Youth center in Berlin: Give the Potse a home!

Can a man who faces death every day decide the future of Berlin's youth? If Frank Luhmann, CDU representative in Tempelhof and undertaker, has his way, yes. "Garden city instead of punk rock. No youth house on Werner-Voß-Damm," is what his election posters say. These words are not just directed against young people in general. They are primarily attacking the autonomous Potse youth center, which has had to fear for its existence for years.

The history of the Potse, one of the oldest youth centers in Berlin, is actually characterized by punk and resistant youth culture. But for years the focus has been on exhausting back and forth in the search for long-term spaces. Even in the Haus der Jugend, a new building planned for 2030, it seems that the Potse is not welcome by everyone. This would be a place that could become a real home instead of a temporary location.

The former customs garage at Tempelhof Airport is such a transitional location; the Potse is currently housed there. There's not much going on this Friday afternoon. Actually, the chaos that spreads around the 480 square meter garage should disappear within six days, packed in boxes, because this rental agreement also expires: the pumps with a snake pattern from the free shop, the striped cup with ballpoint pens that have recorded the thoughts of the anti-fascist youth in countless meetings, but also the bulging couch on which two young people are lounging. Nevertheless, resigned inaction dominates among those present. Maybe because none of this is new to her. For a long time, the anti-fascist youth club has been more concerned with the struggle for existence than with class struggle.

It is a chronology of repression: On December 31, 2018, representatives of the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district asked the self-managed youth centers Potse and Drugstore to hand over the keys to their premises at Potsdamer Straße 180. They were the keys to a place where Berlin youth culture flourished for over 40 years.

Punk concerts, band rehearsals, workshops, a kitchen for everyone - the offerings that took place there between the painted and graffitied walls gave young people space for themselves. But there is also room for first party experiences without drugs, which could escalate unobserved on the streets of districts where young people are not welcome, especially at night.

The fact that people like CDU politician Luhmann feel harassed by the “noise” of young people, as he describes it on his website, is not a new phenomenon. For young people, their mere existence is often enough for older people to criticize them. But if they don't have a place of refuge, they look for it themselves. For example, in the Potse. A place that is their safe living room. Where they can exchange ideas about being queer, political opinions and the concerns of their everyday lives.

After the termination, the rooms on Potsdamer Strasse were occupied by young people for almost three years. On September 17, 2021, the Potse volunteers finally signed the rental agreement for the customs garage.

Leaning against the wall is a protest poster left over from this struggle for existence. "Potse remains... because it was the first place of my youth where I was able to experience honest freedom. We can LIVE here!", someone wrote on it.

Despite the new location, the old Potse hasn't really remained. Above all, she has become quieter. The majority of offers such as punk concerts or band rehearsals are no longer allowed to take place due to the lack of sound insulation. The walls are also no longer allowed to be painted. If the Potse had resisted again, it would have flown out of the airport into the unknown before the end of the contract.

On June 12, 2026, while the Potse volunteers were viewing new premises and desperately seeking contact with the district office, CDU politician Luhmann submitted a written question to the House of Representatives. The topic: Pest infestation and hygienic conditions at the Potse customs garage location. Answer: The Tempelhof-Schöneberg district does not have any information on this. Perhaps the polemical proposal was too crude even for the district.

On September 15th, one day before the planned move-out date, the Potse speakers announced in a press release: “The youth center does not have to go.” They are allowed to stay until the contract between Potse, Tempelhof Projekt GmbH as the landlord and the district, which pays the rent, has been completed. At least until the contract expires again.