“This isn’t another techno club with a darkroom.” That’s the first thing Karl, the creative consultant for ROSA, Berlin’s new pink kink club, wants to make clear. This exciting addition to Berlin’s sex-positive scene has just opened in the former Mensch Meier complex on Storkower Straße. The idea is to create a permanent physical home for Berlin’s queer, sex-positive and kink communities, a place where nightlife, sexuality, music and community can exist under the same roof.
For Karl, who is also the founder of long-running ‘pro-pervert’ event series Klub Verboten, the need for such a space has been obvious for years. “What we’ve felt for decades, or at least for the 10 years we’ve been doing this, is that the kink scene needs physical spaces,” he says. He compares it to something seemingly unrelated: sailing clubs. “Every sailing club has a clubhouse. People need places where they can exchange, where culture can flourish.” That’s the idea behind ROSA. Berlin has never lacked spaces where kink exists, but Karl believes there’s a difference between hosting kink events and actually building a space around kink from the beginning. “The kink scene is still the kink scene, from glory holes to refilling the lube station.” But ROSA intends to give that culture a new physical framework.
Putting Kink (and Pink) First
Berlin already has plenty of industrial clubs, warehouses and temporary spaces that can be transformed for a particular event. What Karl believes has been missing is a club where the entire design concept has been developed around sexuality and kink from the outset. “You can have industrial techno clubs with some industrial machinery to sit in, and then temporary events,” he explains. “But what you never had before is a rethought design concept around sexuality to fit a particular space and room.” ROSA is therefore not your conventional nightclub with a few playrooms added afterwards. The space has been designed specifically for the culture it intends to host. Alongside dancefloors and DJs are large social areas, playrooms, several bars and an outdoor area. The club will be able to accommodate up to 1,200 people.
According to Karl, the physical environment is also deliberately different from the visual language traditionally associated with BDSM and fetish spaces. The interior design centres on a single, playful, feel-good colour: pink. There are pink pipes, pink bathroom tiles, pink lampshades. That’s where the name comes from too. Like Karl said, this isn’t just another techno club. “It’s an evolution.” Where Klub Verboten has often embraced a harder, more industrial aesthetic, ROSA introduces softer and more feminine elements into the design. “It’s heavy duty,” he admits, “but with feminine elements – soft and cute. It’s not so firmly BDSM-heavy.” The result feels contemporary rather than nostalgic, a space that acknowledges the history of Berlin’s kink culture without simply reproducing its established visual codes.
That sense of evolution also extends to what actually happens inside ROSA. The team is currently developing a programme designed to cover a broad range of queer and kinky events rather than locking the venue into a single format. “We want a very diverse range, covering all angles in that genre,” Karl says. Music will obviously remain an important part of the experience, with DJs and dance floors continuing to play a central role. But the ambition is to create something wider: a social space, a cultural space and a place for different communities to meet.
For Karl, that variety is crucial. “We’ve built a space for the future.” Part of that future means questioning what kink spaces are supposed to look like. “We all know how the St Andrew’s cross has looked for the last 30 years,” he says. “That doesn’t mean it always has to look like that.” Kink doesn’t necessarily have to be represented through the same furniture, aesthetics and visual language that have dominated the scene for decades. Instead, ROSA wants to ask what a modern kink club could look and feel like.
Building the Team
Creating that environment also requires more than an impressive interior. One of the major projects behind the opening has been building the internal team. That’s everyone from security and awareness staff to the people responsible for programming, booking, hospitality and the wider operation of the venue. The team has been collaborating with training providers to make sure the people working inside ROSA understand the particular environment they’re responsible for.
It’s heavy duty, but with feminine elements – soft and cute.
Awareness is a central part of that approach. ROSA is working with the Good Night Out Campaign to train its so-called Safe Guards, who will act as points of contact during club nights if guests experience boundary violations, uncertainty or conflict. For Karl, awareness, consent and safeguarding need to be embedded into the entire operation of the club. The people who facilitated and financed the project, he says, wanted to create something for culture without dictating what that culture should become. “Everyone who facilitated and financed it just wants to do something for culture. It’s in your hands.”
ROSA is going to be the permanent home in Berlin for Klub Verboten. “We opened Stück in London,” says Karl, “and now collaborating with ROSA was really important to not just build an add-on in club culture.” Berlin has a long history of temporary spaces, one-off parties and clubs that exist for a few years before disappearing. ROSA is attempting something different: establishing infrastructure that can allow a community to grow over time.
Why Now?
There’s a certain contradiction at the heart of launching a major new club in Berlin right now. The city’s nightlife industry is under enormous pressure. Operating costs are rising, clubs are struggling and the political climate is becoming increasingly hostile towards many of the cultural spaces that have traditionally defined Berlin. Karl is realistic about the risks. “Who knows if it’s going to work out? Clubs are struggling. Everyone is struggling.” But that uncertainty is also part of why he believes the project matters. “When you start to care about something, you go the extra mile. It’s not covered by an extra ticket increase.”
People need places where they can exchange, where culture can flourish.
The increasingly difficult political environment makes physical spaces for community and exchange more important, not less. “There are so many people working their asses off every year,” Karl says. “As it gets harder, in this political climate, it’s more important than ever to create places for human exchange.” That may ultimately be the most interesting thing about ROSA. It is easy to look at a new kink club and focus on the obvious: the playrooms, the dance floors, the fetish aesthetics and the parties. But Karl is talking about something bigger.
ROSA is a clubhouse for a community. It aims to be a place where people can meet, experiment, socialise and build culture together, where kink isn’t an accessory to nightlife, but the starting point for designing the entire space. In a city where so much of club culture is constantly changing, ROSA is betting that the future of Berlin’s kink scene might not simply be another party. It might be a home.
You can visit ROSA at Storkower Str. 121 in Prenzlauer Berg, details
