Kulturzentrum Reitschule
Kulturzentrum Reitschule (transl. "Cultural Center Riding School") is an event location at the Neubrückstrasse 8 in Bern. It has evolved from a squatting. The facade of the building contains graffiti with partly left-wing extremist, communist or anarchist slogans or signs. History. The Reitschule was built from the municipality of Bern in 1895 to 1897. Albert Gerster was the architect of the romantic exposed brick ensemble characterized by steep hipped roofs. The buildings next to the large Reithalle were for stables and for pitches for carriages. Additionally there were some apartments. After the horses were replaced by cars , the premises were used as storage spaces. Only when the Opernhauskrawalle started in the 80ies, the Reitschule was considered as an autonomous youth centre. In 1981 the spaces were squat by rebellious youths and used for events. Only a year later the Reitschule was forcibly evicted by the authorities. Squatting. In order to express the lack of cultural and event venues, various Straf-Bars (German wordplay with the word "punishable" and "bar") took place in Bern from the mid-1980s onwards. In the context of these Strafbars vacant buildings or grounds were occupied and used as concert and event venues for  one night (for example, in the summer of 1987 the former combined heat and power plant called Dampfzentrale). 1987 the initiative sport instead of AJZ (German: "autonomous youth centres") with the goal to cancel the Reitschule was submitted. As a reaction and in the context of the Strafbar movement, the Reitschule was squatted in november 24 in 1987. In the scope of the cultural strike the Reitschule was squatted in october 31 for a second cultural night and then taken possession of by squatters. Eviction. November 17, 1987 the land squat Zaffaraya was evicted. Zaffaraya was a tent and wagon  village based in Bern. That was followed by peaceful and militant protests. A 10% drop in Christmas sales led to the civic local council agreeing to continue in the usage of the Reitschule. It was followed in the early 1990s by a use-lease agreement. Despite multiple threats of eviction and unsuccessful political attempts to abolish the autonomous cultural centre, it has been able to maintain on until today. Renovation. 1999 until 2004 the premises were renovated for a total of 13 million. The whole thing was financed by the city of Bern and rebuilt in close cooperation with the  operators of the Reitschule. Since 2004 the Reitschule has a service agreement and a rental contract with the city of Bern. Disputes. In the surroundings of the Reithalle there are regularly violent disputes with the police. The consequences of these incidents result in constant political discussions between the ones, who want to emphasise the importantce of the Reitschule and the ones who want to control it more or even abolish it. Five times already the Bernese voting community voted about the future of the culture centre. Suggestions to abolish the culture centre were always rejected. In 2010 an initiative of  the swiss populist party Swiss People's Party about the selling of its premises was launched. It was rejected with 68,4 percent. The Young SVP having 17.500 signatures, in April 2016 they launched a new initiative called: no tax money for the Reithalle Bern (German: "Keine Steuergelder für die Berner Reithalle"). Two years later Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland confirmed the invalidation of the initiative. It was pronounced by the Grand Council in the first instance on 21 March on basis of a motion by the Council of State of Bern and the Finance Commission. Cultural activities. The events offered  range from concerts to film and theatre screenings, performances, exhibitions and literary readings.