Berghain () is a

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany. It is named after its location near the border between

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...

and

Friedrichshain Friedrichshain () is a quarter (''Ortsteil'') of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany. From its creation in 1920 until 2001, it was a freestanding city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is adjacent to Mitte, Prenz ...

in Berlin, and is a short walk from

Berlin Ostbahnhof Berlin Ostbahnhof (German for Berlin East railway station) is a main line railway station in Berlin, Germany. It is located in the Friedrichshain quarter, now part of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, and has undergone several name changes in its ...

main line railway station.Panoramabar: Berlin's Underworld , XLR8R
Founded in 2004 by friends Norbert Thormann and Michael Teufele, it has since become one of the world's most famous clubs, and has been called the "world capital of

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

History

Thormann and Teufele became party promoters in the 1990s, hosting a male-only fetish club night called Snax, which launched in 1992 at

Bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...

. In 1999 they founded their first club, Ostgut, in a former railway repair depot in Friedrichshain. Unlike Snax, the club was open to the general public. According to

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

, Ostgut, "known for unique parties and boundless freedoms, sexual and otherwise, is considered to have paved the way for Berghain." Ostgut closed in January 2003, with the building slated for demolition and later replaced by a large indoor arena, the O₂ World Berlin (since 2015: Mercedes-Benz Arena). Berghain opened in 2004 as a reincarnation of Ostgut. The name "Berghain", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsKreuz''berg'' (formerly in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

) and Friedrichs''hain'' (formerly in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

), has been described as evocative of the club's "post-1989 identity." The literal meaning of the German word ''Berghain'' is "mountain grove." The club is located in a former

heating plant A heating plant, also called a physical plant, or steam plant, generates thermal energy in the form of steam for use in district heating applications. Unlike combined heat and power installations which produce thermal energy as a by-product ...

built in 1953 as part of the flagship post-war Stalinallee development and abandoned in the 1980s. The space was originally rented from the energy company

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company's name is Swedish for "waterfall", and ...

but has been owned outright by the club since 2011. The building has a cavernous main room with 18-meter ceilings and is dominated by steel and concrete. The design of the club's interior, as well as later interior and exterior expansions of the venue, were carried out by the Berlin design firm ''Studio Karhard''. In 2016, a German court officially designated Berghain a cultural institution, which allows the club to pay a reduced tax rate.

Nightclub

The club's main room is focused on techno, with a smaller upstairs space, Panorama Bar, featuring house. The basement holds a male-only establishment called "Lab.Oratory", which

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

described in 2014 as being "known as Berlin’s most extreme sex club." Berghain has a

Funktion-One Funktion-One is a British loudspeaker manufacturer based in Dorking, Surrey, England. The company was formed in 1992 by Tony Andrews and John Newsham. Widely known for their distinctive purple cabinets and white axehead drivers, Funktion-One sys ...

sound system on its main dance floor which, when it was installed in 2004, was one of the company's largest club installs. The Panorama Bar was upgraded in 2017 with a four-point line-array system with an additional six subwoofers from Studt Akustik. At the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Germany The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully containe ...

, in March 2020, Berghain closed along with all other nightclubs in Berlin. Over the summer, it hosted several sound art installations inside the building and the adjacent beer garden. In September 2020, the indoors club reopened as an art space, hosting an exhibition titled "Studio Berlin" featuring 115 Berlin-based artists including

Tacita Dean Tacita Charlotte Dean CBE, RA (born 1965) is a British / German visual artist who works primarily in film. She was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998, won the Hugo Boss Prize in 2006, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 2008. ...

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson ( is, Ólafur Elíasson; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's ...

and

Wolfgang Tillmans Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. Tillmans was the first photog ...

. After 19 months, in October 2021, Berghain resumed indoor dance club events, with patrons still required to either be vaccinated or to have recovered from COVID-19.

Culture

Berghain has become associated with

decadence The word decadence, which at first meant simply "decline" in an abstract sense, is now most often used to refer to a perceived decay in standards, morals, dignity, religious faith, honor, discipline, or skill at governing among the members of ...

and

hedonism Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...

. It is open continuously most weekends from Saturday night through late Monday morning. The club offers dark rooms dedicated to sexual activity, and media have frequently reported of guests openly indulging in sexual acts. In 2019

Frieze magazine ''frieze'' is a contemporary art magazine, published eight times a year from London. History ''frieze'' was founded in 1991 by Frieze Art Fair founders Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover with artist Tom Gidley. A Damien Hirst butterfly painting ...

observed that while in Berghain's early years, "the main room was mostly a space for gay men, ..now its queer palette is more mixed utthe club’s values remain the same: concealment, queerness and excess." The twice-yearly Snax Party is reserved for gay patrons. No photos are allowed inside the club, with patrons required to cover their smartphone cameras with a sticker. The policy was maintained in 2020 when the club temporarily converted into an art space for the "Studio Berlin" exhibition during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the toilets of the club there are no mirrors, so that guests are spared the "buzzkilling indignity of seeing their own faces after an epic partying session." A 2022 academic study described Berghain as a unique 'pharmacolibidinal constellation', where sexual orientations may become porous, and preexisting behaviors altered, owing to the environment. The club's door policy is notorious for being both strict and opaque, generating accusations of racism and frequent debate and speculation about how to get in. Head bouncer Sven Marquardt, who is also a photographer, is a minor celebrity in the techno scene.

Record label and booking agency

In 2005, Berghain's owners started a record label,

Ostgut Ton Ostgut Ton (also known as Ostgut Tonträger) was a German record label owned by the club Berghain in Berlin. Resident Advisor described it "a dominant force in dance music, beloved for its mix series and dozens of EPs, albums and compilations."ht ...

, conceived by former Ostgut resident DJ Nick Höppner after Ostgut's closure in 2003. Its first releases were by Berghain/Panorama Bar DJ residents such as Marcel Dettmann, Cassy and

Ben Klock Ben Klock (born 1972) is a German techno artist, DJ, and record label owner. He is resident at Berghain, a techno club in Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area an ...

. The label's music is mostly

tech house Tech house is a subgenre of house music that combines stylistic features of techno with house. The term ''tech house'' developed as a shorthand record store name for a category of electronic dance music that combined musical aspects of techno ...

Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mil ...

and

minimal techno Minimal techno is a subgenre of techno music. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition and understated development. Minimal techno is thought to have been originally developed in the early 1990s by Detro ...

. In 2007, Berghain collaborated with the

Berlin State Ballet The Berlin State Ballet (german: Staatsballett Berlin, links=no, italic=no) is the principal ballet company in the German capital of Berlin. It was created in 2004 through a merger of the separate ballet companies of the city's three opera house ...

to create ''Shut Up and Dance! Updated'', a ballet for five dancers that was performed at the club in late June and early July that year. The ballet's soundtrack, released on Ostgut Ton on May 29, 2007, is made up of five specially composed tracks by prominent minimal techno artists, such as Luciano,

Âme Âme is a German house/techno duo consisting of Kristian Beyer and . The duo started making tracks in 2001. Beyer and Wiedemann first met in 2000 in Beyer's record shop in their hometown of Karlsruhe. As they both liked Chicago house and Detroi ...

, Sleeparchive and

Luke Slater Luke Slater (born 12 June 1968, Reading, Berkshire, England) is an English electronic musician, DJ and record producer, who has concentrated on techno since the beginning of the 1990s. He achieved break through commercial success with his tra ...

(The 7th Plain). The soundtrack received some positive reviews, while the ballet was less well received. In October 2010, the label released a five-year anniversary compilation, ''Fünf'', for which field recordings from within the club were used. Nick Höppner explained that the idea had come from his collaborator

Emika Ema Jolly (born 8 January 1986), better known by her stage name Emika, is an English electronic musician of Czech origin (her mother is from Příbram) currently residing in Berlin. Her self-titled debut album was released in October 2011 via ...

on "a regular Sunday morning

t Berghain, where T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...

she noticed how everything in the building was resonating and vibrating and swinging and humming–she realized that there were a lot of sounds coming from the building itself. That led to the idea of doing field recordings within the building while it's not open to the public." In the same 2010 interview, Höppner stated that Ostgut Ton was turning down many recordings because there are "so many in-house artists", while the label at that time was selling more product than other labels, but not generating much profit. Ostgut Ton closed in December 2021, having been (according to

Resident Advisor ''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. It was established in 2001. ''RA''s editorial team provides news, musi ...

) "a dominant force in dance music, beloved for its mix series and dozens of EPs, albums and compilations" for 16 years.https://ra.co/news/77921 In 2021, ARTE Concerts produced a series of three videos at the Berghain and released it on YouTube. Around 2007, Berghain also launched its own booking agency Ostgut Booking, which among other artists represented Ben Klock, Steffi, and Marcel Dettmann. In October 2022, it was announced that Ostgut Booking (which at the time represented 28 acts and had eight employees) would be closing down at the end of the year.

Recognition

DJ Magazine's top 100 Clubs

Berghain first entered ''

DJ Magazine ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lat ...

's'' Top 100 Clubs list in 2008, ranking 20th, and reached the top position the next year.

Position by year

International Dance Music Awards The International Dance Music Awards or IDMAs is an annual awards ceremony held in Miami Beach, Florida, United States as a major part of the Winter Music Conference. The awards have been held every year since the conference's creation in 1985 ...

In popular culture

* In 2013, American pop star

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

hosted an event at Berghain promoting her techno-inspired album,

Artpop ''Artpop'' (stylized in all caps) is the third studio album by American singer Lady Gaga. It was released on November 6, 2013, by Streamline and Interscope Records. Gaga began planning the project in 2011, shortly after the launch of her second ...

* In the TV series ''

Sense8 ''Sense8'' (a play on the word '' sensate'' ) is an American science fiction drama streaming television series created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski for Netflix. The production companies behind ''Sense8'' included th ...

'' one of the characters, Riley Gunnarsdóttir, played by

Tuppence Middleton Tuppence Middleton (born 21 February 1987) is an English actress known for her performances in film, television and theatre. In 2010, she was nominated for the ''London Evening Standard'' Film Awards for Most Promising Newcomer. Middleton appea ...

, is admired for a recording of a DJ set she made in Berghain. * In 2016, American comedian

Conan O'Brien Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...

attempted to gain admission to Berghain while filming a travel episode of his television show Conan, but was denied and asked to leave due to the presence of his camera crew. * In 2017, the card game '' Bergnein'' was released, a satirical card game where the goal is to "Let the right people in, outshine your colleagues and win the game!" * A character in the 2021 film ''

The Matrix Resurrections ''The Matrix Resurrections'' is a 2021 American science fiction action film produced, co-written, and directed by Lana Wachowski, and being the first in ''Matrix'' franchise to be directed solely by Lana, without her sister, Lilly. It is the s ...

'', has a series of tattoos on his arm of the Berghain logo. * In the 2021 television series ''

Gossip Girl ''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six sea ...

'', Max Wolfe is said in the pilot episode to have visited Berghain. * In 2021,

DJ Mag ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lat ...

suspected that "a number of Berlin clubs have inspired Hitman III's new night time venue: Club Hölle", a virtual in-game nightclub, including "Berghain,

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

and Griessmüehle".

References

External links

Official website

Ostgut Ton official website

Ostgut Ton
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

Clubguideberlin about Berghain

BERGHAIN - Der Club in Berlin , Portrait & History
{{Authority control Nightclubs in Berlin Electronic dance music venues LGBT nightclubs 2004 establishments in Germany