Where:
Neubruckstrasse 8,
3011
Bern
Switzerland
Description:
Bern, 2002
The "Reitschule" is being used
The "Reitschule Bern" is an autonomous cultural and meeting centre. Here concerts are taking place, movies and theatre plays are shown, performances are shown, exhibitions are presented. But it's not all: left-wing political literature is being published and lent, actions against racism, sexism, exploitation, and fascism and for worldwide liberation fights are organised and carried out. Feminist events are organised as well. With the same diligence there is being printed and read, cooked and eaten, served and drunk, written and interpreted, built and inhabited.
The development - since 100, respectively 10 years (100 years of history)
The building "Reitschule" Bern was built in 1897 and used originally as a riding school. Later, as the cars replaced the four-legged, the buildings were used as stockroom, until the 80s brought finally "movement": a first use as cultural centre which lasted "only" from 1981 to 1982, as the city responsibles couldn't enjoy the chaotical management of it. Successful was the occupation of the building in autumn 1987. The clearing out of the illegal hutsettlement "Zaffaraya" (which took place in November of the same year) brought the autonomous, the young ones, the unsatisfied or simply the future users of the "Reitschule" in fury - they couldn't be stopped anymore. The "Reitschule" - or "Reithalle", how many call it - was occupied in October 1987 and never left since then. Not until today. No other cultural and politically active centres in Bern, or generally in Switzerland, were able to last so long. And in the last 10 years no other centre in Bern was able to divide the spirits in such a way as the "Reitschule" did. Moreover, the history of the "Reitschule", especially the period between 1987-1998, is described in "Reithalle Bern" the book published by the "Rotpunkt" (~reddot) editing house in the end of 1998.
More than you can think
The "Reitschule" is more than an ex-horse yard with which nobody really knows what to do and where some weird birds and culturalists have settled down. The "Reithalle" is the embodiment, of the troublesome people, the anarchists, the parasites, the ones who dream to improve the world and the eternal solidarians - shortly: the agitated of the 80s and 90s, but also of the brave and high-spirited ones, who didn't and will not accept anything too easy. Step by step the "Reithalle" made its place in the city of Bern, the Swiss capital, and made itself heard. You can't think about the city without the "Reithalle", sorry, the "Reitschule" Bern, anymore.
