Cabaret Voltaire

The 1916 birthplace of the Dada movement, now a museum-cabaret

Cabaret Voltaire occupies the narrow ground-floor space at Spiegelgasse 1 where, on 5 February 1916, Hugo Ball and his fellow exiles launched the most disruptive art movement of the 20th century. The building was almost demolished in 2002 before a public campaign saved it; it now operates as a small museum, performance venue, bar and gift shop on a single ticket.

The permanent display traces Dada's six-month founding burst — recreations of Ball's sound-poem performances in his cylindrical cardboard suit, original posters, period photographs. Evening programming continues the Dada spirit with experimental music, performance art and lectures. The bar serves an absinthe cocktail named for Tristan Tzara. A small but essential stop for anyone interested in modern art or the cultural history of Zurich.

things to do museum niederdorf
A story
On 5 February 1916, exiles from the First World War — Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck and others — opened a literary cabaret in this small Niederdorf house. Within months they had invented Dada: nonsense poetry, simultaneous performances, and the collage-as-protest aesthetic that broke open 20th-century art.

Other places in Niederdorf