Trotz Allem

An initiative for a self-managed, noncommercial meeting point in Witten met since 1998. In March 1999 a former shop in residential building Herbeder Straße 8 was rented and in April the Trotz Allem was opened. The same shop was used by the Witten subsidiary of Deutscher Metallarbeiter-Verband (German Metalworker Union) since 1891 and by the Communist Party during the Weimar Republic.[1] The name relates to the conservative Kohl era in a delimiting manner. Similar names like Trotz Allem were used in Witten in the 1980s when an Initiative Trotzalledem from the sphere of the Witten green party published a magazine Trotz-Dem.[2] In Trotz Allem happened talks, discussions, film evenings, parties, concerts and childcare mornings. Vegetarian food was served under the name Supp-Kultur (soup culture) on Thursdays. Trotz Allem organized events with the survivors of Auschwitz concentration camp Henryk Mandelbaum and Stanisław Hantz.[3] During the night from 3rd to 4 December 2005 a group of Neo-Nazis threw bottles upon the entrance area. Two visitors were hit but nobody was injured.[4] As a result, the landlord did not renew the hiring contract that expired on the end of the year 2005.[5]

Counter with Coat of arms of Portuguese culture club

A new clubhouse was opened in Augustastraße 58 in August 2006.[6] The space was used as a clubhouse of a Portuguese culture club previously. A coat of arms with elements of the coat of arms and flag of Portugal is still visible at the counter. After an inspection by the fire department, the building regulations authority and the office of public order the Trotz Allem was closed in October 2006.[7] In May 2007 a demonstration and street festival in favor of the reopening occurred.[8][9]

Trotz Allem

After an alteration the Trotz Allem was reopened in July 2010.[10] On the opening an infoshop was established that was closed in 2012. A club library named Gustav Landauer Library Witten after the German anarchist Gustav Landauer was opened in December 2011.[11]

360° panorama of Gustav Landauer Library Witten
(view as a 360° interactive panorama)

Several initiatives are based in the Trotz Allem, among others the Gustav Landauer Library Witten, a refugee support group named Grenzfrei Witten, a series of queer events called Transistor and an anarchist group named Anarchist Group Eastern Ruhr Area.[12] Really really free markets and workshops occur irregularly.[13]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trotz Allem.

• Trotz Allem (German)