Situated in the south-east of Berlin, the Oberschöneweide district developed into an important location for the electrical industry at the end of the 19th Century. AEG had huge factory halls built here. Schöneweide was also the largest inner-city industrial location in East Germany. 

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, most companies were liquidated, and since then artists and some smaller companies have settled in the listed buildings. The Industriesalon Schöneweide is run by an association and has displays showing the changes that have occurred to this important industrial location. 

In its hall, with an area of around 600 square meters, which until 1989 was part of the Transformatorenwerk Oberschöneweide transformer factory, a permanent exhibition displays objects produced in the factory for the television manufacturer Fernsehelektronik, the largest firm in East Berlin.

The exhibits on show are primarily machinery and appliances used for making electron valves and the uses to which they were put, including the prototype of the GDR microwave oven, an electronic organ, missile heads, microscopes and radar installations. This collection, including fully equipped workplaces, was put together in the 1980s by staff of the Fernsehelektronik factory, who then saved it from being scrapped in the 1990s.

The Industriesalon is also a visitors’ centre for industrial culture in the District of Treptow-Köpenick. Guided tours of the former ‘Elekropolis’ are offered every Friday at 2 pm and every Sunday at 12 noon.