Nightclubbing in Berlin: It’s a place where “left-wing politics, gender experimentation, nudity and huge-scale brutalist architecture are the backdrop to the pumping techno.” Or so says The Guardian , who visited the German capital recently for a special Nightlife Report .
The report dives head first into the “36-hour techno parties” of a city that famously “takes its nightlife culture seriously, however big or small the venue.”
It sees The Guardian visiting some of Berlin’s most popular and notorious nightlife spots, such as the world-famous “techno cathedral” Berghain , which is housed in the formidable confines of a former power plant; the avant-garde music policy of OHM ; as well as ://about blank , a indoor/outdoor club operated by one of the city’s left-wing collectives.
It’s the latter club The Guardian points to as epitomizing “the way the best of the city’s clubbing landscape combines politics, sexual openness and progressive social values, creating safe, participatory and, ultimately, magical nightlife spaces for clubbers to lose themselves in.”
While the house and techno that booms out over the speakers is discussed in detail, the report also emphasizes the cultural history of Berlin as equally defining and important, pointing to the city’s legacy as “a divided then unified place,” following German reunification in 1989.
“Many of its clubs first occupied the real-estate no-man’s land surrounding the area of the old wall, finding new meaning and political purpose for these neglected spaces throughout the 1990s,” says Will Coldwell , the report’s writer.
“Music aside, this is, undoubtedly, what makes the city’s nightlife scene so enviable. As any dedicated clubber will tell you, exploring it is as much an adventure as it is a privilege; one night could never be enough to do it justice.”
Check out “Nightlife Reports: Clubbing in Berlin” in The Guardian for the full report.
