Wednesday, September 18
Goodbye Watergate: Another Berlin club shuts down due to rising costs
The warning signs were all there. Last month, when Renate announced that it would be closing down they wrote in their statement that the “steep rent increases” being forced on them by real estate company Gijora Padovicz might also affect “well-known clubs like Watergate”. Apparently that warning was all too prescient, as yesterday Watergate issued an official statement on their Instagram that they too were closing down. Their final party will be on New Year’s Eve.
That statement made grim reading: “With a heavy heart, we have decided to end our club operations at Watergate,” the organisers wrote. “These are tough times for Berlin clubs, and since Covid the business hasn’t really picked up… The days when Berlin was flooded with club-loving visitors are over, at least for now, and the scene is fighting for survival.”
Predatory real estate companies are not the only threat to Berlin’s club scene. Berlin’s proposed extension of the A100 motorway into Friedrichshain threatens several venues around Ostkreuz.
News of Watergate’s impending closure was met with calls (notably from Green and Die Linke politicians) for government action to protect Berlin nightlife. In the last few years, real estate investors have killed off clubs like Grießmühle, Rosie’s and Rummels-Bucht. Renate and Watergate may be the latest, but they won’t be the last.
