The building on Schulterblatt in Hamburg dates to 1835. Over time it was used for concerts, operettas, revues and boxing, then as a variety theater, a cinema and a discount store. The rear section was demolished in April 1988, and in the late 1980s a plan to convert it into a venue for The Phantom of the Opera was proposed.
Activists squatted the building from November 1, 1989, after a temporary lease expired, and it has remained squatted since. The owner, Klausmartin Kretschmer, bought it for 370,000 deutsche marks on the condition that it remain a social center. After a contract expired in 2011, a campaign and demonstrations followed in 2013.
In 2014 the city agreed to keep it as a cultural center, paying Kretschmer 820,000 euros. It now has a music venue, an archive, a bar and rehearsal rooms.
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