Is Berlin in a 'club death' spiral?

Berlin's legendary club scene is struggling. Though some venues got a bump after long pandemic lockdowns, high inflation, rising rents and declining tourist numbers have seen queues dwindle across clubland in the capital.

Fabled dance venues generated €1.5 billion in revenue for the city in 2018, and Germany this year recognized Berlin techno clubs as UNESCO "intangible culture assets." 

Yet clubsterben, or club death, is becoming a persistent theme as several iconic venues close their doors.

Watergate, a pioneering electronic dance music club by the Spree River that opened in 2002, will say goodbye to Berlin this New Year's Eve. The announcement sent shockwaves through the industry after another stalwart venue, Wilde Renate, also said it will close in 2025 after failing to negotiate a new lease.

The latter is among several clubs that are also threatened by the extension of the A100 highway through Berlin.

It seemed like the party would never end when Watergate, and the music label of the same name, esablished itself as a techno and house music mecca in the mid 2000s Image: Enters/IMAGO

Long a hub for global DJs, Watergate can no longer afford top tier talent. It is also struggling to attract the party hordes that once flocked to its "water" dance floor perched on the river.

"The days when Berlin was flooded with club-loving visitors are over, at least for now, and the scene is fighting for survival," said the owners in an Instagram post.

They partly blamed "financial pressure" driven by "high rents, war, inflation, rising costs" for deciding not to renew their lease. 

But the Watergate founders, who developed the venue from the grass roots in the wake of legendary early clubs like Tresor, also pointed to a deeper problem.

Are Berlin clubs losing relevance?

"[A] change in the nightlife dynamics of the next club generation and a shift in the relevance of club culture in general," was also behind Watergate's choice to say farewell.

One reason for this fundamental shift is that Berlin's smaller independent clubs can no longer compete with the big festivals that draw young people by the tens of thousands to watch megastar DJs.

Compounded by broader economic stress, clubs could decline in the same way as Berlin's traditional corner pubs, or kneipen, Watergate co-founder Ulrich Wombacher told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper.

These local bars once numbered around 20,000 but now only some 500 are left, says the Berlin Hotel and Restaurant Association, with evictions and spiraling rents also being blamed.

'Notorious' property baron displacing clubs 

Like the kneipen, the labyrinthine Wilde Renate club, set in a former tenement on the opposite side of the Spree from Watergate, will also likely shut in late 2025 due to exorbitant rents and a failure to renew their lease.

The owners told club website Resident Advisor that their "notorious" landlord, property developer Gijora Padovicz — who since the 1990s has purchased swathes of apartment blocks in inner city Berlin — refused to cooperate despite "intensive efforts to find an extension to the contract or alternative solutions."

Padovicz is, coincidently, also the owner of the Watergate building in the fast-gentrifying Kreuzberg district . After he doubled the rent in the late 2010s, Wombacher said the Watergate owners refused to raise prices to cover the increase. The venue has been in a financial crisis ever since.   

Wilde Renate will shut after 18 years when its lease expires at the end of 2025 Image: dts-Agentur/picture alliance

Around 43% of Berlin club operators are affected by rising commercial rents, which further exacerbates the tense economic situation, according to Lutz Leichsenring, spokesperson for the Club Commission, which supports club culture in the capital. 

Writing in the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Leichsenring emphasized the need to regulate commercial rents for culturally important locations such as clubs and to guarantee affordable rents in the long term.

This guarantee can be made if Berlin clubs are recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites, and not just objects of "intangible cultural heritage" within Germany — something Berlin culture minister Joe Chialo also supports.

Club culture is 'transforming' rather than declining 

Another reason for the challenging times across Berlin's clubscape is the fact that young people of prime clubbing age spent their formative years shut out of clubs during the pandemic.

This youth "couldn't build a relationship with club culture," noted Marcel Weber, the chairman of the board of the Berlin Club Commission.

Coming of age in an era of economic stagnation and decline has further limited young people's ability to indulge in Berlin's kaleidoscopic nightlife.

Nonetheless, Weber believes that Berlin's clubs continue to "play a vital role in the city's economy and tourism."

Rave the Planet, for example, the latest incarnation of the storied Love Parade techno street party, is fast growing into a major global event.

Revellers attend the Rave The Planet techno parade near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in 2023Image: Fabrizio Bensch/REUTERS

A transient club culture that emerged from the abandoned wastes of former East Berlin has always been in flux, Weber added.  

"Berlin has always been a city of change, and the club scene is adapting to these changes," he said. "What we're observing is more of a transformation than a decline."

Retaining hope amid 'chaos'

Talk of clubsterben in Berlin is nothing new. In 2022, Berlin's world renowned techno club Berghain was threatening to shut its doors but has carried on — for now.

Other clubs like Griessmühle, a post-industrial dance complex set on a canal in the inner Neukölln district, was evicted in 2019 but later reopened as RSO in a former factory in distant but up-and-coming Schoneweide.

New venues are also opening in clubs that have shut down, notes Weber, including Maaya Berlin, formerly known as Haubentaucher, a hub for African and Afro-diasporic music, art and culture.  

Under the motto "Beyond Tomorrow: Remaining Hopeful in Chaos," Berlin's Club Commission is organizing the fifth edition of the Day of Club Culture on October 3-10, which included applications from 185 clubs and cultural collectives for up to €10,000 in funding.

With events happening across the city, the festival aims to "showcase Berlin's clubs and collectives as places of strength, hope and rethinking in challenging times."

Edited by: Tanya Ott