Dietmar-Maria "Dimitri" Hegemann (born August 26, 1954) is a German

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

owner, cultural activist and

community organizer Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other or share some common problem come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community bui ...

, currently living and working in Berlin, Germany.

Early life and career

Dimitri Hegemann was born in

Werl Werl (; Westphalian: ''Wiärl'') is a town located in the district of Soest in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Werl is easily accessible because it is located between the Sauerland, Münsterland, and the Ruhr Area. The Hellweg r ...

of Westfalia,

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

on August 26, 1954. He moved to be part of the developing art, music and social scenes in

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under m ...

and began studying musicology in

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state d ...

, and after relocation, at the

Free University Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

in 1978. He played the bass in the locally known band "Leningrad Sandwich". Between 1982 and 1990, he organized five Berlin Atonal featuring groups like Malaria!,

Einstürzende Neubauten (, 'Collapsing New Buildings') is a German experimental music group, formed in West Berlin in 1980. The group is currently composed of founding members Blixa Bargeld (lead vocals; guitar; keyboard) and N.U. Unruh (custom-made instruments; perc ...

Test Dept Test Dept, sometimes credited as Test Department is a British industrial music group from London, England, that was one of the most important and influential early industrial music acts. Their approach was marked by the use of "found" material ...

Laibach Laibach () is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with the industrial, martial, and neo-classical genres. Formed in the mining town of Trbovlje (at the time in Yugoslavia) in 1980, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue S ...

, Psychic TV and

Die Haut Die Haut (German for ''the skin'') were an experimental German post-punk and post-rock band in Berlin during the 1980s and 1990s, with such records as the Nick Cave collaboration '' Burnin' the Ice''. The only constant member was Christoph Dreh ...

. In 1986, he opened a gallery in an old shoe store, which he called the Fischbüro, a name inspired by the Dadaist movement. In the gallery's basement in 1988 he opened the acid house club Ufo. Though the basement room had a ladder for access, and space for only 100 people, Ufo hosted the after-party celebration of the first

Love Parade The Love Parade (german: Loveparade) was a popular electronic dance music festival and technoparade that originated in 1989 in West Berlin, Germany. It was held annually in Berlin from 1989 to 2003 and in 2006, then from 2007 to 2010 in the ...

in 1989. After the wall came down, Hegemann and his friends opened the techno club Tresor, which was located between the two infamous walls - in the heart of the reunited city. Tresor became the launchpad for a youth culture movement inspired by techno, the futuristic dance sound made in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

. A relationship between Hegemann and Detroit artists Mike Banks and

Jeff Mills Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. Thanks to his technical abilities as a DJ, Mills became known as ''The Wizard'' in the early to mid 1980s. In the late 1980s Mills founded ...

of Underground Resistance began and continues to this day. In 2005, the council of Berlin sold the ground where Tresor was located to an insurance company and Tresor had to move out. In March 2007, Hegemann found a new home for the club in an abandoned power plant in the middle of Berlin. The new home is called Kraftwerk Berlin and features art, music, and cultural events across several genres.

Current work

In 2015 Hegemann launched a community organization called Happy Locals, and another called the Academy for Subcultural Understanding. The Happy Locals is a group made up of Berlin-based organizations, which help make alternative projects happen. Since 2012, the Happy Locals have shared its experience and knowledge, finding collaborators and partners to plan creative projects for cities that need them. The Happy Locals want to expand the project nationally and internationally. Hegemann considers himself a cultural activist and calls himself a "space" pioneer - aiming to turn industrial ruins into cultural spaces. Only restorative art, he says, can save old cities from vanishing into meaninglessness. His current project involves renovating industrial spaces in Detroit as part of a group called the

-Berlin Connection. He wants to help the people of Detroit, with alternative, non-traditional projects using assets that already exist in the community: the people who live there and a multitude of still solid, but underused buildings. Hegemann wants to encourage Detroiters by building a creative hub to help attract projects that combine art, music, technology with improving the quality of life in the city's neighborhoods.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hegemann, Dimitri Community activists Nightclub owners German emigrants to the United States 1954 births Living people