Kino Pankow

Kino Pankow (pseudonym derived from a movie poster hanging in the lobby) was built in the late 1920s. It was designed like a theatre in the style of New Objectivity and counted 1200 seats. By the 1940s it had reduced to 990 seats, marking the decline in popularity of cinemas. At the end of the 1940s the cinema merged with two others and started to show three movies a day. It didn’t survive the political changes of the time and was closed shortly after. After years of abandonment the cinema was turned into a discotheque in the early 1990s, surviving for five years before closing again. It was obvious that only the main areas were reused as all back corridors and staircases were heavily decayed. Since the closure of the discotheque the building is standing abandoned. The latest plans were to turn the building into a city library but it failed due to a lack of finances. 

It was a spontaneous visit, we spotted the building while traveling through Germany and decided to see if we could get in. It took a lot of searching and finally some courage to get inside, including parking our car in front of our point of entry to avoid being spotted by people passing by. By the time we left the streets were a lot busier than before and we were spotted anyway. Under the eyes of some very confused people we jumped in the car and drove off to our next destination.