![[Logo Auswärtiges Amt]](/images/logo.gif){kind=logo}
Technoculture in Berlin: It Started with the Fall of the Wall
-
- Enlarge image
- Tresor, housed in the vault of a Wertheim's department store at Potsdamer Platz, was one of countless clubs that appropriated vacant space after the wall came down.
- (© picture-alliance/dpa)
"When the Wall fell, there was a crash, and this crash could be heard in the music as well" says Berlin DJ pioneer Tanith as he describes the ever-present role of techno as the soundtrack of the fall of the Wall. On the night of November 9th and into the morning of the 10th, the Berlin Wall separating East and West Germany collapsed. Immediately afterwards, German reunification was already in full gear on the dance floors at techno parties. Teenagers from the East streamed to the clubs in the West. The readiness for revelry was particularly strong among partygoers from the East, as well as among gays, a fact of Berlin nightlife that's holds true today.
The difference between West and East Germans dissolved in a frenzy of electronic rhythms and strobe lights. Techno activists from West Berlin went on a quest for spaces in the eastern half of city. Just a few months after the fall of the Wall the first techno clubs opened in East Berlin. A promoter from the former GDR, Wolfram Neugebauer, a.k.a. Wolle XDP, and West Berliner DJ Tanith joined forces to organize a series of raves called "Tekknozid". Disregarding origin, class and appearance, a small scene emerged to usher in the birth of Berlin's technoculture, as it is known worldwide today. Its inception coincided with zero hour of reunified Germany.
Temporary paradise
The success of Berlin's technoculture since November 1989 owes much to the city's structure. Roughly one third of the buildings in East Berlin lay empty, leaving 25,000 vacant flats. Within a few years 150 buildings were squatted. The occupation of unused spaces and derelict areas initially enabled an independent scene to flourish. Basements were broken into and became temporary clubs and bars. The germ cell of Berlin club culture is UFO, which opened in 1988 in a Kreuzberg cellar. In 1991 UFO begot Tresor. Proprietor Dimitri Hegemann converted the safe vault of the former Wertheim department store at Potsdamer Platz. With its raw industrial charm, Tresor became the location that would define Berlin clubbing style.
-
- Enlarge image
- Dimitri Hegemann, the proprietor of the original Tresor club, has now opened "Modem", in an old heating plant in Berlin's Mitte district.
- (© picture-alliance/dpa)
DJs and partiers appropriated former GDR cultural centers for parties that lingered past the crack of dawn. The deserted restaurant Ahornblatt was redesigned as the rave temple of the exit party. The young club scene readily embraced Tacheles, the artist center on Oranienburger Strasse. Empty warehouses along the banks of the Spree filled out with the colorful revelers of the Planet performance series. The "Planet Nights" were known for their imaginative decor. The combination of sound, light and performances gave rise to an alternative spatial and temporal experience called the "Space", which seemingly provided a departure from reality. In these temporary autonomous zones, technoculture, its urge for self-determination and its nightly excesses unfolded undisturbed.The selling-out and resurrection of the scene
Like all subcultures, the Berlin techno scene also passed through a heyday (1989 to 1992), times of fragmentation (1992 to 1995) and a period of commercialization (1995 to 2004). An attitude of self-determination dominated at first: "Do it yourself" was the motto. The scene's active players and guests were one and the same. The operators of the most important clubs originated from the scene itself. Pragmatic, optimistic and self-taught, they combined fun, activism and business. The clubs acted as unimposing and non-hierarchical meeting places that were open to all social strata and to people from all backgrounds. Whether you came from the East or the West was not important as long as you dove into the mass of dancing bodies.
-
- Enlarge image
- In 1999, 1.5 million ravers in Berlin broke all the records at the Love Parade.
- (© picture-alliance/dpa)
With large events like the Love Parade and May Day, a paradigm shift occurred in the course of the early nineties, from production to consumption and from underground to mainstream. The first Love Parade took place on July 1, 1989, with only 150 participants. At its highpoint 10 years later, the Love Parade drew 1.5 million visitors. Techno was seized by mass culture and proclaimed as a national youth movement. A creative stalemate within the scene went hand in hand with the commercialization After the hype surrounding the Love Parade, the public quickly lost interest in technoculture. And the scene withdrew back to the underground.
Since the new millennium the scene has been flourishing more than ever. Berlin has become the capital of international club culture. By now the city is considered the Ibiza of the north. Every weekend thousands of party tourists descend on Berlin. So far, the only international pop culture phenomenon to originate chiefly in Germany has emerged from the techno scene. Its successful history begins in November 1989. The euphoric unification of East and West German youths at the first techno parties after the fall of the Wall laid the foundation for Berlin's club culture of today and for its cosmopolitan and egalitarian reputation.
Author: Uh-Young Kim
Translation: Jonathan Lutes
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion, June 2009
