Berlin has many famous faces that have left their mark on the city's history. The artist Heinrich Zille is one of them. But who was Heinrich Zille and why is he so important to Berlin's history? Although almost 90 years have passed since his death, the painter, graphic artist and photographer, whose favourite subject was the life of Berliners, is still omnipresent in the city.
In search of clues
The search for traces begins in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Here, at Sophie-Charlotten-Straße 88, is the house where Zille lived for a long time and died in 1929. Today, a memorial plaque commemorates the former tenant. Incidentally, Zille was born near Dresden in 1858, not in Berlin as one might think.
Zillestraße is just a few streets away from where he lived. But not only a street was named after the 80th honorary citizen of Berlin. In Berlin, there is the Heinrich Zille housing estate and two primary schools that bear his name.
In Köllnischer Park, at the currently closed Märkisches Museum of the City Museum Foundation, you can discover a Zille memorial from 1965. The Stadtmuseum is primarily concerned with the history of Berlin and Zille is a central theme.
The holdings of the Berlin City Museum
The Zille collection of the Stadtmuseum comprises the photographic collection, the document collection and the graphic collection, with around 2,500 hand drawings and prints. In addition to original manuscripts, the document collection also contains documents on Zille's influence and work, postcards and newspaper cuttings. The website of the Stadtmuseum currently provides a good overview of the collection.
The Zille Museum
The Zille Museum is not far away in the Nikolai neighbourhood. The small, quaint and lovingly designed museum displays many of his works. A film is also shown here, which impressively reflects Zille's life. Here you can learn a lot about his personality and his art.
The special thing about Zille's drawings and photographs is that all of his works contain observations, experiences and his own experiences. Zille was not looking for the extraordinary, he documented everyday life on Berlin's streets and in the dark tenements. No one was able to reflect the life of Berlin's lower classes at the time so well in his drawings - a life in the big city without any glitz or glamour. "Zilles Milljöh" were the working-class neighbourhoods where people who were excluded from society lived. The places that nobody wanted to see. Zille, however, did not look away, but captured everything in his drawings, so that we can still gain an unadulterated insight into Berlin life 100 years ago.
Zille everywhere in Berlin
But it's not just the museum in the Nikolai neighbourhood that commemorates the city's great master. He left quite a few traces here. Right next door, the "Zille Destille" and the "Zillestube" are two more restaurants serving typical Berlin specialities. In the Nikolaiviertel, you can also discover another monument to Zille, this time from 2008, and it's not just any monument - it's a talking statue. The special thing about it is that you can have Zille call you using a QR code and learn exciting stories from his life.
The only place where you can experience Zille even more vividly is in the Theater im Nikolaiviertel, the theatre in the Nikolai district. The programme here includes "Zille sein Milljöh", a musical and scenic walk through Zille's Berlin.
By the way: There is another theatre in Köpenick that specialises in Zille - the Altstadttheater Köpenick, Zille's Stubentheater, so to speak, which is also the smallest theatre in Berlin.
