Berlin clubbers have united with environmental campaigners to fight plans to extend a city autobahn that threatens the future of about 20 nightclubs in the east of the city.
Thousands of techno fans and a broader clutch of protesters standing up for the city’s cultural life took to Berlin’s streets at the weekend in the latest in a string of demonstrations which have caused parts of the German capital to grind to a halt.
At stake is an area stretching from Treptower Park, across the Spree River and towards Friedrichshain, at the heart of the city’s nightlife. Clubs in the proposed path of the autobahn, which protesters have nicknamed the “highway to hell”, include some with a near-legendary status such as About Blank, a techno club housed in a once derelict industrial building, and Renate, a magnet for LGBTQ+ clubgoers.
An extension of the A100 motorway, which began being built in the 1950s, could see them all razed to the ground if work begins as planned in 2027. The project has the backing of the transport ministry in the federal government as well as the city’s first conservative mayor for more than 20 years, Kai Wegner.
A transport ministry spokesperson recently reiterated its backing for the project, calling it “necessary to enable the management of traffic and deal with increasing traffic flows in the future”.
Lutz Leichsenring, spokesman for the Clubcommission Berlin, said the extension of the A100 would pose an “existential threat to Berlin’s unique cultural landscape” which had been established in the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
A nationwide campaign which has received widespread international support called #clubsAREculture has pledged to continue to put pressure on local and federal governments with protest raves.
Mohamed Ben Mustapha, from ZUKUNFT am Ostkreuz (Future at East Cross), a bar and indie cinema, called the planned extension “the equivalent of Berlin shooting itself in the kneecap” and said the removal of the clubs would be devastating for cultural exchange in the city.
“The areas under threat are precisely the places where an eclectic interaction between people from a variety of backgrounds … is taking place, not on the street or in the workplace.”
Berlin’s club scene grew on the back of a large number of empty buildings left by deindustrialisation in the aftermath of the second world war. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, dance and electronic music were among the creative endeavours that moved in to the often illegally occupied derelict spaces with the legacy of a distinctive Berlin scene that has continued to thrive and expand. Cultural officials estimate it is worth an annual €1.5bn (£1.3bn) to the German capital’s economy
“This historic development created what the government often cites as Berlin’s standout feature, as a lively, creative and colourful city,” Leichsenring said.
“The settlement of a large range of other industries is largely down to the particular cultural offering Berlin has – international companies, startups, as well as industrial developments in everything from transport to food and tourism.”
He said that once the clubs were destroyed, it would be virtually impossible to recreate the scene and many thousands of jobs would be lost as a result.
Clubcommission Berlin is calling for a halt to the A100 building plans plus a comprehensive strategy to deal with gentrification in the city, including the creation of a common vision for urban development.
• This article was amended on 7 September 2023 to make clear that ZUKUNFT am Ostkreuz is a bar and indie cinema. An earlier version described it as a club.
