Behind the planned move of the Heinrich Schulz Library Inside the Charlottenburg town hall there is a medium drama of educational and cultural policy. The rooms at Otto-Suhr-Allee 96 are the headquarters of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf City Library. According to the district office, they urgently need to be renovated.
Therefore, the library is moving to the former restaurant “Ratskeller Charlottenburg” and will be closed from May 22nd to July 2nd. media can be returned elsewhere.
Education and culture councilor Heike Schmitt-Schmelz (SPD) wanted a new central library in the former Charlottenburg branch of Peek & Cloppenburg in the “Kant-Center” on the corner of Kantstrasse and Wilmersdorfer Strasse. But the Senate Finance Administration opposed this. The district has a “surplus” of office space. The councilwoman protested unsuccessfully.
So only the former Ratskeller remains as an alternative quarters. However, it is too small for the concept of a multifunctional central library with longer opening times. After three years, the main office is to return to its old hall. By then, among other things, the roof will be renewed and air conditioning installed.
The district office did not extend the lease of the long-standing restaurant manager Angelika Scholtz beyond the end of 2018. According to Tagesspiegel information Members of the district office – above all the then mayor Reinhard Naumann (SPD) – no longer wanted to accept that Scholtz regularly entertained AfD politicians.
The restaurateur repliedshe is contractually obliged to serve all “associations and political groups” that have a faction in the BVV.
Officially, the district office gave another reason for the closure: administrative offices could be created in the premises of the restaurant and the neighboring staff canteen. However, nothing happened for a long time. The Ratskeller later served as a corona test center for administrative staff and a contact point for war refugees from Ukraine.