Not everybody has the chance to see something positive, but if you can, it’s a good way to come out of this horrible situation.” “Especially for DJs, maybe it sounds a bit weird, but I was so happy to be at home.
“To be honest, it’s one of the best times of my life,” he says. Basti estimated that 85 percent of the vaccination centre employees at Arena came from the nightlife world, from artists to booking agents to bouncers, which presented an interesting working and social environment in daylight life. But most interestingly, many nightlife spaces also found ways to contribute to the battle against COVID itself by converting into coronavirus testing and vaccination sites, offering former employees the opportunity to reinvent themselves in a new line of work.įor Basti Schwarz, who became the staff manager at Arena Berlin after spending the previous 30 years of his life touring around the world with his brother in the DJ duo Tiefschwarz, working at the former concert venue turned vaccination centre provided a rare opportunity to have a social life while staying put and remaining in the present. With the general sentiment that it was OK to gather outside, some clubs were able to bypass the total shutdown rules by permitting limited access to their “open air” spaces, and clubs that didn’t already have designated open-air spaces quickly got to work building them. Some Berlin bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen in May 2020 with outside seating only and strict hygiene rules. “It’s our job to bring people together in close contact, and it’s the opposite of what you want in a pandemic.” For Leichsenring and others in the Clubcommission, the lockdown became a question of what to do with their time. “For me it’s very clear: How the hell is not supporting the virus spread? It’s just very logical that the worst place ,” says Lutz Leichsenring, spokesperson for the Berlin Clubcommission and member of its executive board. Finally, on March 13, 2020, the Berlin government issued a mandate that all clubs must close.įor some Berliners, however, closing the clubs at the beginning of the pandemic was not a question. Berghain-Berlin’s headquarters for industrial techno-was close to follow, installing a massive banner along its facade reading: Morgen ist die frage (Tomorrow is the question). I thought: ‘That’s gonna be my year.’ And then all the gigs got cancelled for me, for lots of people.”īerlin’s most infamous club, KitKat, known primarily for its hedonistic displays of alternative sexual lifestyles, was the first to announce its closing on March 9, 2020, before clubs were required to do so by law. “Everything broke away,” she says recalling the forlorn moment. JAIIME, a Berliner and up-and-coming Afro House and Techno DJ, was playing a gig in Venice on the evening Italy’s lockdowns began. The dark cloud that would soon vanquish Berlin club life to livestreams in living rooms and illegal park raves was already seeding in Italy in February 2020, where COVID-19 cases were reaching a global high.
The trend for former sites of terror and oppression to be converted to those of freedom and acceptance only accelerated in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, when abandoned border control facilities were instantly occupied by the founders of the electronic music scene, conjuring forth the Berlin club scene popular today. The fall of the Nazis left a vacuum of ownership of properties that went on to become some of modern Berlin’s most popular nightlife spots, such as Tresor (“Vault”), which was a Jewish-owned retail store that had been bombed in WWII until only the basement remained. In the post-WWI period of the Weimar Republic, Berlin became world famous for its limitless nightlife, which came to an end with the rise of Nazi Germany. The limitless hours of operation Berlin clubs enjoy can be traced back to efforts to unify Germany from as early as the 1800s when Frederick the Great encouraged immigration to Berlin regardless of nationality or religion. Before the pandemic, Berlin was the real “city that never sleeps,” and it has been slowly reclaiming its status since the clubs reopened in August.