Germany declares nightclubs to be cultural institutions

Germany is recategorising night clubs. From now on, provided they can prove cultural relevance, clubs in city planning and permitting will be treated like museums and opera houses, rather than casinos and brothels. This means greater protection from noise and nuisance complaints, a lower VAT, and generally more respect.

You can read about it (in German) directly on the Clubcommision's page, or here's a link to The Art Newspaper.

This is a major accomplishment by LiveKomm, who through their Clubs are Culture effort, and also with the Clubcommission, modelled out to Berlin and other leading cities the substantial revenue contribution to the local economy, whether through local spending, or driven by tourism.

Nonetheless I remain concerned. This change brings with it some downsides, and as always there is execution risk:

One issue is whether landlords will be willing to enter into commercial leases knowing these are not typical tenants, and have special legal protections. Or, conversely, will they be willing to rent to a club if it hasn't been designated as culturally relevant yet?

I hope some of the smarter club operators will own the buildings they operate in, or have a symbiotic relationship with their landlord. It will make funding and banking easier, knowing these are serious and respected businesses.

The other issue is the declaration of which clubs are considered "culturally relevant." I co-founded D'Vision Records, a techno label in Berlin in 1991... that's THIRTY years ago. Most of the people in the scene back then were older than I am. I recently saw one of my favourite DJs celebrating is 60th (!) birthday on Instagram. For Gawd's sake, we are old and pop-culturally irrelevant.

I hope the people deciding which clubs matter aren't a bunch of old geezers who are simply in love with their own legacy. The whole point of what we set out to do was always something counter-cultural. There are many voices in Berlin who want to preserve everything in amber, still calling for buildings or ideas from 30 years ago to be somehow kept afloat or institutionalised. Will they accept a new genre when it comes along? Will they see the reflection in the mirror and realise they're all a bunch of middle-aged white guys?

Let's hope this bodes well for club culture, and leaves room for growth.