German artists due to their conflicting views and concepts for the space. In the meantime, however, Tacheles has become a central part of the art, activist, exhibition and communication scenes in Berlin, and is officially registered as Tacheles, e. V.. In 1996 and 1997, politicians, sociologists, architects, and artists discussed the preservation and future use of the complex at Metropolis Berlin, Hochgeschwindigkeitsarchitektur (English: Metropolis Berlin, High Speed Architecture). Use until 2011 The building was painted in bright colors and a large courtyard behind the building holds several sculptures erected using rubble, debris, vehicles and other objects. It became an art center with a cafe, cinema, performance space, workshops and exhibition space. Tacheles provided inspiration for a scene in the German film Good Bye Lenin!, according to commentary by director Wolfgang Becker on the US DVD release. A developer called the Fundus Group had bought the site from the Berlin government in the mid-1990s. Because it was in no hurry to do anything with the building, it gave the artists a 10-year lease in 1998 at a nominal rent of 1 DM (about 0.50 EUR). This contract was then extended but expired at the end of 2009, at which point the artists again became squatters. By this time, the Fundus Group had become insolvent, so the Hamburg-based HSH Nordbank, to which the Fundus Group owed money, decided to sell the property. End of Tacheles By 2010, a division inside the Tacheles cooperative developed. "Upstairs" lived the artists from the coterie around organizer Martin Reiter, chairman of Tacheles e.V., the association that was formed in 1994 but went bankrupt in 2010. "Downstairs" around 20 businesses including High End Kino 54 and Café Zapata, together with the Johannishof artists who were not represented by the e.V., formed Gruppe Tacheles. On April 4, 2011, the owner HSH Nordbank scheduled an eviction, but it was not carried out. Instead, on the next day, the "downstairs group" left the building peacefully in return for a payment of EUR 1 million from an anonymous source. Eighty "upstairs" artists vowed to stay and continue to use their ateliers and metal workshops. One week later, the building's owner ordered an almost 3m tall wall to be built, separating Oranienburger Straße from the building's courtyard. On September 4, 2012, the remaining 40-60 artists left peacefully, after pressure from HSH Nordbank. Tacheles Metallwerkstatt, the sculpture park, was open until March 2013,