Berghain, Techno club in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Germany
Berghain is a techno club in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Germany, housed inside a former East German heating plant where raw concrete walls rise across multiple levels. The steel framework inside reaches up to 18 meters high, forming a space that resembles an abandoned industrial warehouse.
When Ostgut closed in 2004, the founders opened a new venue in December of that year inside an abandoned heating facility built in 1953. The transformation of the dormant building took several months before the first guests were admitted.
Visitors often stay inside for twenty hours or more, dancing in a windowless space where artificial lighting is the only source of illumination. The no-camera policy requires everyone to cover their phone lenses at the entrance, creating an atmosphere where no one can share images or document the experience.
Admission begins on Saturday evening and operations continue until Monday morning, with the main room playing techno while the upper level serves as Panorama Bar for house music. Some visitors arrive early on Sunday morning to find shorter lines, while others prefer the midnight hours.
Door staff make decisions based on criteria that have never been publicly explained, often resulting in long lines where some people wait for hours. The selection happens without explanation, and rejected guests never learn why they were turned away.
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