House of the Cultures of the World
Here the House of World Cultures—Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)—turns a mid-century U.S. building into a stage for international contemporary arts. The structure dates to 1957, designed by the American architect Hugh Stubbins as part of Interbau, an International Building Exhibition. In June 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy spoke here at a trade union meeting during his visit to West Berlin. Before World War II, the grounds were occupied by Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. That earlier chapter is kept in the museum’s everyday geography: there’s a Magnus Hirschfeld Bar inside, and a garden named for Lili Elbe. HKW also holds the memory of crisis. On 21 May 1980, the roof collapsed, killing a journalist from Sender Freies Berlin and injuring others—an event that underlines how public architecture can shift from civic signal to life-and-death fact. …
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