Berghain Might Be Closing for Good

Speculation that the legendary nightlife institution might be shuttering at some point in the near future has been circulating since the club's in-house record label and booking agency, Ostgut Ton, abruptly closed earlier this month. According to several inside sources, the "world capital of techno" is set to close permanently by the end of 2022 almost two full decades after it first opened its doors in 2004.

“The Berghain is closing forever – the final end will come this year,” one source said to Faze Magazine. “One of the founders has already been paid out and is said to be staying in the countryside in Brandenburg,” another source told the German outlet. “The others simply ‘don’t feel like it’ anymore and have other life plans in mind.”

Related | Arca Soundtracks New Exhibition Next to Berghain

Apparently once the venue's current owners wash their hands of the place, there aren't any future plans for someone else to take over. “Continuing to exist as an art location does not appear to be an option. And so this chapter should finally be closed.”

So far Berghain's current owners have yet to comment or release an official statement addressing the speculation. Berghain previously closed its doors in March 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, operating as an art gallery while nightlife worldwide ground to a halt.

Before that, Berghain had been best known as one of the world's most exclusive club with a notoriously selective bouncer — who gained his own form of cult-like figure status in the process — that made getting let in a badge of pride for those select few (as Claire Danes once famously gushed about on Ellen back in the day).

Photo via Getty/Maja Hitij