Berlin Club Tour

This is a one-of-a-kind guided city tour that you will not find anywhere else!

Feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of clubs in Berlin? Would you like to know which club you should go to? This city tour will give you the answer! Get an overview of Berlin’s best clubs, what music they play, what exciting things they offer, when to get in, and where to find them. After this tour, you’ll know where to go.

No other tour can offer you this: Get access to a world-renowned Berlin club behind the scenes: Your tour guide will bring you inside a Berlin club while it’s completely empty. See a club from the inside when no party is happening. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance! (Please note that this is only possible if there’s no event in the club during our tour.)

Berlin’s modern club culture started in the 1970s when Berlin was still divided by the Wall. Explore why the Cold War is the reason behind Berlin’s no-curfew policy, how West-Berlin became a nightlife hotspot, and what role the former Berlin Wall and GDR played in the emergence of Techno culture in the 1990s.

Berlin’s clubs would not exist without the influence of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities. Explore how the trans woman Romy Haag launched a nightlife revolution in 1974, how the gay community’s SchwuZ fought back against homophobia during the AIDS crisis, or how Techno DJs from Detroit’s Black community delivered the music for a liberated generation after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Berlin is notorious not only for attracting many celebrities like Lady Gaga, David Bowie, or Elon Musk to its nightlife but also for shattering the idea that VIP status will automatically grant you access. Find out which celebrities made it, which didn’t, and which ones are banned for life.

From Kit Kat Club to Berghain: Berlin clubs are famous for their mentality of “anything goes”. Darkrooms are very common in Berlin’s club scene. With this tour, you’ll not only learn about the politics of consent in Berlin clubs, but you’ll also understand why they are safer spaces for many people to explore new parts of their sexuality.

My name is Jeff. I am a trained social scientist, certified sex educator, and freelance journalist about Berlin and its club culture. During my tour, I’ll share with you my knowledge accumulated from more than a decade’s worth of research.

This guided tour is enhanced with selected Augmented Reality elements. Over your tour guide’s iPad’s camera, you’ll see the world in front of you with Augmented Reality elements over it. For instance, you’ll see the celebrities who made it into the club in front of you. You can also take pictures of yourself with the Augmented Reality elements as a souvenir from the tour. (Powered by ZAUBAR)

1. A valid public transport ticket as we will travel by underground or bus.
2. Depending on the weather: An umbrella or sun protector and water. (The tour will be cancelled in extreme weather conditions, like heavy rain or storm. Of course, in that case you will be fully refunded.)
3. A curious mind and no reluctance to be entertained or shocked.

The Story of Berlin’s Clubs in Augmented Reality will start in front of the club “SchwuZ” at Rollbergstraße 26 in Berlin-Neukölln. For times, please check the schedule calendar when booking your tickets.

The guided Berlin tour will last about 4 to 4.5 hours and will end at RAW Gelände, close to Warschauer Brücke. From there you get excellent public transport connections to anywhere in the city.

This guided Berlin tour is held in English. German tours can only be offered as private tours on request for 250€ (up to 9 participants), 300€ (10-14 participants), 350€ (15-19 participants), or 400€ (20+ participants). Please send me an email to [email protected] if you would like to book a private German tour.

• This guided tour is accessible by wheelchair.
• This is a unique guided tour in Berlin that also makes an excellent gift for loved ones!
• It is also possible to book a private tour. Please send an email to [email protected] to book your private tour. Prices are:
• up to 9 participants: 250€
• 10-14 participants: 300€
• 15-19 participants: 350€
• 20+ participants: 400€
• This guided Berlin tour is only suitable for people who are at least 18 years of age.
• Please be aware of the trigger/content warnings, which include: BDSM/kinks/fetishes, HIV/AIDS, homophobia, racism, sex, sexism, sexual abuse, sex work/prostitution, transphobia, and violence (physical, psychological, sexualized).

Introduction

1. The Berlin Wall dividing the city
2. Chez Romy Haag: the trans community and the Nightclub Revolution of the 1970s
3. Metropol: the gay community and the predecessor to the Berlin Techno revolution

SchwuZ Club

1. §175 and the Homosexual Action Westberlin
2. Queer people in West-Berlin escaping military service
3. SchwuZ, Pepsi Boston & the AIDS crisis
4. Politics and Diversity at SchwuZ
5. SchwuZ today

SO36 Club

1. West-Berlin & the economic situation in the 1970s
2. Punk and feminism
3. David Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Opening of SO36 on the Anniversary of the Berlin Wall
4. Hilal Kurutan, the Turkish Community and the Diversification of SO36
5. Other examples of diversification: Black Gay Night, Gayhane, Kreuzberg CSD, Mad & Disabled Pride
6. Trümmertunten, Kiezbingo & neighbourly solidarity
7. SO36 today

Kit Kat Club

1. Nightlife in Berlin in the 1920s
2. Christopher Isherwood and the Eldorado
3. The Nazis
4. The Cabaret Musical
5. Kit Kat today: Sexuality & parties

Club Commission

1. Clubs as safer spaces
2. Clubs as political places: “AfD wegbassen”
3. Clubs as cultural venues

Tresor Club

1. The Fall of the Berlin Wall
2. Clubs in abandoned buildings along the former Berlin Wall and the GDR
3. The old Tresor
4. Techno DJs from Detroit’s Black Community

Kater Blau Club / Holzmarkt

1. Fighting for an affordable city

YAAM

1. Black Carribeans
2. Refugees Welcome & youth work for tolerance
3. Reggae Music

Berghain

1. Bunker & Snax
2. Ostgut
3. Elon Musk and the Berghain as heterotopia
4. The no-photo policy of Berlin clubs
5. The music
6. Substance use in Berlin clubs
7. Sexism and heteronormativity
8. Sexuality in Berghain
9. Judith Butler, Gender Performance and Gender Fucking
10. Criticism, change and respectful party tourism
11. The Lab.Oratory, Snax Parties today and Lady Gaga

RAW Gelände

1. Overview of clubs: Suicide Circus, Crack Bellmer, Haubentaucher, Cassiopeia, Badehaus, Astra Kulturhaus, Der weiße Hase
2. Gentrification
3. ://aboutblank, Renate and the A100
4. Overview of other clubs in Berlin: RSO, Ritter Butzke, Sisyphos, Club der Visionäre, Klunkerkranich, Insomnia
5. Open Air Raves and the Democratic Reconquest of Techno Culture

Host or Publisher Jeff Mannes | ORGYSMIC – The Sex Blog