Groterjan-Brauerei
Groterjan Brewery
The former brewery for malt beer Groterjan situated between Cantian Strasse and Schönhauser Allee along the Mila St used to be a popular place for Berliners and their guests to visit.
Brewer Christoph Groterjan (died 1909) bought a mostly vacant property on Schönhauser Allee 129/130 in the near of the old “Exer“ where he had the brewery and a beer garden. From 1905 to 1907 a splendid residential and administration buildings were developed (Mila St 2) together with a hall and a big beer garden with a music pavilion: the “Villa Groterjan” with 1500 places in the beer garden, a lounge with 500 square metres, a bowling alley and a typical Berliner ballroom. Already in 1908 the business went bust and got sold. On the sectioned up ground of the brewery three blocks of flats were built and in 1914 the brewery moved to the district of Wedding. In the following years the original property got used as a chocolate factory, then a bakery and last as the Mila driving school. In 1927 the film theatre “Mila-Lichtspiele” opened in the former building of the hall. It closed down in 1963 and since then it is used as a practice room from the “Volksbühne” theatre. Since 1977 the old hall is registered as a protected historical building. In 1936 the rooms of the restaurant on Mila St 2 were converted into flats but from 1948 the rest of the building started to get used as administration offices. In the 1990’s the old brewery yard on Mila St 4 got renovated, house Mila St 2 was modernized and several restaurants were opened. Even without the beer garden the atmosphere was like in the old days, the building complex on the Schönhauser Allee (the boulevard of East Berlin) is worth exploring and enjoyed for a while.