ORWOhaus

Band House on Frank-Zappa-Straße in Marzahn

Those who only look for Berlin’s rock scene in Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain overlook the city’s largest rehearsal room complex. It’s located in Marzahn, in an industrial area, and the building’s name reveals its origin: The industrial building was constructed in the seventies for the photographic film manufacturer ORWO. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, it belonged to a recycling company and was largely vacant. From 1998, more and more bands used the rooms for rehearsals, precisely because the location in the industrial area didn’t bother anyone. Here, you could be loud without neighbors complaining, and that’s exactly the scarcest commodity for musicians in Berlin. But the address itself is special: The street was previously simply called Straße 13 and was renamed Frank-Zappa-Straße after two years of effort by the musicians. To celebrate, ORWOhaus played a nocturnal concert attended by over two thousand eight hundred people. The street is named after the American composer and musician Frank Zappa, and the musicians’ reasoning was, in essence, that he was versatile, provocative, and independent of commercial interests.

From Film Factory to Self-Administered Musician’s House

The story of ORWOhaus is a rescue story. In 2004, the building was closed because it lacked the required fire protection, leaving around four hundred musicians without a rehearsal space. Protests and temporary occupations followed, drawing the attention of the press and politicians to the case. With support from the Senate and funds from the Lottery Foundation, the association was finally able to purchase the house itself; the contract was signed in 2005 and the sale confirmed in 2006. Since then, the building belongs to those who use it. On approximately 2,500 square meters, there are rehearsal rooms and studios accessible at any time of day, along with booking, event management, graphic and web design, equipment rental, and artist support. Concerts and workshops take place on the ground floor. Anyone who wants to know where Berlin bands truly originate is closer here than in any club. A café with a rooftop terrace was also planned. The building is therefore not an event venue in the usual sense, but rather the workshop from which a good part of the Berlin rock scene emerges.