When asked for confirmation by another user, they replied: “I saw it.” They told VICE over Reddit DMs that they saw Musk rejected by none other than Sven Marquardt himself, Berghain’s imposing and heavily tattooed head bouncer. “Today he got rejected at Berghain door!” they posted on Sunday. In a previous case, the same judge at the same court rejected a similar appeal on behalf of the now-closed nightclub Cookies.On Reddit, however, a user on the /r/berlin forum named KaspersLunita said that Musk actually made it to the front of the queue – only to get turned away. During the trial, the judge emphasised that the ruling was not a decision of basic principle but specific to Berghain. It is unlikely that Berghain’s new “high art” status will automatically benefit the German capital’s club culture as a whole. In the last eight years London has lost 50% of its nightclubs, inspiring many DJs and music producers to decamp to Berlin. With a sense of timing that some may see as a symbolic passing of the club-culture baton, the Cottbus court boosted Berghain’s status on the same day that London’s Fabric nightclub was forced to close its doors for the last time, after Islington council withdrew its licence following a number of drug-related deaths. During the hearing, the judge asked for detailed descriptions of typical dance moves, DJ routines and what exactly went on in the infamous “dark rooms” – the small black-light backrooms used for spontaneous sexual encounters. However, the Cottbus court’s decision was based purely on its assessment of the status of the club night itself. In August 2014, to coincide with Berghain’s 10th birthday, Marquardt launched a memoir detailing his experience growing up as a young gay punk in East Germany. While its club night still draws thousands of visitors between Friday evening and Monday morning, Berghain has branched out into midweek events, hosting classical concerts, fashion showcases, ballet performances and exhibitions by artists such as Turner prize-winning photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, or the club’s bouncer, Sven Marquardt.
In response to the finance ministry’s argument that clubbers visited the 1,500-capacity venue mainly to get high on drink, drugs and music, Berghain’s defence lawyer Peter Raue maintained that concertgoers may achieve a similar intoxicating effect from a Mahler symphony as from a DJ set – a line of defence that evidently persuaded the court’s judges.īerghain, which is located in a former power station in Berlin’s Friedrichshain district, has in recent years increasingly hosted events that fall into more conventional definitions of high culture. In his report, Rapp argued that the majority of people who came to the venue did so for the music, and that a DJ was comparable to a conductor rather than an orchestra. The finance ministry tried to justify its decision by insisting Berghain could not be classified as having the character of a concert since there was no stage, and musical performances did not have a beginning and an ending after which the audience could clap.Īs part of its appeal, the nightclub commissioned a report by Tobias Rapp, a journalist for Der Spiegel and author of an influential book on Berlin club culture, Lost and Sound: Techno, Berlin and the Easyjetset. But in 2008 Berlin’s finance ministry decided nightclubs should be taxed as regular “entertainment events”, at 19% of their earnings, and demanded millions of euros in back payments. In the past, Berghain paid a reduced VAT rate of 7% on its earnings – the same tax bracket as theatres, concert venues and museums.
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