Berlin’s techno DJS seek Unesco heritage status

BERLIN’S techno DJS are seeking Unesco heritage status, warning that the superclubs where they play risk dying out under the twin pressures of Covid and gentrification.

The German capital is home to clubs such as Berghain and Tresor, a legacy of the fall of the Berlin Wall, when people transformed abandoned spaces into hubs for free-wheeling parties.

Techno helped to unite people, and Berlin is still considered a world capital for the genre, attracting revellers and music fans from all over the world.

But as real estate value has risen, buildings are being repurposed, creating conflicts between residents and entertainment venues, and the club scene is struggling to survive.

An advocacy group, the Club Commission, estimates that about 100 clubs have closed over the past decade, and that dozens more are under threat.

Clubs in Germany have faced restrictions during most of the pandemic and are currently subject to capacity limits.

Advocates have campaigned for support from politicians to protect club culture for years. One group, Rave the Planet, founded by DJ Dr Motte, are calling on authorities to apply to Unesco to have Berlin’s electronic dance music culture recognised as “intangible cultural heritage”. Unesco states “cultural heritage does not end at monuments and collections of objects” and intangible cultural heritage such as oral traditions, performing arts and social practices are “an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of globalisation”.

Protected status is usually reserved for traditional activities – camel racing in the UAE and the art of horn playing in France were among the activities granted heritage status last year.

But Zurich added techno to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2017, and in 2016 a German court ruled that Berghain produced work of cultural significance, entitling it to the same tax reductions as arts and culture venues.

Rave the Planet hopes Unesco status would “lower obstacles and requirements for the opening and maintenance of cultural venues such as clubs. It also makes it easier to access government subsidies and non-profit funding” and “puts pressure on authorities to act”.

Alan Oldham, a Detroit-born DJ who helped give rise to techno music culture, told the Observer that “Unesco protection would help a lot towards establishing techno and club culture as a legitimate social force with historical value and worthy of government support, not just hedonistic, disposable club music and drugs”.