In 1994, KAMALA was created on Oranienburger Straße, directly opposite the Berlin Synagogue.
From a dingy basement shop where the antisemitic National-Zeitung had been sold, it became a small basement dining bar with outstanding Thai cuisine.
Berlin's bureaucracy almost made the opening impossible. The necessary building permit was withheld for a prolonged period. Only after every party represented in the Berlin House of Representatives had intervened was a West Berlin official transferred to Berlin-Mitte, and the permit was finally granted.
But by that point the restaurant had long since opened. On the 9th of November 1994 — the anniversary of the fall of the Wall and simultaneously the historical date of the Reichspogromnacht — Kamala opened its doors without a permit. The legal dispute that followed lasted eight years.
