Knaack () was a nightclub in

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany. It opened in 1952 as a youth club and occasional disco. It then developed during the

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

era into a live music venue where many notable German bands played regularly.

Gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

of the surrounding area in the late 2000s led to complaints about the club's noise from residents of newly constructed apartment buildings nearby. A court case resulted, placing restrictions on the noise levels, which the owners judged made the club financially untenable, resulting in its closure on 31 December 2010. After efforts to reopen in another district, the club secured new premises in Prenzlauer Berg and announced in February 2013 that they planned to reopen in 2016. Delays due to construction permits pushed these plans back to 2018. As of 2023 no construction has begun.

History

The club was located on Greifswalder Straße in

East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...

Der legendäre Knaack-Klub kommt zurück
''

Berliner Morgenpost ''Berliner Morgenpost'' is a German newspaper, based and mainly read in Berlin, where it is one of the most read daily newspapers. History and profile Founded in 1898 by Leopold Ullstein, the paper was taken over by Axel Springer AG in 1959 a ...

'', 15 February 2013 on the site of a former brewery.Clubbed to death: Berlin steps in to save nightlife from gentrification
''The Guardian'', 29 March 2012 It began in 1952 as the Ernst Knaack youth centre () and featured table tennis and occasional concerts. It was named after

Ernst Knaack Ernst Knaack (4 November 1914 - 28 August 1944) was a Germans, German Communist and German resistance to Nazism, resistance fighter against the Nazi Germany régime. Biography Knaack was born in Berlin. In 1928 he joined the Communist Youth Le ...

, a local communist resistance fighter. It began to include music and dancing in the late 1960s and 1970s.Knaack Club: Der Countdown läuft
'' BZ Berlin'', 3 December 2010 After years of playing mostly recorded music, the ground floor became a concert venue in 1992 and eventually hosted around 100 concerts a year.Tanz ins Ungewisse
''

Der Tagesspiegel (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington, D.C., and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, since reunificati ...

'', 21 October 2009 Among the bands who regularly played live at the venue were German groups such as

Rammstein Rammstein (, "ramming stone") is a German band formed in Berlin in 1994. The band's lineup—consisting of lead vocalist Till Lindemann, lead guitarist Richard Kruspe, rhythm guitarist Paul Landers, bassist Oliver Riedel, drummer Christoph ...

, who played one of their first concerts at the venue,Knaack-Club geht mit 59 in Rente
''

'', 6 December 2010 and

Die Toten Hosen Die Toten Hosen are a German punk rock band from Düsseldorf. The name is taken from the German slang idiom ''tote Hose'' (literally "dead trousers"), which means "nothing happening"; "boring". The band has had an important success through th ...

. International artists such as

Snow Patrol Snow Patrol are a Northern Irish–Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in 1994 in Dundee, Scotland, consisting of Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar), Nathan Connolly (guitar, backing vocals), and Johnny McDaid (piano, guitar, keyboards, backi ...

and Keane also appeared at the venue.

Closure

In the late 2000s, the district—during the time of the

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

and into the 1990s an area favored by

punks Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and

bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

—underwent gentrification. Construction of new dwellings near the club resulted in complaints about the club's noise from the new residents. This led to a temporary halt to concerts, which resulted in the number of clubbers falling from 1000 to 400 on a Saturday, threatening the club's economic viability. The planners of the apartment block were blamed for this, as they had failed to take the noise levels from the club into account when designing the apartment block.Das Knaack kehrt zurück
''

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (; ) is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since Reunification of Germany, reunification. It is published by Berl ...

'', 14 February 2013 Nevertheless, in June 2010 a court ruled in the residents' favour, instructing the club to finish all events by 23:00 and restricting it to noise levels which would register at no higher than 25 decibels in the living rooms of the residents after that time.Knaack Klub schließt zum Jahresende
''

'', 22 November 2010 The club responded by installing new soundproofing in the building to reduce the noise levels, but the reduced noise levels inside the club proved unpopular with clubbers. Eventually, the owners decided that these new conditions made operating a club untenable and decided to close, seeking a new location. The last concert took place on 4 December 2010, with a band from Munich, From Constant Visions, and one from Berlin, Contravolta, the last acts to play at the venue. The owners subsequently made an unsuccessful attempt to reopen the venue in the

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...

district of Berlin. The closure of Knaack and similar clubs as a result of economic changes resulted in a new term being coined in Berlin: ''clubsterben'' or "club death." Local politicians, concerned by possible economic effects of this, created a 1 million euro music fund to assist clubs in similar situations.

Proposed reopening

In February 2013, the club announced that it had secured new premises on vacant land on Eberswalder Straße in the Prenzlauer Berg district near

Mauerpark Mauerpark is a public linear park in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district. The name translates to "Wall Park", referring to its status as a former part of the Berlin Wall and its Death Strip. The park is located at the border of Prenzlauer B ...

. Press reports at that time suggested it would reopen in 2016 as ''Knaack-Kulturhaus''.Knaack unter freiem Himmel
''

'', 14 August 2013 The club celebrated its future rebirth with a two-day festival in August 2013. The importance of Mauerpark to public utility companies meant that these plans were postponed, with the club planning to reopen in 2018.Legendärer Knaack Klub könnte 2018 wieder eröffnen
''

'', 13 January 2017 Plans for this venue include a concert hall with a capacity of 1,000 people, a club with a capacity for 200, as well as rehearsal rooms, restaurant, cinema and music library. As of October 2021, the reopening was still planned but on hold, with further delays caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic in Germany The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully contained ...

and a lawsuit of BVG against the plans. In June 2023 it was announced that BVG and the district of

Pankow Pankow () is the second largest and most populous Boroughs and quarters of Berlin, borough of the German capital Berlin. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, it was merged with the former boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg and Weissensee (Berlin), W ...

had reached an agreement and the club would reopen in a new location.

References

{{Authority control Nightclubs in Berlin Former music venues in Germany 1952 establishments in East Germany 2010 disestablishments in Germany Buildings and structures in Pankow