Bethanien
Bethanien stands in Berlin as a former hospital turned centre for independent art and culture. Its nineteenth-century building was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Students of Karl Friedrich Schinkel designed the structure, where poet Theodor Fontane also worked for a time. The hospital served the city for more than a century before closing in the 1970s.
Plans for demolition sparked the “battle for Bethanien”, bringing activists and local citizens together to protect the building. In 1973, the preserved structure began its new life as a cultural centre. Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien presents socially engaged art, while BBK Berlin runs a printing workshop inside. Artist studios and cultural institutions now connect visual art, theatre, dance, music, activism and community work under one roof.
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The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Berlin. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.