Music

Besides Berlin as the German and international club metropolis, the other big cities of Germany proudly cleave to their own profile, importance and unique character – A Short Tour through the Rest of Germany.

Hamburg

Only a good hour distant by train from Berlin, the cosmopolitan port city of Hamburg still presents itself as one of the most important addresses for what abroad is seen to be electronic music from Germany. Major record labels such as Dial, DJ Kozes Pampa, Smallville and Pudel Produkte hold the fort, and the latter also has in the Golden Pudel Club on the Fischmarkt a classic venue of the alternative, urban scene, especially in summer an attractive idyll that draws visitors not only because of its programme. Newer clubs such as the Baalsaal, the Neidklub and the Uebel & Gefährlich round out in different orders of magnitude the entire performance spectrum of contemporary electronic work, current DJ perspectives and, not least, the subtle but omnipresent Hamburg humour.

The Ruhr

Proceeding in a southwesterly direction, we reach the Ruhr region, a huge industrial conurbation with the cities of Dortmund, Bochum and Essen as its major hubs and an indestructible regional confidence that has always expressed itself in terms of its own musical needs. Dry conceptualism has never been in demand here – instead a lot of soul and juiciness, which has made the Ruhr one of the main regions for high-octane modern house music, as it is celebrated at events above all in Essen at, for instance, the old-established Hotel Shanghai and the highly recommended Goethe Bunker, or in Bochum at the Funkloch.

Düsseldorf and Cologne

Leaving the Ruhr region in a southerly direction, we soon come to Düsseldorf, a city important not only in the history of German electronic music. From here Kraftwerk once conquered the world; highly recommended today is a visit to the Salon Des Amateurs in the Kunsthalle, whose musical offering is committed to the local heritage and extends far into the avant-garde, but without neglecting due celebration of the good old 4/4 beat.

Only a stone’s throw away and yet an entirely different world: the holy city of Cologne, probably the city that has most influenced German musical styles in the recent past. Labels such as Kompakt, Ware, Treibstoff and many others are still blessed by the abundant creative output that has made their artists in demand all over the world. As a club and entertainment metropolis, however, Cologne is shackled by strict laws and rigid structures. So in recent years it has been at transient alternative art spaces where you could best experience the famous “sound of Cologne”, and at the many bars where people talk more than they dance that you could enjoy Cologne’s special flair. Smaller clubs such as the Subway and the Studio 672 hold the programmatic fort. Not to forget the c/o pop, the annual festival plus conference, unrivalled in its focus on quality electronic music in Germany.

Frankfurt and Offenbach

Cocoon Club is an ambitious designer disco with two high quality restaurants, which one could easily imagine to be in Singapore or Sydney. On the other side of the River Main, you can experience at the Robert Johnson possibly the best music complex in Germany and definitely one of the most sophisticated programmes. Nor should you omit a visit to the Tanzhaus West, with its very own musical direction and accents. All this should remind us that Frankfurt is not only a city for bankers, but also for thinkers.

Munich

Munich is little impressed by what happens in other cities, always immensely proud of its own style and, as far as that is concerned, actually incomparable. Rote Sonne, Harry Klein and Bob Beaman are the names of the currently top addresses for the local and international stars of the electronic arena. With Permanent Vacation, Gomma, Compost and Disko B, Munich is also the home of some of the major record labels in Germany. And don’t forget all the artists such as DJ Hell who have left Munich for Berlin without leaving the Munich in them.

Leipzig and Jena

Having arrived in the southeast of the Republic, you must now turn north again and so come automatically to the so-called “new federal states” or the former GDR. On the way back to Berlin, you should plan to visit the formerly dark and now bright Leipzig, home to the legendary Distillery, Germany’s longest-serving techno club with Ilses Erika, Sweat and Velvet, but also to other great venues, the record labels Moon Harbour and Cargo, and some of the top names of German music production. Compared with its size, the city has a huge influence.

On the size-influence scale, Leipzig is topped only by the small but outstanding scene in Jena. Here a very small space packs the maximum creative potential with the labels Freude am Tanzen and Musik Krause and their cosmopolitan roster of artists, and, with the club Kassablanca, Jena possesses a venue where you can regularly admire all these great Thuringians performing their art.

For which you also have the opportunity all the time once you return to Berlin.