Learning from Berghain

Berghain, probably the “Mecca” of Techno in Europe, is still nowadays one of the main symbols of Berlin’s counterculture. It appeared between the two most relevant neighbourhoods in which a “freedom of expression” tries to survive, and acts as a symbol of the reunification of West (Kreuz-berg) and Est (Friedrich-hain) Germany. It occupies a 1953 abandoned power plant placed close to where its predecessor club “Ostgut” was evicted due to an early 2000s urban development plan in the area. In this complex and historic hostility, Berghain became one of the most clever prophets of the “city-to-come”, claiming and preserving the status of today’s Berlin, a collection of centres, mass and void, history and destruction and being a true metropolitan laboratory. Berghain is an Oasis, is a result of the cultural complexities and contradictions, and one of the “centres” in this metropolis. Issued from Lefebvre’s “Urbanity” (Urbanité) and the “acceptance of what exists” or “is already there”, it truly explores the architectural potential of the reality of the city. In this Oasis, nostalgic disconnections from “reality” take place, ambiguously, in one of the most “real” urban examples existing. Berghain plays the role of a contemporary Bauakademie in today’s city, acknowledging the futility of planning, already discovered by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and acting with a great autonomy. It portrays Richard Sennett’s learnings about using disorder in an open city. This portal directly connected to the before is undoubtedly the true portal to the After.