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“We’ll have everything under one roof”: Arsenal relocates after 25 years at Potsdamer Platz

The Berlin film institution Arsenal will soon house their archive at silent green in Wedding.

Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Milena Gregor, Birgit Kohler. Photo: Florence Scott-Anderton
Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Milena Gregor, Birgit Kohler. Photo: Florence Scott-Anderton

It’s hard to put into words the importance that Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art has held for the Berlin, German and international film communities since the institute’s founding 60 years ago. Through its cinema screens, its Forum and Forum Expanded programmes (presented by Arsenal as part of the annual Berlinale), its archive, plus distribution and educational endeavours, Arsenal has become a place not only to discover new film but to have a conversation with it.

At the end of 2024, the institute prepared for a huge change – closing its doors at Das Center am Potsdamer Platz, its home for the past 25 years, and embarking on a year-long tour of cinema programming, working with partner institutions and Kinos across Germany as ‘Arsenal on Location’. In the meantime, they’ll be moving their cinema and distribution to silent green Kulturquartier in Wedding, where their archive (home to around 10,000 films) already lives. When the move is complete in 2026, it’ll be the first time in the institute’s history that its many components are housed in the same spot.

From the beginning Sony was not really interested in us and we were not really interested in Sony.

The jump to Wedding will be Arsenal’s second big move, after leaving its original Schöneberg home for what was then called the Sony Center in 2000. The Berliner sat down with three long-time members of the film institution’s core team – artistic director Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, and Kino co-directors Milena Gregor and Birgit Kohler – to talk about what the new location means for Arsenal’s future in Berlin.

Arsenal has a lot of different aspects – the cinema, Forum(s), an archive, distribution and education – some of which might be new to readers who may not know all of your branches of work. How does it all come together?

Stefanie Schulte Strathaus: It started in 1963. When the Deutsche Kinemathek – a separate institute that was also in the [former] Sony building, and is also currently moving – was founded, the idea was to build a German film archive. There were a couple of people running a film club who believed that that made no sense if there wasn’t also a cinema that showed the films in tandem, and so they founded an association, which was called ‘Friends of the Deutsche Kinemathek’ – we changed the name [to Arsenal] later.

The idea was to show films not just from Germany but all over the world. Our first location was at Welserstr. 25 in a very lively, queer Schöneberg. In the 60s they’d already started to collect films from, for example, Latin American countries that had censorship, and from filmmakers travelling to the former DDR – discovering the films there and giving them a home. So the idea of giving films a home was there at the very beginning.

Then, during Berlinale 1970, Michael Verhoeven’s film o.k. was invited to take part in the Competition and caused controversy due to its anti-American sentiment. This was a big scandal, with protests and demos against the film. It led to Berlinale ending halfway through and the jury resigning. In order to save the festival, Berlinale asked Arsenal whether they could start an alternative programme for, lets say, all the difficult films, politically but also aesthetically, which they did very successfully.

Arsenal's new home at silent green. Photo: Jürgen Ritter
Arsenal’s new home at silent green. Photo: Jürgen Ritter

This became the Berlinale Forum, which has since then been running independently as part of Berlinale. This has led to the growth of the archive and also our distribution activities, as it didn’t make sense to show films only during Berlinale – that’s a huge effort and not sustainable, to find films and bring them to Berlin for the timeframe of a 10-day festival. So we decided to make German-subtitled prints that could stay here at the Arsenal. This was the beginning of the distribution activity, simply so films could have a bigger life after the festival. It was not yet an archive but a collection at this point, to have films to show more easily.

Decades later, many films that came to us that way are now unique prints lost in their countries of origin, and films age and need to be preserved, which is why we’re very much active in digitisation and restoration and transnational archive projects. So it’s all kind of one history, and gives you an idea of why we’re doing festivals, cinema, archive, distribution.

How are you feeling about the move to silent green – what prompted it?

SSS: We always knew we had to leave [Potsdamer Platz] after the lease with Sony was up, so it wasn’t a surprise. It has a history that goes back to the 80s, when there was an idea for Berlin’s first film house. There were beautiful plans made for the former Hotel Esplanade, which was one of the only buildings from the former Potsdamer Platz, a beautiful nowhere land on the west side.

It was listed as a historical monument. The idea was to turn this into a film house for us, the Deutsche Kinemathek and a film school. Everything was planned, and although the financing wasn’t complete, it was clear this would happen – and then the Wall came down. And almost overnight, the city of Berlin sold Potsdamer Platz to Sony, under the condition Sony would still realise the film house idea. This is how we ended up in the Sony Center.

From the beginning Sony was not really interested in us and we were not really interested in Sony; shortly after they moved in they themselves moved out, noticing very early on that Potsdamer Platz was not really what they thought it would become. So the original plans were always this idea of being in the centre of the city, and there was this utopian idea of what Potsdamer Platz could become culturally, especially for cinema. There was a lot of hope, but looking back it was clear that lots of people didn’t like the idea of moving from Schöneberg to Postdamer, and we also had our doubts.

During the move, we came with this energy to our audience – please come with us, we need you, let’s make the best of it. But we always knew it would be for 25 years, [per] the contract that Sony signed, and I think we did it successfully. Brigit reminded me recently that now it’s been an entire generation, if not two, of audiences and filmmakers that only know the Sony Center as the home of Arsenal.

Decades later, many films that came to us that way are now unique prints lost in their countries of origin,

So now we have a history here of 25 years, with many incredible events and memories. However, the building was not designed for a film house, plus Potsdamer Platz did not become what people were hoping for in terms of culture; bars, restaurants, community. I’m very much looking forward to moving out, and silent green is a location that is both a residential neighbourhood and somewhere with a lot of cultural activity.

Could you speak more on what 2025 will bring?

SSS: We’re moving to a new location, where we’ll have everything more or less under one roof, for the first time ever in the long history of our institution. I think this is an incredible potential and something we always knew was very special about us, that we have these different activities under one institution. Now having it physically in one place gives us a chance to make these elements even stronger, and to look at it from a new contemporary point of view.

We’ll begin [2025] without our own cinema before the new one opens in silent green by the start of 2026…We thought, okay, we don’t want to go online like during the pandemic. And that’s where the important thought came – that cinema is not just the building, it’s also about the networks and friendships. And after 60 years, we have so many friends and partners, whether that be individuals or institutions, everywhere in Berlin, Germany and worldwide that are the essence of our practice working with other people. So we thought, let’s work with them.

It’s not a touring programme in the sense that we prepare and travel, it’s more about this question of what role does the location play in programming? With our partners, we will develop programmes that are specifically interesting for them in their location. Every month there will be at least three different locations – there will be a map on the website, and we’ll introduce all the places we will go.

Arsenal on Location will organise joint programmes with cinemas, institutions and cultural venues such as Akademie der Künste, b_books, Brotfabrik Kino, City Kino Wedding, fsk Kino, Freie Universität Berlin, Bundesplatz-Kino, KLICK Kino, Kino Krokodil, Gropius Bau, silent green Garten, Wolf Kino, Zeughauskino alongside German and international venues. I think it’s important to mention this is only possible due to Jörg Heitmann and Bettina Ellerkamp, the directors of silent green who really want us in this space. They also have their filmmakers who have a history with the institution, and they are investing in the cinema.

Any particular highlights from the past 25 years?

Birgit Kohler: It was a highlight to do Q&As with Agnès Varda here, four nights in a row, or with Catherine Breillart and Pedro Costa. I mean, it’s really hard for me to name a few. There have also been highlights in terms of exchange, working together with the audience or the people I’ve invited for panels on certain questions. [The series] ‘Performing Documentary’, for instance – but it’s really hard to point out one or two.

Milena Gregor: For me, if I leave the cinema and the audience enjoyed the film and there was a wonderful discussion, a good atmosphere, a full house – that for me is a highlight. Just the other day I came out and there weren’t too many people there, but there was a very intense, interesting discussion [going on], a lot of questions and interaction. It’s a wonderful cinema here, technically, acoustically, architecturally – it’s a place where I felt very comfortable. We will move now, and we’re working with the same designer for the new cinema at silent green. So I’m looking forward to the new cinema.