Between the Honecker Lounge, "Dirty Dancing" and the Berlinale: Kino International was once the most important premiere cinema in the GDR, is a permanent fixture at the Berlinale and is also known among film fans and tourists for its striking architecture. In November, the building on Karl-Marx-Allee, which was built in 1963, will be 60 years old.
The listed post-war modernist building can look back on the history of the GDR with one or two unusual anecdotes - and its end. Because while the audience is watching "Coming Out" on November 9, 1989 - a gay love story and thus the first film in the GDR with a homosexual theme - the Wall falls. A doubly memorable evening for the cinema.
In addition to mainly productions by the GDR film company Defa, the cinema also showed selected Western films, such as the 1987 dance film classic "Dirty Dancing". It was intended to be a prestigious building, as Thore Horch from the events department at Kino International says.
General refurbishment from spring 2024
Film premieres were regularly shown in the presence of the state leadership, who even had their own representative room for guests. However, the windowless "Honecker Lounge", as it is known today, was probably not used very often, as Horch explains. The building also housed a library and a youth club. A bunker was also built.
In 1992, the Yorck Cinema Group took over the cinema. Through a huge window front in the Panorama Bar on the second floor, visitors have a view of Café Moskau opposite and Karl-Marx-Allee.
The building will be closed next April for around 15 months for a general refurbishment, as the Yorck cinemas announced. Among other things, a technical refurbishment is planned. The cinema's anniversary is to be celebrated with an anniversary program, including an anniversary celebration this Friday with Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth and an open day.
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