourhood, the foundation develops the theatre building into a modular venue with concerts, audio walks and cooperative plays outside and inside.
