The Berlin senate, too, has recognised the club's commercial pulling power: in 2010, it offered Berghain €1.25m (£1m) to fund a building extension. Several of the resident DJs regularly export the "Berghain sound" – dark, industrial techno, often slowed down by 6-8% – to clubs around the world. Without Berghain, the Berlin techno wave may have long ebbed away."įor many of the 3,000 clubbers who pass through the club's gates on a typical night it is the main reason for coming to the city. Countless clubs have since shot up in its shadow. "But Berghain managed to turn clubbing into an adventure again, and thus unify the dispersed techno scene. "Many clubs were closing their doors, and it was the first year without the Love Parade in the capital. "At the start of the noughties many felt that Berlin techno had run its course," said Airen, an author and popular blogger on the city's club scene. Many credit Berghain – whose name is a compound of bordering districts Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain – with a key role in reinventing the German capital. This week, broadsheets and online forums have been filled with odes to the "Berlin Philharmonic of electronic music". "We also take guys in masks and kilts, or Pamela Anderson blondes in run-of-the-mill high-street outfits who tag along with bearded blokes, licking the sweat off each others' armpits. If they make a good impression, let them in. Photograph: Stefan Hoederath/Getty Imagesīeing a bouncer, his book argues, is all about fostering the "right mix": "I don't mind letting in the odd lawyer in a double-breasted suit with his Gucci-Prada wife. Nightclub Berghain is credited with reviving Berlin's techno scene. He now insists on addressing revellers he turns away with the formal "Sie" rather than the informal "Du" and advises his younger colleagues to show respect as they send pundits back into the night: "It may be your thousandth guest of the night, but for them it may be the first time they are turned away." Marquardt, who trained as a photographer, started his doorman career at Snax – one of Berghain's predecessors, which had the tag line "for pervy men only". "Even when I was a punk, my motto was always: mothers and the elderly first," Marquardt writes in Die Nacht ist Leben (The Night is Life), ghostwritten by journalist Judka Strittmatter.Īt the launch party on Thursday, the feared Berlin legend claimed that at 52 he was "fast on my way towards age-related mildness", and said he strengthened himself for his nine-hour shifts with a healthy diet of Ryvita and bananas. For a start, there is no face control at the art exhibition staged in one of the industrial halls, which includes paintings, photographs and videos inspired by the venue, historic graffitied toilet doors and an aquarium filled with male urine, lit in melancholy hues.Ī memoir by the club's bouncer, Sven Marquardt, launched in Germany to critical acclaim this week, reveals the heavily tattooed and pierced figure guarding Berghain as a sensitive soul who used to look for love on the streets as a gay punk in east Berlin. But for its anniversary celebrations, Berghain is opening its heavy gates to reveal a surprisingly gentle side. They like scarves," advises one regular.Ī new " How to get into Berghain" app even promises live updates on the length of the queue outside the super-secretive venue with the motto "we decide with whom we want to party". Others recommend camping up, fetish gear or leather straps. Some advise wearing white T-shirts and dark jeans. Turning up in big groups is said to be a no-no, as is chatting in the queue. Numerous websites and forums promise to spill the secret of how to get past the grim-faced bouncer at arguably the world's most famous nightclub.
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