Events in Berlin, Germany

Berlin's techno scene emerged from the empty industrial spaces left after the fall of the Wall in November 1989, when abandoned buildings in the former East became impromptu clubs. Tresor opened in March 1991 in the vault of the bombed-out Wertheim department store near Leipziger Platz and built the Detroit-Berlin techno axis that defined the decade; it relocated in 2007 to a disused power plant (Kraftwerk) on Köpenicker Straße. The Love Parade, which began as a political demonstration in 1989 with around 150 people, grew into a march of more than a million through the 1990s. In March 2024, Berlin's techno culture was added to Germany's nationwide register of intangible cultural heritage.

Berghain - opened in 2004 in a former power plant in Friedrichshain by Norbert Thormann and Michael Teufele, successors to the Ostgut club (1998-2003) - is the most internationally recognised techno club in the world. Its Klubnacht runs from Saturday night through Monday morning, with the Panorama Bar on the upper floor and a Funktion-One sound system. Berlin's clubs are not bound by fixed closing times, and venues including ://about blank, Sisyphos, Kater Blau on the Holzmarkt, and RSO sustain a scene that runs continuously across the weekend. The Clubcommission, founded in 2000, represents more than 200 of the city's venues.

Beyond electronic music, SO36 in Kreuzberg - open since 1978 and a hub of the West Berlin punk scene - remains a landmark for punk and rock. The Berliner Philharmonie, the Hans Scharoun-designed home of the Berlin Philharmonic, opened in 1963 and is among the world's most acoustically celebrated concert halls. Funkhaus Berlin, the former GDR state radio complex on the Spree, now hosts concerts and electronic events, and Berlin Atonal - first held from 1982 to 1990 and revived in 2013 at Kraftwerk - programmes experimental and industrial music. Jazz runs year-round at clubs including the A-Trane and Quasimodo in Charlottenburg.