The Bahnwärter Thiel is a techno club, music venue and alternative

cultural center A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Africa * ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany. It is named after the novella "Bahnwärter Thiel" by German author

Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of Naturalism (literature), literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into h ...

Description

The venue consists of repurposed

intermodal containers An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, or a freight container, (or simply "container") is a large metal crate designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different mod ...

, a temporary pavilion formerly used by the

Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing the Städtische Galerie (English: Municipal Gallery) art museum in Munich's ''Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between ...

, as well as decommissioned subway cars. It hosts club nights and outdoor raves, lectures, exhibitions,

improvisational theatre Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv or impro in British English, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted, created spontaneously by the performers. In its ...

, concerts, and flea markets.

History

Origins and first sites

Daniel Hahn founded ''Bahnwärter-Kulturstätten'' in 2015, and Bahnwärter Thiel opened in the same year. The concept featured a withdrawn

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

''Schienenbus''

railbus A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar with an automotive engine. It shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels (2 axles) on a fixed base instead of on bogies. O ...

, repurposed as a culture venue on the grounds of the former "Viehhof" (Slaughterhouse) in Munich. The railbus was first used as part of the alternative

christmas market A Christmas market is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent. These markets originated in Germany, but are now held in many countries. Some in the U.S. have Phono-semantic matching, adapted ...

"Märchenbazar" in November 2015. In May 2016, the railbus was moved to the grounds of the

University of Television and Film Munich The University of Television and Film Munich (German: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, short: HFF Munich) is a publicly funded film school in Munich, Germany. The school was established in 1966 by decree of the Bavarian government. T ...

for summer 2016. It was moved back to the Viehhof area in October, where a wide and high structure of 54 shipping containers was built for sound- and weatherproofing. In May 2017, the railbus once again was moved to the University of Television and Film, this time being rebranded as "Minna Thiel", named after the wife of the protagonist of the novel "Bahnwärter Thiel" by

Viehbahnhof location

After a five-year lease-agreement was reached, the Bahnwärter Thiel venue permanently moved to the Viehhof in late 2017. The new location is on the former freight station of the Viehhof, the so-called Viehbahnhof, about 400 meters away from its previous location there. The concept for the new location includes ateliers, workspaces and workshops, as well as band practice rooms, part of which will be located in some of the repurposed containers. This location on the Viehhof area sparked a debate about

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

and spaces for subculture in Munich, as parts of the local

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

scene feared that they might lose the last space in Munich where spraying graffiti was allowed and legal. Hahn has stated that it was always intended to include graffiti on the project and also wants to integrate the scene in the decoration of the venue. A wooden wall with a length of was constructed as a designated space for graffiti. The construction was organized by Bahnwärter Thiel staff, parts of the graffiti scene, and the City of Munich. Artists feared that the wooden wall might be used to prevent sprayers from entering the premises. In May 2018, there was an arson attack on the venue, resulting in a wooden shed burning down. A withdrawn

Munich U-Bahn The Munich U-Bahn () is an Railway electrification system, electric rail Rapid transit, rapid transit network in Munich, Germany. The system began operation in 1971, and is operated by the municipally owned Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG; Mun ...

car was moved to the Bahnwärter Thiel in early 2018. Two more U-Bahn cars followed in October 2018. It is planned to use one of the cars as a cafeteria, and the other as a workspace. In May 2019 an old decommissioned

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

from 1967 that was found in

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

was brought to the Bahnwärter Thiel. It is planned to use the tram as a youth center and for holding art workshops.

Future development

The lease for the Viehhof area ends in 2022. The redevelopment of the Viehhof has already begun, with the construction of the new Münchner Volkstheater, which is scheduled to be completed in 2021. The city of Munich also plans to build apartments on parts of the area.

Reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' cited Bahnwärter Thiel as an example of hip night life spots in Munich "that could give Berlin a run for its money". At the ''Munich Nightlife Awards'', Bahnwärter Thiel was awarded the 3rd place in the category

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

/ electro in 2016, and the winner in the category ambience/scenery in 2017.

Associated Projects

Since 2018, the Bahnwärter Thiel crew also operates the party ship

Alte Utting The Alte Utting is a bar, nightclub and music venue in Munich. The decommissioned, land-bound passenger ship is placed on a railway bridge that crosses an inner-city arterial road, and is regarded as one of the most spectacular nightlife spots of ...

, a former passenger ship from the

Ammersee Ammersee (; English: Lake Ammer) is a '' Zungenbecken'' lake in Upper Bavaria, Germany, southwest of Munich between the towns of Herrsching and Dießen am Ammersee. With a surface area of approximately , it is the sixth largest lake in Germany ...

lake that is now crossing an inner-city arterial road on a railway bridge in Munich, and received a lot of media attention as well.

Gallery

Schlachthof Muenchen Luftbild 1962.jpg, Munich slaughterhouse in 1962 Bahnwärter Thiel nightclub.jpg, Repurposed intermodal containers at the Bahnwärter Thiel Bahnwärter Thiel Nightclub Munich Subway Floor 3.jpg, Outdoor area of Bahnwärter Thiel at a sunday afternoon Bahnwärter Thiel Nightclub Munich Mainfloor.jpg, Rave on the main floor of Bahnwärter Thiel Bahnwärter Thiel Sound System.jpg, Interior view of Bahnwärter Thiel Bahnwärter Thiel Nightclub Munich Railbus.jpg, Railbus of the Bahnwärter Thiel Minna Thiel Nightclub Munich.jpg, ''Minna Thiel'' in front of the University of Television and Film in May 2016

References

External links

* * {{Coord, display=title Nightclubs in Munich Electronic dance music venues Buildings and structures in Munich Music venues in Munich Culture in Munich