Dead Chicken Alley is a small alley in Berlin that is so captivating you don’t want to leave. But it’s also easy to miss if you don’t know where to look.
Dead Chicken Alley is a unique passage bursting with stickers, graffiti, and street art. Its walls overwhelms you with countless messages, creating a lasting, chaotic experience.
The alley is located in the heart of former East Berlin and is actually the backyard of the building officially known as Haus Schwarzenberg.
Dead Chicken Alley gets its name from the artist group Dead Chickens, who moved in after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1995, seeing the house as an inspiring place with low rent for their type of art.
Together with other artists who moved into the many rooms, they fixed up the house while using the alley for street art. The house has otherwise been kept as it was in 1995, when Dead Chickens moved in, compared to the other buildings in the neighborhood.
And that’s the charm of Dead Chicken Alley and Haus Schwarzenberg.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@Flickr. CC BY-SA.
The artist group still resides in the alley and operates the Dead Chickens Museum and Monsterkabinett.
However, it is a non-profit organization, Verein Haus Schwarzenberg, that has taken over the building and is responsible for rentals and events, which include bars, a cinema, two museums, street art galleries, and a bookstore selling books on street art, feminism and caring for our planet.
Behind the bookshop is an art gallery in the same style as the rest of the alley, and above the bookshop is a shop selling contemporary art.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@Flickr. CC BY-SA.
One of the historical museums is the Anne Frank Zentrum. It is a documentation center for the story of Anne Frank, whom many know from her famous diary.
The second museum tells the story of Otto Weidt, who ran a small factory in the alley during World War II, where he employed visually impaired and hearing-impaired Jews.
Not to mention, the passage is adorned with an array of ever changing street art and stickers, making it a spot you’ll want to revisit time and time again.
Where:
Rosenthaler Straße 39
10178 Berlin
Family friendly: Yes
Price: Free
