Tacheles is a huge old building on Oranienburger Strasse. Here’s a good short description from Wikipedia:

Kunsthaus Tacheles, formerly a department store in the Jewish quarter (Scheunenviertel) of Berlin, next to the synagogue, was originally called Friedrichsstadtpassagen. After serving as a Nazi prison, the building was taken over by artists, who called it “Tacheles,” Yiddish for “straight talking”. The building now houses an artists collective and may be demolished.

On the bottom level there is a bar, called Zapata. Its all outdoors and has a really funky setup, the ground is kind of like sand, the furniture is made by various metalwork artists out of things like old bins and fence railings. On the other levels of the buildings there are artists in all the rooms, doing their thing and selling it to the tourists that come by. There is some really good stuff that I wish I could have bought. What makes the building most interesting now is the fact it is covered floor to ceiling in graffiti and street art. Layers and layers of it, constantly changing. I have memories of some of the stuff last year, and now its been covered by someone else’s stuff. Because of all of this it can be quite an intimidating place to visit if you are someone that doesn’t realise what the place is, you would think it was some junkies warehouse.

Unfortunately now the building is facing a problem, the building lease has run out, and without anyone wanting it, it is likely going to be demolished very soon. There is a huge rift between the artists that use the upper floors and Zapata bar. The bar owes hundreds of thousands of euros in back rent or something, and thats one of the reasons why its going to be demolished. There has been a lot of back and forth of petty pranks like shutting off the water etc. Its a shame because I think its an awesome building, and its these buildings that sets Berlin apart from other cities in Europe.