Over the past thirty years or so, Germany has undergone an enormous image change. Far from the stifled, straight-laced land that your great-Grandfather fought against nearly a century ago, Germany, and Berlin in particular, has grown into one of Europe's most popular and creative destinations. In Bergain, Tresor and Watergate, Berlin boasts three of the most celebrated nightclubs on the continent, so it's natural that many of these tourists tend to be dance music fans, looking for a sojourn in the beating heard of techno. But Berlin offers a great deal more than just incredible nightlife and it would be remiss to pin it as a city that only embraces the deeper, darker aspects of dance music.
It's a city with incredible vibrancy; a cosmopolitan hotbed of industry, business and nightlife. Aside from the obvious attractions, it's a thoroughly brilliant place to spend your days. For a 21 year old male like myself, it had the lot. After our evening exploits, which I will come onto shortly, we were able to spend time with some weird and wonderful creatures in the Berlin Zoo and take a tour around the world-renowned Olympiastadion for roughly £10 a pop. So no matter how utterly defeated you're feeling in the morning, there's bound to be something to lift your spirits. And despite Berlin being more vast and sprawling than any city I've ever visited, everything is easily doable on the ruthlessly efficient U-Bahn and S-Bahns. It might seem like a lazy stereotype to speak of German efficiency, but the whole experience really was superb.
The ease of access was never more apparent than when it came to heading out clubbing. Despite arriving ticketless on the 2nd of January, word spread that DJ Koze and Magda were set to play at Watergate later that evening and I anticipated a frantic search for tickets. But no such search materialised. Despite Berlin's incredible thirst for dance music, tickets were readily available on the door. Although the city has a reputation as being somewhat pretentious, with the Berghain bouncers being notoriously difficult, our German hosts were incredibly accommodating as we shortly found ourselves inside a cavernous wall of noise, headed up by two tech-house favourites.
Despite there being a large contingent of tourists there, each of the locals we met was as weird and wonderful as anything we saw in the zoo. One gentleman named Dennis even invited us down the road to a club called KitKat once we left, but that's an altogether different sort of venue, which is best not discussed on these pages but which really proved that there was something for just about everyone. If you're wondering whether Berlin is worth the incredible amount of hype which has enveloped the city recently, it absolutely is. The immense liberation the city felt after the fall of the wall has turned the city into an essential destination.
WORDS | Jonathan Coll illbehaviour.net