Berlin Techno Clubs Under Threat From Motorway Expansion

Berlin, Sept 5 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Sep, 2023 ) :The Autobahn may have been beloved by the band Kraftwerk, but it has become the bugbear of the Berlin techno scene as a motorway expansion threatens to shut down several clubs in the German capital.

The planned extension of the A100 has also united clubbers with environmental campaigners, who argue it will contribute to the climate crisis.

The motorway, which runs a partial ring around central Berlin, is due to be extended north from Treptower Park across the Spree river towards nightlife hub Friedrichshain some time in the next few years.

The extension would threaten five popular nightspots in the area, according to the Berlin Club Commission, a network for the city's clubs and cultural promoters.

They include About Blank, an industrial-style techno club next to Ostkreuz station, and Renate, a hub for the LGBTQ community in an unrenovated apartment block.

"These are clubs that have been here for the last 20-30 years... They're what makes Berlin famous and why people love it," Lutz Leichsenring, a spokesman for the Club Commission, told AFP.

The Club Commission helped organise a protest rave in early September in a bid to whip up opposition to the plans.

Temporary stages along the planned A100 route blasted out techno as several thousand people held up placards and danced along in hotpants and leopard prints.