The fall of the Berlin wall was not only a political change, but also the beginning of a club culture with worldwide appeal. 30 years later, Berlin’s club scene even seeks the recognition by the UNESCO.
“After the fall of the wall, it was a process of Re-integration, a process of returning as one.” So, Dr. Motte, DJ and founder of the Love Parade, the emergence of a “new culture” on the dance floors of the re-United Berlin. As a moth held in July 1989, the first Love Parade on the “Ku’damm” (the street of “Kurfürstendamm” in West Berlin), was you logged in – under the Motto “Friede, Freude, eierkuchen” – as a political Demonstration.
The DJ and the 150 people, who danced through the city, had no idea that soon the wall will fall – that the adults would bring together the electronic music scene on the streets of the re-United Berlin soon millions of people.
Dr. Motte in April 2000 – the inventor of the Love Parade is actually called Matthias Roeingh
Three decades later, Dr. Motte recalls in the vicinity of his Studio in the Berlin district of Wedding, to all: how fast it is in 1989 that the inhabitants of the city gathered to move together Acid House to. On Saturday, the 9th. November – the night the wall fell – crossed East German Fans of club music (you could hear up until then, only in the West Berlin Radio), the border and pushed into the “Ufo”, a well-known Kreuzberg Club. From this Moment, the inclusive club movement had ripped again and again, barriers down, in order to dance “for a better world” as expressed by Dr. Motte.
Dr. Motte: “The Best thing that ever happened to us”
To the new home of the awakening electronic dance music in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin wall, the many abandoned buildings, an unregulated gray zone applies: In the vast post-industrial spaces, everything seemed to be possible. Epic Techno-Clubs like the “E-Werk” and later the “Berghain” found in former power plants under shelter. “The wall fell, and we all of a sudden found new spaces to create our own way of life,” says Dr. Motte, on the lawless border area between the two so far apart, cut off worlds. “It was the Best thing that ever happened to us. You can’t even imagine.”
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From the small Bus to the mass eventA DJ, 3 cars, 150 Revelers
At the beginning of a DJ who wanted a peaceful Party in the streets of Berlin was: Matthias Roeingh, better known as Dr. Motto, notified in 1989, the first Loveparade. It should be a Demo for peace. With 150 techno music enthusiasts and three cars, he moved over to the Ku’damm in Berlin. The Motto of the Demo: “peace, joy, pancakes”.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventThe whole of Europe, from the love connected
Within a short period of time in the event of a scene is developed and taken to one of the largest musical Events in the whole of Europe. The number of participants has increased rapidly and more and more operators to participate with a car, and also “love mobile” or “Float” is called.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventInto the heart of the capital
After 1995, nearly half a Million people danced at the original venue in ecstasy, it was there, soon to close. In the following year the move took place on the Strasse des 17. June in the heart of Berlin instead. The victory column, the Brandenburg gate and the Tiergarten Park offered the perfect backdrop for the mega event. The popularity increased further, both Ravers and other party fun.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventMore Stress than love
But with them also the Trouble and the Dirt came out. More and more Berlin complained. Especially in the Tiergarten, the huge mountains of garbage accumulated. The cost for waste disposal, cleaning and the security forces of the state wore, because the event was still logged as a political Demonstration and approved.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventToo much commercialism
A scandal – there were many, given the obvious commercialisation of the giant party. With licensing, advertising and sale of merchandise, the organizers made a lot of money. Soon, distance, followers of the Techno-scene of the love parade were. Counter-movements also the to 2014 annual fuck parade (see photo), including.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventNot a political statement
In 2001, the Loveparade was known also by the Federal constitutional court the right to demonstrate but. A clear statement of policy was lacking. Which, however, is urgently needed for a Demonstration. Since the organizers did not want to bear the costs for cleaning and security, first of all, was the love parade in 2004 and 2005.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventThe love is back
Under the Motto “The Love is back” was celebrated in 2006 with over a Million visitors to one of the largest love parades. But it should also be the last in the German capital. In the same year, the fitness Studio owner Rainer Schaller took over the management of the enterprise, the hosted the love parade. His Plan: to The love parade to the Ruhr area.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventA record number of visitors in the Ruhr metropolis
With over a Million visitors in 2007, in food and supposedly 1.6 million in the year 2008 in Dortmund, Germany, the Loveparade, celebrated their relocation in the West of Germany. The visitor figures were doubted by many pages. It is believed that they have been assessed for the purposes of marketing, much too high.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventBochum don’t want the Loveparade
Intoxicated by the successful events in Essen and Dortmund, they wanted to bring in 2009, the Parade of love to Bochum. Safety concerns from the city, however, have prevented. In 2009, the mega was to be a party because of it. The decision was criticized from many sides.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventThe terrible end
The greater the love parade should go back in the year 2010 in Duisburg, Germany. It was the year of the European capital of culture, it was expected over a Million visitors. But the Party ended in tragedy. In the case of a mass panic in a narrow input region 21 people died. 500 additional people were injured in the crush in the Tunnel.
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From the small Bus to the mass eventNever again Loveparade
On the same day, the organizer announced that there will be no further love parades and more. Until today, it is not clear who is to blame for the terrible events. On 24.7.2015 only the city of Duisburg, but the whole of Germany, the victim did not intend.
After Dr. Mottes staff had found an abandoned factory with power connection on the Spree, took the beginning of the 1990s, the club night “Planet” of its beginning. Soon, hundreds of Techno Fans danced to the illegal parties. Artist(interior) Danielle de Picciotto, then a partner of Dr. Motte and co-founder of the Love Parade, presented decorations and installations to the creation of imaginary worlds.
Sven Väth: “Everywhere, this feeling of community”
Already in 1990, the Planet had a truck on the Love Parade. Under the Motto “The future belongs to us” gathered at the 7. In July 1990, about two thousand people. “In Berlin, there was this sense of anticipation, everywhere, this sense of community,” says the Frankfurt DJ and Techno pioneer Sven Väth in the year in which he also shows the Ku’damm along and danced (our large image above him in 1992, Väth is standing see to the left).
One of the Floors in the “vault” (2013) – in 2007, the Club moved to a power station on the river Spree
In 1991, the owner of the “Ufo”, Dimitri Hegemann (who had called in 1982, the present-day Berlin’s experimental music Festival “Berlin Atonal” to life) discovered an abandoned Bank vault under the ruined Department store, Wertheim, close to the former death strip. There, he founded the Club “the vault”, and an eponymous Label. There was soon released the Track “the sound of The family”, produced by DJ and producer “3phase” together with Dr. Motte. He was to the Soundtrack of this time.
Special nights in the Club vault
The entrance to the Club “Tresor” in the 90s
The vault has quickly become an important hub for the emerging Detroit Techno Sound. “The people were so open to what we were doing,” recalled Blake Baxter, the self-proclaimed “Prince of Techno” that came at the beginning of the 1990s, from Detroit to Berlin to play in the vault.
“In the U.S., we don’t got that kind of love, because the people for something more,” explains Baxter in the documentary “SubBerlin The Story of Tresor”. “People came from all over Europe and wondered what is going on here,” recalls Dr. Motte. “The music was particularly. The atmosphere was very special. The people who worked there, were very special. The Location was very special. This was all new. It had never happened before.”
Spaces for experimenting
“It was like, as if North and South Korea unite now and all the young people would begin to dance together, a new kind of music.” So Felix Hoffmann, chief describes curator of the exhibition “No Photos on the Dance Floor! Berlin 1989 – Today” the initial spark for the Berlin club culture Revolution. The Show is still up until 30. To see November, in the gallery C/O Berlin.
“16_Marco, island of the youth, 1991” by Tilman Brembs
As Hoffmann, 1997, came as an art student to Berlin, “there was this feeling still,” he says. Nomadic Clubs still occupied temporary spaces, including the “art & technology” in a former Bunker in Berlin’s Museum district. The Club combined installations, Performances and thumping Techno. A Reporter for the New York Times reported in 1999, “art & technology” show, “that in this town right now, everything is possible”. This year 1.5 million people came to the Love Parade.
Queer Techno
The exhibition “No Photos on the Dance Floor!” trying to put the images in a culture to gather, of the Film – and photo-shots – in, but it was frowned upon and, until today, is to take pictures of people in the Holy club rooms. The organizers were also able to find rare images of photographers such as Wolfgang Tillmans – from the LGBTI club for the Berlin-based dance music culture so Central.
More to the topic: The 90s in Berlin: “Colorful, loud and unique,”
“Outside Snax Club, 2001” Wolfgang Tillmans
Tillmans’ Exterior of a club night called “Snax” from the year 2000 not only shows how the queer scene is also used temporary venues in the former East Berlin (here: a former train station building in which the Club “Ostgut” was), but it also shows the foundations of what was to be the “Berghain” – the legendary temple of Techno, which up to today still “Snax”-take place in nights.
World-renowned Techno temples: The queue in front of Berghain today
It is no coincidence that the Name Berghain – combined, according to its roots – the names of the two city districts of Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, on both sides of the Spree. To set a sign for tolerance in Berlin, joined the Club in 2018 with 70 other venues and was a huge City-Rave on the legs – the Whole, to a gathering of the politically far-right party AfD to oppose.
Berlin’s club culture: soon part of the Intangible UNESCO heritage site?
According to the industry Association “club Commission Berlin”, Dr. Motte is a member of, generating the dance clubs currently about 1.5 billion euros (1.66 billion dollars) per year. The unique Berlin club culture had to be protected from property developers and urban renewal, demands of the DJ. Therefore, the industry will apply for Association 2021 in the Intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO to include.
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Club Scene In Berlin
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Endangered Subculture
The Electronic music scene in Berlin had received something Special, says the Australian DJ Claire Morgan, who lives since 2012 in Berlin and regularly in Clubs like the Berghain or “://about blank” hangs up. “Berlin has even more space and freedom than most other big cities,” she believes. “The Community for electronic music is strong, diverse and constantly evolving.”
And still there were no cameras on the dance floor, stresses Morgan and refers to the Berlin-wide ban on phones and cameras in places that keep the “beautiful Ethos of Clubbing as safe areas to experience music and to connect with others”.
By the way: 30 years after the peaceful Revolution, Dr. Motte is on 9. November way suitable to play a Gig in the “vault”. The Club has moved in 2007, in a power plant on the river Spree – are invited all.