People create guides on how to get into Berghain and films about its doorman. But the world-famous nightclub now faces a boycott by some DJs over its stance on the war in Gaza.
A group calling itself Ravers for Palestine first announced a boycott of the Berlin venue, along with several other clubs, in January, saying that remaining silent on Israel’s attacks in Gaza made it complicit.
The nightclub’s owners, Michael Teufele and Norbert Thormann, have said very little about anything since opening in 1992. But the campaign appears to have gathered some momentum and several DJs and artists have said they would not play again until Berghain changed its stance.
Arabian Panther, a French-Lebanese DJ, accused the venue of cancelling his event because he had posted pro-Palestinian messages on social media. Artists including Manuka Honey and Jyoty pulled out of club nights, then Pan, an influential record label that releases experimental electronic music, decided to pull out of a party at Berghain this month.
So far, Berghain has said nothing about the boycott, and did not respond to requests for comment. It replaced the Pan event, and people still queued to get in.
The campaign underlines a growing tension in Germany over the war in Gaza and the country’s sensitivity to antisemitism since the second world war. German politicians operate under a consensus of support for Israel in the belief that the Holocaust means the country bears a special responsibility to combat antisemitism. The Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement was labelled antisemitic by the Bundestag in 2019 and last month it emerged that the German domestic intelligence services, the BfV, suspected BDS to be an extremist group because it considered the economic boycott to be a threat to Israel’s existence.
Berghain and other Berlin nightclubs have fought to be recognised as cultural entities – Berlin techno was given Unesco world heritage status in March, which means venues are eligible for government subsidies.
Ravers for Palestine, whose organisers have not revealed their identities, said via email that there had been “a major shift in rave culture’s approach to Palestine”. A representative wrote: “Tomorrowland, once regarded as a pro-Israel event, was a sea of Palestine flags and keffiyehs this year.”
The Ravers for Palestine group was formed in October last year with an open letter signed initially by more than 50 DJs and artists in London. They called on their peers in electronic music to speak out against Israel’s war in Gaza following the 7 October Hamas attacks which killed almost 1,200 people. It has raised £11,000 as a strike fund for artists, linked to the Strike Germany movement backed by author Annie Ernaux, and said it was “reconnecting rave culture with its roots in resistance through boycotts, autonomous actions, mutual aid, and political education”.
Ravers for Palestine said the boycott would apply pressure to Israel’s politicians": “Israel has long sought to co-opt rave culture via pinkwashing and promoting the ‘amazing nightlife’ of Tel Aviv. When we boycott clubs complicit in Israel’s colonial practices, we strike directly at this project of normalisation and aid wider efforts to end the genocide and occupation.”
Hatim Belyamani, founder of Remix-Culture, which blends traditional and electronic music, said he supported the boycott as he works with Palestinian musicians. “We are trying to uplift the people who have been systematically dehumanised and met with so much backlash.”
