Berghain

Health and Safety: A Breakdown
by Emily Witt
Published 16 Sep 2024

And I wanted to go to Berghain. Does Berghain need an explanation? Berghain had its roots in a gay club called Ostgut that opened in the late 1990s in a former railcar repair station in Friedrichshain. After Ostgut closed in 2003, its promoters found a new venue in an enormous former power station, installed a Funktion-One sound system, and made a giant techno club. When Berghain opened in 2004 it was after a property bubble in Berlin had burst, and the nightlife culture that had started after the fall of the wall in 1989, and peaked with clubs like Tresor and E-Werk, had collapsed in on itself. Berghain was symbolic of a second wave of post-reunification Berlin club life, one populated by a pan-European jet set who took advantage of open borders and cheap easyJet and Ryanair flights.

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It had taught people like us the possibility of a certain twenty-four-hour style of partying, an approach to drug-taking, and an unwritten code of queer social and sexual ethics that had since become the basis of a shared understanding for a global scene. By the time of what I considered my first real experiences in Berghain, when I was staying in Berlin in 2015, the club had become both a symbol of the post-reunification Berlin of artistic and sexual freedom and a barometer of the rising rents and gentrification that threatened to homogenize the city into one like any other in Europe, and Berghain into a place for exchange students to put on S&M costumes and take ecstasy. Berghain, like Berlin itself, had to struggle with its success and popularity, and what protected it was no longer the shared alienation of a self-selecting clientele but the restrictive door policy that kept out drunk Brits in stag parties.

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Berghain was symbolic of a second wave of post-reunification Berlin club life, one populated by a pan-European jet set who took advantage of open borders and cheap easyJet and Ryanair flights. But to call Berghain a tourist destination would diminish something of what it stood for and what it offered, which was also a refuge for people from cities where public sex, all-night parties, and spacious real estate in which to dance had been outlawed or priced out of accessibility, including other cities in Europe. When it opened, Berghain was more of a gay club; as time went on it gained broader appeal for a wide range of people who needed a place to alter their brain chemistry, freely express their gender or sexuality, and listen to music that is best played extremely loud without the cops rolling in, laws regarding opening and closing times, and handsy or homophobic heterosexual men.

Berlin Now: The City After the Wall
by Peter Schneider and Sophie Schlondorff
Published 4 Aug 2014

Eventually, a dark colossus we assumed must be Berghain rose up to our right, floating in the sky like the enormous domino in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. When you go clubbing in Paris or New York, you expect and encounter urban density, traffic jams, honking horns, boisterous groups of people, excited chattering. Berghain sits there like a dark castle on an island. To reach it, you have to swim across a black ocean. In June, we trudged past sumac shrubs, the vegetation of Berlin’s ruins, doing our best to avoid the many puddles left behind by the soggy summer. Berghain is an offshoot of the techno club Ostgut, which closed in 2003.

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But the main point of the procedure is probably just to create a barrier that separates the inner temple of Berghain from the outside world. Visitors must pass a test before being granted admission to the mysterious, dark cement mountain—a test for which they cannot prepare. That’s all it takes for this place—a composite of the names of two Berlin neighborhoods, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain—to assume a mythical quality. Anyone standing at the threshold of Berghain can’t help but think of Kafka’s castle, to which poor K. was denied access—also entirely without justification, as it happens. “You don’t really look like someone who goes to Berghain every other day,” Sven Marquardt told my companion as he subjected her to his visual test.

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And the club operators are right, of course: no one under thirty who comes to Berlin is interested in the Philharmonic or Museum Island. They’re interested in the clubs, and the clubs is where they go. An article in The New York Times in 2009 touted Berghain as the best club in the world. There probably isn’t another famous club out there located in such absurd surroundings. Berghain opens at midnight and can be reached only by S-Bahn—that said, the S-Bahn runs all night long. The building is in the middle of a wasteland; in the neon-lit sky behind it, only a few abandoned industrial buildings, a car fleet, an Aldi discount store, and the distant O2 World temple of entertainment vie for attention.

Berlin Like a Local
by Dk Eyewitness

Housed in the battery room of a defunct power plant, OHM is an intimate haunt for purists, where transcendence is found through avant-garde electronic music. g Cool Clubs g Contents Google Map BERGHAIN Map 2; Am Wriezener Bahnhof, Friedrichshain; ///period.talkers.crystals; www.berghain.berlin If there’s any club that people are willing to queue three hours for only to risk a stern head shake at the door, it’s Berghain. A badass techno temple in a former power station, Berlin’s most illustrious nightclub has just as much a reputation for its world-class DJs and sound system as its notorious door policy.

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Rifle through VINYL-A-GOGO Krossener Strasse 24, Friedrichshain; www.vinyl-a-gogo.de ///wept.croak.headset Hip hop, jazz, African funk: it’s all here. Find a new favourite jam at this second-hand gem. Karl-Marx-Allee ///trader.salutes.lake Berghain ///period.talkers.crystals Expressing yourself through clothing plays a big part in whether you get into notorious club Berghain. So does wearing black. g Contents ARTS & CULTURE A haven for creatives, Berlin is shaped by artistic expression. While the past can never be forgotten, locals write new stories with vibrant street art and radical theatre.

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ARTS & CULTURE There are a handful of free museums and galleries in Berlin, but most change around €8–12 – it’s these places that it’s worth booking ahead for (they’re rightly popular). Got tickets to the philharmonic or theatre? Smart casual is the way to go – just swerve the trainers you wore to Berghain last weekend. NIGHTLIFE Berliners don’t rush their nights out – with weekend-long parties, there’s no need to. Most clubs open at midnight on Friday and Saturday, but nobody turns up then; instead, people get together for dinner and drinks, then head to a club at 3am. Better yet, getting some sleep and going after breakfast is a Sunday ritual.

Lonely Planet Pocket Berlin
by Lonely Planet and Andrea Schulte-Peevers
Published 31 Aug 2012

(Wühlischstrasse 43; from 8pm Mon-Sat; U-/S-Bahn Warschauer Strasse; U-Bahn Samariterstrasse; M10, M13) 11 Strandgut Berlin Beach Bar Offline map Google map Drink a toast to Berlin at the chicest of the East Side Gallery sandpits where the beer is cold, the cocktails strong, the crowd grown-up and the DJs tops. (www.strandgut-berlin.com, in German; Mühlenstrasse 61-63; from 10am; S-Bahn Ostbahnhof; ) 12 Berghain/Panorama Bar Club Offline map Google map Only world-class spinmasters heat up this hedonistic bass-junkie hellhole inside a labyrinthine ex-power plant. Upstairs, Panorama Bar pulsates with house and electro, while the big factory floor below (Berghain) is gay-leaning and hard techno. Strict door and no cameras. (www.berghain.de; Am Wriezener Bahnhof; Fri & Sat; S-Bahn Ostbahnhof) 13 ://about blank Club Offline map Google map This club collective also organises cultural and political events that often segue into long, intense club nights when talented DJs feed a diverse bunch of revellers with danceworthy electronic gruel.

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Wrap up the night with a dedicated dance-a-thon in a top techno club. Top Sights East Side Gallery (Click here) Best of Berlin Eating Schwarzer Hahn (Click here) Bars Strandgut Berlin (Click here) Süss War Gestern (Click here) Clubs Berghain/Panorama Bar (Click here) ://about blank (Click here) Live Music Astra Kulturhaus (Click here) Gay & Lesbian Zum Schmutzigen Hobby (Click here) Himmelreich (Click here) Berghain (Click here) Getting There S-Bahn Warschauer Strasse (S3, S5, S7/75, S9) is the most central stop. Tram The M13 goes from Warschauer Strasse station to Boxhagener Platz. U-Bahn Frankfurter Tor (U5) and Warschauer Strasse (U1) are your best bets.

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Top Tips › Check Resident Advisor (RA; www.residentadvisor.net) for the latest party line-up. › To determine which club best matches your style, go to www.clubmatcher.de. › Scan RA, flyers, posters and local listings magazines for new openings, one-off raves, festivals, label releases and other parties. Best Electro Berghain Big bad Berghain is still Berlin’s quintessential dancing den of iniquity. (Click here) Watergate Two floors, a stunning riverside setting and plenty of eye candy. (Click here) ://about blank Wild, trashy, unpredictable and with great garden for daytime chilling. (Click here) K-TV The exterior screams ‘dive’ but once inside you’ll know why it’s perennially packed.

Berlin
by Andrea Schulte-Peevers
Published 20 Oct 2010

BASSY COWBOY CLUB Map 281 8323; www.bassy-club.de, in German; Schönhauser Allee 176a, Prenzlauer Berg; from 10pm Fri & Sat; Senefelderplatz Most punters here have a post-Woodstock birth date but are riding the retro wave of pre-1969 surf music, honest-to-goodness rock ‘n’ roll and twangy country classics. Red lights, stuffed animals and bizarregewgaws give the cellar club the slowly disappearing trashy charm of the 1990s. On Thursdays, drag queen Chantal brings her House of Shame gay party to this den of darkness. BERGHAIN/PANORAMA BAR Map www.berghain.de, in German; Am Wriezener Bahnhof, Friedrichshain; cover €12; from midnight Fri & Sat; Ostbahnhof Metropolis meets Blade Runner at Berlin’s legendary electro club that heats up the raw industrial labyrinth of an ex–power plant pretty much nonstop from midnight Friday to mid-morning Monday.

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TRESOR Map www.tresorberlin.de; Köpenicker Strasse 70, Mitte; cover €10-15; from 11pm Wed, Fri & Sat; Heinrich-Heine-Strasse The original Tresor made Berlin the techno capital of the world. So when Dimitri Hegemann opened Tresor 2.0 in a former power station, it seemed that Berghain/Panorama Bar was finally to get some competition. The sound is great and so is the space – a dark industrial maze – and even the namesake vault has found a new home. But the lines at Berghain aren’t getting any shorter… WATERGATE Map 6128 0394; www.water-gate.de; Falckensteinstrasse 49a; cover €10-12; Fri & Sat; Schlesisches Tor A cornerstone of just about everyone’s weekend, Watergate has a fantastic location with a lounge overlooking the Spree and a floating terrace actually on it, opposite the colour-changing logo of the Universal Music building.

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Return to beginning of chapter NIGHTLIFE CLUBBING ACKERKELLER Map 3646 1356; www.ackerkeller.de; Bergstrasse 68, Mitte; pub from 6pm Sun-Fri, parties from 9pm Tue, from 10pm Fri & Sat; Nordbahnhof, Rosenthaler Platz This snug and alternative lesbigay pub, run by a nonprofit group, spins into a party venue thrice weekly with rock, pop, electro and even Balkan beats keeping the dance floor grooving. Party themes include Busenfreundin (gals only), Clean Party (no booze, no drugs) and Morrisseylicious (mope rock). Best day is Tuesday. BERGHAIN Map www.berghain.de, in German; Am Wriezener Bahnhof, Friedrichshain; cover €12; Sat; Ostbahnhof Take off your shirt and head to this vast post-industrial techno-electro hellhole filled with studly queer bass junkies. With three floors of dark and hidden corners, including labyrinthine darkrooms, there’s plenty of space for mischief.

Pocket Berlin
by Andrea Schulte-Peevers
Published 15 Mar 2023

Thursday nights are invaded by drag-queen-hosted Chantals House of Shame (www.facebook.com/ChantalsHouseofShame). 6Berghain & Panorama Bar CLUB map Google map Berghain’s mystique, long lines and tough door are legendary. Only world-class spin-masters heat up this hedonistic bass-junkie hellhole inside a labyrinthine former power plant. Getting in means drifting off into a parallel universe pulsating with hard-edge techno on the big Berghain floor and bouncier house in the upstairs Panorama Bar. (www.berghain.berlin) 6Sisyphos CLUB map Google map An old dog-food factory about 2km southeast of S-Bahn station Ostkreuz turns into a hedonistic indoor-outdoor party village with a festival feeling and nonstop summertime weekend partying.

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Best Clubs Sisyphos Summer-only party village with Alice-in-Wonderland vibe. ://about blank Gritty and attitude-free techno hot spot with summer garden. Club der Visionäre Popular day-to-night canal-side venue with willows and tiny dance floor. Ritter Butzke Low-key but high-calibre electro club in a former factory. Berghain Enough said. Best Bars Hawker Bar & Kitchen Expertly prepared cocktails meet soundwave art and American comfort food. Bellboy Bar A parallel universe with 1920s flair and cocktails served in eccentric vessels. Truffle Pig Follow the pig tracks through a corner pub to this clandestine drinking den.

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The crowd skews younger, wilder and more alternative around Kottbusser Tor and along Oranienstrasse, where key venues like Roses stay open till sunrise and beyond. For a DIY subcultural vibe, head across the canal to Neukölln. Things are comparatively subdued in the bars and cafes along Mehringdamm. Friedrichshain is a de rigueur stop on the gay nightlife circuit thanks to clubs like Berghain, Suicide Circus, ://about blank and sex-perimental (and completely uncensored) Lab.oratory. Best Bars Heile Welt (www.facebook.com/heileweltbar) Stylish lounge good for chatting and mingling over cocktails. Zum Schmutzigen Hobby (www.facebook.com/zumschmutzigenhobby) Fabulously wacky party pen in a former fire station.

Pocket Rough Guide Berlin (Travel Guide eBook)
by Rough Guides
Published 16 Oct 2019

Set inside a nondescript concrete block, this is one of the city’s better underground clubs, with two main dancefloors, lots of nooks and crannies, and a garden where DJs spin in the summer. The dominant music policy is house and techno with occasional forays into related electronic genres plus live concerts. Berghain/Panoramabar Alamy Berghain/Panoramabar MAP Am Wriezener Bahnhof Ostbahnhof 030 29 36 02 10, berghain.de. Fri & Sat midnight–late. €12–18. A strong contender for best club in the city, if not the world, this former power station attracts techno fans from all over the globe for its fantastic sound system, purist music policy and awe-inspiring industrial interior.

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The city’s nightclubs not only stay open later than most (some don’t close for days) but also purvey some of the most cutting-edge house and techno around, attracting clubbers from around the globe who come to the city just to party the weekend away at heavyweight places like Berghain and Watergate. There’s a strong concentration of clubs in Friedrichshain and East Kreuzberg, particularly along the River Spree, which divides these two neighbourhoods. OUR FAVOURITES: Berghain, Clärchens Ballhaus, B-Flat. < Back to Introduction 15 THINGS NOT TO MISS It’s not possible to see everything that Berlin has to offer in one trip – and we don’t suggest you try. What follows is a selective taste of the city’s highlights, from eye-catching architecture to exceptional art.

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One of the most reliably fun nightspots in the city, the parties have an arty aesthetic and favour a house and disco soundtrack over the usual techno. Rosi's. Upbeat and oddball, a visit to Rosi's feels like crashing a house party – you can even chill out in the kitchen, or over a game of ping pong, in between sessions on the dancefloors, where indie, punk and electro pound. Berghain. It’s notoriously tough to get into, but if you can penetrate Berlin’s world-famous techno temple you’ll realise why it’s considered one of the best in the world. The Saturday night party runs until Monday morning. < Back to Itineraries Open spaces Although it’s known more for its urban thrills, the German capital is a surprisingly green city.

Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall
by Tim Mohr
Published 10 Sep 2018

At its best, partying can make people question normality—the normality they encounter beyond the doors of a place like About Blank, perhaps the normality they know in another city or another country altogether. 70 By far the most famous club in Berlin today is Berghain. Opinions of the place vary—to some, it’s been irrevocably sullied by coverage in American media outlets, or it’s lost its edge because of all the tourists who flock there to party. But Berghain was the largest and most easily identifiable institution at the moment when the world decided Berlin was the coolest city on earth, and it is still the gravitational center of the scene, allowing lots of other places to operate in the relative anonymity of its outer orbits. The building that now houses Berghain was originally part of the physical plant for a grand Stalinist residential development that runs east from Alexanderplatz out to Frankfurter Tor.

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What’s most striking about Karl-Marx-Allee is its scale: at ninety meters wide and two kilometers long, the avenue is comparable to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Tucked out of sight in what at the time was open land near the main East Berlin rail yards, the building that became Berghain originally provided steam to heat these showpiece housing blocks. The steam plant was abandoned in the 1980s. When Berghain opened, in December 2004, the space was left largely as the club owners found it, in keeping with Berlin’s makeshift style. The main dance floor is in the old turbine room, where concrete columns support a sixty-foot-high ceiling. The rest of the venue remains mostly undecorated, a disorienting industrial maze that provides secret spaces where anything goes, a dark tangle of social, sexual, and musical pleasures.

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The rest of the venue remains mostly undecorated, a disorienting industrial maze that provides secret spaces where anything goes, a dark tangle of social, sexual, and musical pleasures. In a club where photography is strictly forbidden and the staff consciously avoid the media, the most familiar aspect of Berghain isn’t the dark, industrial interior or even the Socialist-Bauhaus exterior of the old power plant; it is the bulldog-like glower of Sven Marquardt. Sven is Berghain’s Türsteher, which could be translated as “bouncer,” but in a scene where there is virtually no violence it really means something else. Sven is the public face of the club—a bearded face with tattoos of barbed wire and thorns snaking around his left eye and steel rings bristling from his lips and nose.

The Passenger: Berlin
by The Passenger
Published 8 Jun 2021

Dress codes – Berliners use the English term but write it as a single word, ‘dresscodes’ – are different here from the rest of Germany; Berlin is distinguished by higher levels of tolerance, but because the rules are less sharply defined it can be difficult to adhere to them. A good example is the Berghain techno club, which officially has no dress code. Look for a recipe for guaranteed admission to the club and all you’ll find are details of what will guarantee that you get turned away. It’s said that the wrong outfit will cause the dreaded bouncer-in-chief Sven Marquardt to refuse entry, and attempting to discuss the matter with the comprehensively tattooed and pierced ex-punk from East Germany is not advised.

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Floating bars on the Flutgraben with the legendary Club der Visionäre easily recognisable. Concert posters in Alexanderplatz. The entrance to Klunkerkranich, the bar on the roof of the Neukölln Arcaden shopping centre. Live music during the Sunday flea market at the Mauerpark. ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’ – queuing to get into Berghain. Ellen heard about her city’s new coordinates while she was in Fischlabor. There she met people who showed her the way to a wartime bunker, the ruins of a department store and a substation at the former Reich Aviation Ministry. Her heart was in her mouth as she walked down a flight of stairs, going further below ground, into the dark, towards a dull thudding that slowly grew louder until a door opened and strobe flashes flickered in her face while strawberry-scented fog filled her lungs and the beat thrummed in her ears.

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During the GDR years it was used to store dried exotic fruits imported from Cuba, and by the 1990s it inevitably attracted people from the techno scene, always on the lookout for alternative, evocative locations. Here they found bass reverberation like nowhere else, and the sound was even harder and faster than at Tresor, becoming more like gabber or hardcore. Regulars at the legendary venue included Michael Teufele and Norbert Thormann, the future founders of Ostgut and Berghain, who organised gay parties there. After four years of illegal parties, in 1996 Bunker was closed down, to the dismay of many, and for years afterwards the Fuckparade (see the sidebar on page 41) terminated right in front of the bunker in protest. Since 2003 the former air-raid shelter has been owned by the entrepreneur and art collector Christian Boros, who has built himself a penthouse there with a rooftop swimming pool.

The Rough Guide to Berlin
by Rough Guides

And remember headline acts often start at noon on Sunday – so there’s no rush to get here early; about 5am or even after lunch is ideal, when the wait to get in generally drops below an hour. Entry €14–18. Fri & Sat midnight until late (usually late afternoon the next day). Kantine am Berghain Rüdersdorfer Str. 70 030 29 36 02 10, berghain.de; Ostbahnhof; map. A friendly atmosphere and tiny but jolly summer beer garden mean that this venue is far more than simply a haven for people rejected by the neighbouring Berghain – to which its music often compares but also diverges from. Entry €5–10. Opening times vary. Kater Blau Holzmarktstr. 25 30 510 521 34, katerblau.de; /Jannowitzbrücke; map. The latest incarnation of previous legendary clubs Bar 25 and Kater Holzig, the “Blue Cat“ is a continuation of the same ethic: hedonistic partying in a DIY environment.

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TOP 5 TECHNO CLUBS Berghain Kater Blau Sisyphos Tresor Watergate FRIEDRICHSHAIN ://about blank Markgrafendamm 24c aboutparty.net; Ostkreuz; map. Set inside a nondescript concrete block a short walk from Ostrkeuz S-Bahnhof, this is one of the city’s better underground clubs. With two main dancefloors, lots of nooks and crannies, and a garden where DJs spin in the summer, the dominant music policy is house and techno with occasional forays into related electronic genres plus live concerts. Entry €10–14. Club Thurs–Sun midnight till late; from 7pm for midweek live shows. Berghain Am Wriezener Bahnhof 030 29 36 02 10, berghain.de; Ostbahnhof; map.

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All highlights have a reference to take you straight into the Guide, where you can find out more. 1 Fernsehturm Love or loathe its concrete curves, this incongruous Eastern Bloc relic has the best views over the city. 2 East Side Gallery The Berlin Wall was always famous for its graffiti, and now, on the longest remaining stretch, vivid murals record its demise. 3 Berliner Weisse Few would argue that this brew is one of the world’s best, but since you order it in either green or red it must be one of the most unusual. 4 The Reichstag Perhaps Germany’s most famous landmark, this muscular Neoclassical building now has a magnificent glass cupola you can walk round for free – though be sure to book in advance. 5 Markets Berlin loves its markets, with superb food markets in each district and several weekly flea markets. 6 Hackesche Höfe A series of elegant early twentieth-century courtyards filled with stylish cafés and boutiques. 7 Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer The most significant completely preserved section of the Wall forms part of a memorial to all the suffering caused by Berlin’s division. 8 Brandenburger Tor Portal to Berlin’s most impressive street and witness to several historical episodes: Napoleon stole the Quadriga; the Soviets built the Berlin Wall around it, then the world watched as the Wall tumbled down beside it. 9 Sanssouci The prettiest of a series of fine Potsdam palaces that lie within easy reach of Berlin. 10 Currywurst Berlin snack bars serve every type of German sausage, but be sure to try Currywurst, a local speciality. 11 Nightlife You can party all night in Berlin’s bewildering array of bars and clubs; world-famous Berghain has been called the best club on the planet. 12 Weekend brunch Weekend brunch buffets are Berlin’s best hangover cure. 13 Tiergarten Full of attractive lakes and wooded nooks, and just steps away from many headline attractions. 14 Sony Center Spectacular corporate architecture along the former Wall death strip. 15 Museum Island This cluster of world-class museums includes the exquisite Neues Museum, with its Ancient Egyptian treasures. 16 KaDeWe A gigantic, classy department store with an excellent gourmet food court. 17 Jüdisches Museum The stunning Libeskind-designed building is a worthy home for this affecting museum

Germany Travel Guide
by Lonely Planet

Hekticket (www.hekticket.de) sells half-price tickets after 2pm for select same-day performances online and in person at its outlets near Zoo Station and Alexanderplatz. For indie concerts and events, the best agency is Koka 36 (6110 1313; www.koka36.de; Oranienstrasse 29; 9am-7pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat; Kottbusser Tor) in Kreuzberg. Clubbing Berghain/Panorama Bar CLUB Offline map Google map (www.berghain.de; Am Wriezener Bahnhof; Sat; Ostbahnhof) Only world-class spinmeisters heat up this hedonistic bass-junkie hellhole inside a labyrinthine former power plant. Upstairs, Panorama Bar pulsates with house and electro, while the big factory floor below is gay-leaning and hard techno.

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And don’t even think about leaving without trying a Currywurst, the ultimate Berlin snack. Top 5: How to Feel Like a Berliner »Spend an afternoon wandering among the cute shops and cafes of the Bergmannkiez (Click here) in Kreuzberg. »Hire a bike and ride along the smooth tarmac of defunct Tempelhof (Click here) airport. »Get up at 6am to go clubbing at Berghain/Panorama Bar (Click here). »Have drinks or a meal at Defne (Click here), Horváth (Click here), Cafe Jacques (Click here) or any of the other eateries along the idyllic Landwehr canal. »See the Museumsinsel collections (Click here) without the crowds on Thursday, when all five stay open as late as 10pm.

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Kreuzberg & Friedrichshain Sights 1 Bergmannkiez C5 2 Berlinische Galerie C3 3 Café Sybille F1 4 Checkpoint Charlie C2 5 Computerspielemuseum G1 6 Deutsches Technikmuseum B4 7 East Side Gallery G3 8Gedenkstätte Deutscher WiderstandA2 9 Gemäldegalerie A2 10 Jüdisches Museum C3 11 Karl-Marx-Allee F1 12 Kulturforum A2 13 Kunstgewerbemuseum A2 14 Kupferstichkabinett A2 Legoland Discovery Centre (see 12) 15 Martin-Gropius-Bau B3 16 Mauermuseum C2 Museum für Film und Fernsehen (see 12) 17Musikinstrumenten-Museum A2 18 Neue Nationalgalerie A2 19 Panoramapunkt B2 20 Schwules Museum C5 Sony Center (see 12) 21Stasi AusstellungC2 22 Tempelhofer Park C6 23 Topographie des Terrors B3 Activities, Courses & Tours 24 Badeschiff H4 25 Liquidrom B3 26 Trabi Safari B2 Sleeping 27 Eastern Comfort Hostelboat G3 28 Grand Hostel B4 29Hotel 26 G2 30 Hotel Johann C4 31 Hotel Riehmers Hofgarten B4 Hotel Sarotti-Höfe (see 20) 32 Hüttenpalast E5 33 ÏMA Loft Apartments D3 34 Mandala Hotel B2 35Michelberger HotelG3 36 nhow G3 37 Ostel Hostel F2 38 Raise a Smile Hostel G1 39Scandic Berlin Potsdamer Platz B3 Eating 40 Bar Raval F4 41 Burgermeister G3 42Cafe JacquesE4 43 Curry 36 B4 44 Defne E4 Facil (see 34) 45 Freischwimmer G4 46 Henne E3 47 Horváth E4 48 Il Casolare E4 49Ishin – Charlottenstrasse C2 50Lavanderia VecchiaE6 51 Lemon Leaf H2 52 Max und Moritz E3 Qiu (see 34) Restaurant Gropius (see 15) 53 Restaurant Tim Raue C2 54 Sauvage F5 Schwarzer Hahn (see 55) 55 Spätzle & Knödel H2 56 Spindler & Klatt F3 57 Tomasa B5 58 Volt F4 Drinking 59 Ankerklause E4 60 CSA G1 61 Hops & Barley H2 62 Kuschlowski F5 63 Luzia E3 64 Madame Claude F4 65 Möbel Olfe E3 66 Monarch Bar E3 67Monster Ronson’s Ichiban Karaoke G3 68 Oststrand F3 69 Place Clichy H2 Roses (see 76) SchwuZ (see 20) 70 Solar B3 71 Süss War Gestern H3 72 Würgeengel E3 73 Zum Schmutzigen Hobby H3 Entertainment Arsenal (see 12) 74 Astra Kulturhaus G2 Babylon (see 72) 75 Berghain/Panorama Bar G2 76 Café Fatal E3 Cinestar Original (see 12) 77 Club der Visionäre G4 78 English Theatre Berlin C5 Lab.oratory (see 75) 79 Lido G4 80 Magnet Club G3 SO36 (see 76) Suicide Circus (see 74) Watergate (see 80) Shopping 81Flohmarkt am Boxhagener Platz H2 82 Frau Tonis Parfum C2 Hard Wax (see 47) Nowkoelln Flowmarkt (see 42) 83 Overkill G3 84 Potsdamer Platz Arkaden B2 Türkenmarkt (see 59) All that hipness has spilled across the Landwehr canal to the northern reaches of Neukölln.

Central Europe Travel Guide
by Lonely Planet

Nightclubs Few clubs open before 11pm (and if you arrive before midnight you may be dancing solo) but they stay open well into the early hours – usually sunrise at least. As the scene changes so rapidly, it’s always wise to double-check listings magazines or ask locals. Admission charges, when they apply, range from €5 to €20. Berghain/Panoramabar CLUB ( www.berghain.de; Wrienzer Bahnhof; from midnight Thu-Sat; Ostbahnhof) If you only make it to one club in Berlin, this is where you need to go. The upper floor (Panoramabar, aka ‘Pannebar’) is all about house; the big factory hall below (Berghain) goes hard-core techno. Expect cutting-edge sounds in industrial surrounds. Kaffee Burger CLUB ( 2804 6495; www.kaffeeburger.de; Torstrasse 60; Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz) The original GDR ’60s wallpaper is part of the decor at this arty bar, club and music venue in Mitte.

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Start the next day at the East Side Gallery remnant of the Berlin Wall, before heading to Checkpoint Charlie and the nearby Jewish Museum . Take the U-Bahn to Kurfürstendamm and catch scenic bus 100 back to the Fernsehturm . Later, explore Kreuzberg nightlife around Kottbusser Tor and go clubbing – Berghain/Panoramabar is best if you are short on time. Alternatively, head for the Berliner Ensemble . Orientation Standing at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, on the former East-West divide, you can see many major sights. Looking east, your eye follows Unter den Linden past the Museumsinsel (Museum Island) in the Spree River, to the needle-shaped Fernsehturm (TV tower) at Alexanderplatz.

Germany
by Andrea Schulte-Peevers
Published 17 Oct 2010

Schlesische Strasse, Kreuzberg (Map) Freestyle street where you could kick off with beer at Freischwimmer, catch a band at Dot Club (opposite) and dance till sunrise at Watergate (below) or Club der Visionäre (below). Simon-Dach-Strasse, Friedrichshain (Map) If you need a cheap buzz, head to this well-trodden booze strip. Kptn A Müller is great for escaping the cookie-cutter cocktail lounges. * * * Return to beginning of chapter Nightclubs Berghain/Panorama Bar (Map; www.berghain.de; Am Wriezener Bahnhof, Friedrichshain; Fri & Sat) According to Britain’s DJ Mag this is the best club in the world and we have no problem seconding the hype. Only the best techno and house vinyl masters heat up this hedonistic bass junkie haven inside a labyrinthine ex–power plant.

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Monika Kruse (b 1971), another of the DJanes, was born in Berlin and grew up in Munich. Her Changes of Perception album from 2008 was rated one of the best that year. André Galluzzi, who comes from Frankfurt am Main, has been a resident at the Cocoon Club, the location cofounded by Sven Väth in Frankfurt. Good places in Berlin to catch some of these are Berghain, where Galluzzi has recently been resident, and Watergate. Also look for gigs by musicians/DJs such as the trance pioneer Paul van Dyk (www.paulvandyk.de, in German) or DJ Tanith (www.tanith.org, in German). The rap scene in Germany is never short of a protagonist and a tough plot – Germany has lots of rappers, some of dubious quality and politics.

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Tartane and its show kitchen are a bit of both and fulfil most of my expectations. The quirky dining section upstairs reminds me of the elevator scene in Being John Malkovich… I like to shake my booty at Tape Club, a club in the new emerging industrial area of Berlin. If I’m in the mood for a more thrilling and crazy night out, I head for legendary hot spot Berghain/Panorama Bar. The doorman will tell you if you fit in… Schlesische Strasse (Map) is another tip for rather new experiences. Different kinds of alternative bars, beer gardens, clubs, shops à la Berliner Style attract a laid-back scene. I’m especially fond of the Club der Visionäre in the summer, because I can chill out on the river pontoons outdoors and soak up the real living culture.

Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World
by Sinclair McKay
Published 22 Aug 2022

Undemolished sections of the wall can also be found at St Hedwig’s cemetery; an almost mile-long section along the banks of the Spree (where the Wall’s concrete was painted over by 118 contributing artists, forming the East Side Gallery); sentinel-like segments at the station at Potsdamer Platz; and, of course, a section at Checkpoint Charlie, the crossing point immortalized in the Western imagination in a hundred procedural spy films. But the modern city is also a palimpsest; and having seen so much erased in 1945, and again in the wake of the fall of communism in 1989, there seems to be an instinct to preserve what remains, with echoes of history to be seen within the brick and stone. There is a very famous nightclub called Berghain (one of a great many famous nightclubs to be found in the city) in the Friedrichshain district: it is situated within one of the city’s former mighty power stations, which was built by the East German government in 1953 in the Stalinist neoclassical style and which was decommissioned in the 1980s.

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See also individual artist and artwork name artistic spirit Aryanism Aryanization (forced expulsion of Jewish people from professions/acquisition of property) Attlee, Clement Auschwitz Austria, Anschluss (union) with Nazi Germany (1938) Axel Springer building Axmann, Artur Bach, Johann Sebastian Baeck, Rabbi Leo Barczatis, Elli Basemann, Horst Bauhaus institute Bavarian Quarter Beatles Becher, Johannes R. Beecham, Thomas beer Beer Hall Putsch (1923) Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven Salle Běhounek, Kamil Behrens, Peter Belling, Rudolf Benjamin, Walter Berger, Erna Berghain (nightclub) Beria, Lavrenty Berlin Airlift (Operation Vittles) (1948–9) Berlin, Battle of (1945); Allies, Berliners’ belief in decency of and; Army Group Vistula and defence of Berlin; artillery bombardment of Berlin, Soviet; artwork, evacuation of (1945); burials, mass; casualty numbers; children, Red Army treatment of small; children, use of German in see also Hitler Youth; civilian casualty numbers; Defence Area HQ, Hohenzollerndamm; evacuation of citizens; exhaustion and; families return to Berlin during; flak towers; food shortages see food; forced labour and see forced labour; German plan to stop Red Army; Hitler Youth and see Hitler Youth; industrial and cultural wealth, Red Army strips Berlin of; Krebs/Burgdorf suicide; Kroll Opera House, fighting around; Marzahn occupied by Red Army (21 April 1945); miracle weapons, German hope for arrival of; Moltke Bridge, Red Army crosses; Niederwallstrasse, fighting on; nuclear material/scientists within Berlin, race to discover; Panzerfaust, use of; prisoners-of-war see prisoners-of-war; rape, Red Army use of; Red Army as first Allied force to enter Berlin, Allied decision designates; Red Army numbers see Red Army; Red Army units and see Red Army; Red Army occupation of Berlin prior to arrival of Allied forces; refugees in Berlin; Reichstag, Red Army fight for and capture of; Savignyplatz meeting between Allied forces signifies envelopment of Berlin; Seelow Heights, Battle of (1945); shelters, air-raid (bunker basements, cellars) see shelters, air-raid; Soviet attack on Berlin launched (16 April 1945); SS and see SS; State Opera House, fighting in; surrender of German forces; tunnels, use of; Volkssturm and see Volkssturm; Wehrmacht and see Wehrmacht; Werewolf movement and; women/girls and see women/girls Berlin Blockade (1948–9) Berliner Ensemble Berliner Schloss Berliner Sportpalast Berliner Tageblatt Berlin Institute of Technology Berlin Military Academy Berlin Olympics (1936) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Berlin State Opera Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (film) Berlin Technical University Berlin Wall: border guards on; Death Strip; erection of (1961); fall of (1989); graffiti on; mutation, tendency towards; nuclear security/geopolitical structure of Europe and; preserved sections; refined (mid to late 1970s); rock ’n’ roll music and; tunnels under; victims of/attempts to cross Berlin Zoological Garden; flak tower Bernauer Strasse Berzarin, General Nikolai Bevin, Ernest Bialek, Robert Binger Strasse Bismarck, Gottfried Bismarck, Otto von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Gottfried Graf von black market Blake, George block wardens ‘Blood Red Roses’ Bloom, Fo Blue Angel, The (film) boarding houses Bohr, Niels Bolsheviks bombing raids, Second World War; Allied bombing raids, start of large-scale (1943); Allied decency, Berliners’ belief in and; Allied ruthlessness, indicative of; allotment colonies and; American daylight raids; apartments damaged or destroyed in, number of; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and; Berlin Zoological Garden and; British night-time raids; bunkers see bunkers casualty numbers; cinema and; firestorms; grand houses/aristocracy and; homelessness and; incendiaries; Karstadt department store and; Kroll Opera House and; laboratories and; Neue Synagoge and; air-raid see shelters, air-raid; Siemensstadt; sirens, air-raid; Soviet; Tiergarten park and; U-Bahn stations and; water mains and Borchard, Leo Bormann, Martin Born, Max Borsig Palace Bose, Herbert von Boveri, Margret Bradley, General Omar Brandenburg Gate Brandenburg Tor Brandin, Ruth Brandt, Karl Brandt, Willy Brauchitsch, Manfred von Braun, Eva Braun, Magnus von Braun, Wernher von Brecht, Bertolt; Die Dreigroschenoper; Mother Courage and Her Children breweries British general election (1945) British sector/occupation zone (1945–9): Berlin Blockade and; British forces arrive in (1945); Fragebogen and; location of; military tattoo, British army (1947); Oliver Twist screening in, Jewish community protests against; property requisitioning in; refugees pass through in order to reach US zone; The Festival of Elizabethan England held in (1948); ‘tri-zone’ creation (1948) and; Wiedergutmachung (reparation) policy in Brocksieper, Fritz Brothels brutalism Buchenwald Budapester Strasse Bund deutsch-jüdischer Jugend Bundestag Burgdorf, General Wilhelm Burger, Hanuš Burianek, Johann Byrnes, James F.

Edinburgh Like a Local: By the People Who Call It Home
by Dk Eyewitness
Published 28 Sep 2021

Map 4; 4 Anderson Place, Leith; ///raced.atomic.passes; www.biscuitfactory.co.uk F O R A C R O W D A maze of exposed brickwork, poured concrete and iron beams, this Live and loud at Leith Arches former biscuit factory is probably the closest you’ll get to a bit of Berlin Thanks to old pals Carmen Allison and in Edinburgh. Okay, so it might not be in the same league as Berghain, Donna Howden, this once derelict space is now one of the city’s coolest hangouts. but catch a club night here and you’re in for a treat; Mike Skinner and Bring your mates and mingle with artists, the Blessed Madonna are among the many esteemed BF DJ alumni. musicians and lovely Leithy folk. » Don’t leave without enjoying a cheeky tipple beneath the festoon lights in the outdoor lane bar.

Black Pill: How I Witnessed the Darkest Corners of the Internet Come to Life, Poison Society, and Capture American Politics
by Elle Reeve
Published 9 Jul 2024

If you were Black, you were attacked for being Black; if you were a woman, you were attacked for being a woman; if you were a Black woman, you were told that in the good old days a bunch of them could have raped you and left you for dead. I experienced it another way, as a girl on the dance floor at Incel Berghain. As we drove to the park in the hot van, I checked Cantwell’s website. He’d written that he was doing an “exclusive” interview with a reporter. Then he gave the location of our interview to subscribers to his podcast’s newsletter—for which anyone could sign up for five dollars. For all his fear that I posed a security risk, Cantwell was the one who tipped off his location to antifa.