The Kunsthaus Tacheles (English: Art House Tacheles) was an art center in Berlin, Germany, a large () building and sculpture park on Oranienburger Straße, in the sub-neighborhood of Spandauer Vorstadt in the Mitte district. Huge, colorful graffiti-style murals were painted on the exterior walls, and modern art sculptures were featured inside. The building housed an artist collective from 1990 until 2012. Originally called Friedrichstraßenpassage, it was built in 1907–1908 as a department store in the Jewish quarter (Scheunenviertel) of Berlin, next to the synagogue. During World War II it served as a Nazi prison for a short while. Under GDR authorities it was later partially demolished. After the Berlin Wall had come down in 1989, it was taken over by artists, who called it Tacheles, Yiddish for "straight talking". The building contained studios and workshops, a nightclub, and a cinema. Outside, the garden featured an open-air exhibition of metal sculptures as well as galleries and studios for sculptors and painters. History Friedrichstraßenpassage The building was constructed over the course of 15 months in 1907 and 1908 under the watch of the imperial building office (kaiserlicher Baurat) Franz Ahrens. The building complex stretched from Friedrichstraße to Oranienburger Straße. The shopping arcade had entrances from both sides and served to connect the two main thoroughfares. The Friedrichstraßenpassage was the second largest of its kind in the city and the only remaining example in Europe of this type of architecture. The construction expenses totaled approximately 7 million German marks. The five-story building was made of reinforced concrete with a colossal ribbed dome. The façade was built to be dependent upon this concrete frame. There were several small businesses on both sides of the large covered arcade. The building is typically treated as an example of early Modern architecture but exhibits aspects of both Classic and Gothic styles. The complex also housed its own pneumatic tube system for sending mail and materials within the building. A group of individual shareholders hoped to establish a market advantage by capitalizing on a common location. The concept meant that stores would not be strictly separated from one another, but would instead be allowed to overlap. This was enabled by the existence of a central point-of-sale terminal, where all customers would pay for their goods. But a mere 6 months after its opening the passage had to file for bankruptcy in August 1908. The complex was then rented