11 Iconic Berlin Venues

Berlin’s artistic scene has long been a vibrant one. Stretching back to the early 20th century, the city has been one of Europe’s most liberal cities. That’s down as much to venues as it is to the artists that perform in them: It’s hard to imagine, to take a current example, Marcel Dettmann without Berghain. What follows is a list of just a few of the iconic clubs, bars and basements that have contributed to the city’s musical landscape.

Zodiak Free Arts Lab
If you were looking for a spiritual birthplace of krautrock and the Berlin School, the short-lived Zodiak Free Arts Lab would be it. Founded by Conrad Schnitzler and Hans-Joachim Roedelius in the late ’60s, the Lab was based in a building owned by a theatre company. Once the performances were over for the night, acts like Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel played in the two performance areas underneath – one painted completely white, the other completely black. Roedelius, remembering his time at the Lab, once said, “We played to learn, to fail. We performed for the thrill of it, not for any kind of artistic merit. The audiences, mostly high on dope, were wildly enthusiastic.”

Zensor
During the late ’70s and early ’80s, Berlin had a number of venues where the burgeoning NDW scene began to coalesce. So while it’s hard to pick one place where the likes of Mania D and Einstürzende Neubauten were playing those first gigs, Zensor seems about as good as any. As Klaus Walter wrote in his guide to the genre earlier this month, “Zensor did it all: record shop, record label, shipping, distribution... The Zensor shop was a meeting point for a nucleus of like-minded artists.” It may not be the venue, but if you wanted to find out what was happening in Berlin at that time musically, there was no better place to start.

La Belle
As we’ve outlined this month in our survey of Berlin (and German) music history, G.I. discos had an enormous impact on the listening habits of the country. Disco and hip hop were often first aired in these clubs that catered to – and were often based – on US army bases throughout the country. One of the most famous G.I. discos is unfortunately remembered because of tragedy: Berlin’s La Belle was bombed in 1986, and led to America launching airstrikes against Libya. As G.I. Disco devotee Kalle Kuts told us earlier this month, “I never thought that an underground club in Berlin would lead to worldwide conflict.”

UFO
1988: The Wall still stands, but acid house has arrived. And if you wanted to hear it, the place best to go in West Berlin was undoubtedly UFO. It was here that Berlin DJ legends like Tanith, Jonzon, Rok, Dr. Motte and Kid Paul began their careers in earnest. The definition of dingy, at its first location you had to climb down a ladder to go to the basement room – its ceiling barely reaching above six feet high. As Tresor’s Dimitri Hegemann was one of the co-founders, it’s clear now that UFO was a beginning point for Berlin’s rich techno history.

Eimer
Considering the rich history of squatting in Berlin after the Wall fall down, it seems only right to include either Tacheles or Eimer in this list. Tacheles was perhaps better known for its art, so the nod goes to Eimer, which was founded by band members from Freygang Ichfunktion and Die Firma. Situated in Mitte, it’s a perfect example of the changing face of Berlin: Once home to members of the legendary UK crew Spiral Tribe, a hotel owned by EasyJet now occupies the space next door.

E-Werk
Techno in ’90s Berlin is often talked about club-wise in terms of Tresor, but E-Werk – located near Checkpoint Charlie – had an equally important impact. Like Tresor, E-Werk benefitted from its proximity to the Wall. Few people were living there at the time – and huge empty spaces were there for the taking. (E-Werk, as its name suggests, was a former electrical station.) As Alexis Waltz noted earlier this month in a piece about Ostgut on RBMA, E-Werk was one of the few clubs that built its reputation on local talents – DJ Disco, Jonzon, Paul Van Dyk and Woody. Its doormen were scrupulous in making sure the right balance of people got in, ensuring a mix that would make the party special, and its owners were ambitious, ready to give any idea a chance – most notably Chromapark, the first major exhibition of “techno art.”

WMF
The likely reason that Gerriet Schultz’s WMF is never talked about in the same breath as Tresor or Berghain is the exact thing that made it great: The club never stood in one place long enough to establish itself, both literally and figuratively. WMF took over a variety of buildings in its 20-year run, and preferred to celebrate all genres of electronic music rather than focusing too heavily on one. The reasoning behind all that moving could be found in its genesis: Formed in the basement of a squatted building, Schultz prized spontaneity above all else. Talking to de:bug in 2011 after the club had closed for the final time, he said, “The biggest problem was always to find the right location and do this open platform and the business at the same time. In the last years it was more paperwork... and that personal approach wasn’t there anymore.”

Royal Bunker
It’s hard to overstate the impact of Royal Bunker on the Berlin hip hop scene. When the rest of Germany’s rap hotspots were family- and chart-friendly, Marcus Staiger introduced a harder edge to proceedings via his night and label of the same name. As RBMA’s Anthony Obst wrote earlier this month, Royal Bunker “ranged from dusty boom bap to geo-terrorism, gory splatter tales and dada rap.” Artists like Kool Savas, Sido and Frauenarzt went on to successful careers in bigger venues and with bigger labels, but this butyric acid-soaked café was Berlin hip hop ground zero.

Maria am Ostbahnhof
Benjamin Biel arrived in Berlin in April 1990 in the heady months after the Wall came down. The next few months were dubbed “the summer of squatting,” and the anything-goes mentality is one that resonated with Biel – his club Maria am Ostbahnhof was one of most varied event spaces in the city over the course of its near two decade run. Techno was the centerpiece, but as Resident Advisor wrote in its eulogy for the club, it was the type of place where “one night featured veteran post-punk band The Fall, and Monolake headlined the next.” Maria closed for good in 2011, at the time due to impending construction of two hotels on the Spree-front property. Today, however, a club called Magdalena still runs in the same space.

Bar25
Berlin’s reputation as a city where you could club all weekend – Friday night through to Monday morning (and beyond) – is due in no small part to Bar25. It was the Spree-side venue where you could fill in the gaps in the mid- to late ’00s before you headed indoors at night once again to Berghain, Watergate or Weekend. It had arguably one of the worst soundsystems in the city, but no one seemed to care because there were swings, couches and circus-like performances on stages throughout the complex taking place at all hours of the day. One of the most twisted spots in the city, it was a one-of-a-kind atmosphere made all the more special by a door policy as strict (if not more) than Berghain.

Horst Krzbrg
The outspoken Johnnie Stieler was the man behind Horst Krzbrg, one of Berlin’s best clubs of recent vintage. The venue was at once forward-thinking and past-reverent. Some of the UK’s leading lights (Ben UFO, Mosca, Appleblim) were booked there before their music had found a reliable home in the German capital. And, as Stieler pointed out in a piece for RBMA, Wax Treatment – the Hardwax-curated Sunday evening monthly – was arguably its signature event. With an excellent soundsystem and a commitment to bringing in acts a few years before bigger clubs were ready to take a chance on them, Horst was a rarity in Berlin.