9

Chears!

The demolition of the restaurant “Zum Weinberg” (At the vineyard) also marked the removal of the last remaining grapevines at the Weinbergsweg (Vineyard Lane). It did, however, not put an end to drinking, be it wine, vermouth, beer or liquor. Coal merchants, artists, nightwatchmen – they all met in East Berlin under the same roof in the pubs of Prenzlauer Berg and drank whatever was available: at the Fengler, the Wiener Café, the Café Mosaik, the Torpedokäfer (torpedo beetle) or the Schusterjunge (orphan).
Every evening the doors to the basement were also opened at the Schoppenstube or “Schoppe”. A bouncer checked the long rows at the front entrance while the regulars were allowed in through the back door. The atmosphere in the dimly lit space was familial. In the first light of dawn, the last guests met at Konnopke for a currywurst. The gay bar at Schönhauser Allee 44 near Eberswalder Strasse had survived all system changes since 1923.
When the GDR began the refurbishment of the Friedrichstrasse in the 1960s its guests switched to Prenzlauer Berg and soon the Schoppenstube became the hub of the entire gay scene in the GDR. In 1968 paragraph 175 was deleted and homosexuality was exempt from punishment.
After all, the Schoppenstube was not able to withstand the change of times; yet, a few scenes in the movie “Coming out” preserve its atmosphere. Director Heiner Carow who also made the famous movie about Paul and Paula, in 1990 won a Silberner Bär (Silver Bear) for “Coming Out”.