A gravestone has been placed outside of Berlin’s famous Watergate nightclub, following the venue’s closing last month.
The memorial, which commemorates the club’s 22-year history with the words “WATERGATE 2002-2024,” appeared outside the venue last week. Steinziet.alter, an anonymous group whose name translates to “stone age” in German, claimed responsibility for its installation on Instagram.
“Where a name is written on a stone, the soul lives on,” the group wrote. “Given the fact that we’ve had to exchange countless clubs for office spaces and other nonsense over the last few years, it’s just as important to remember what it once was.”
After more than two decades as one of Berlin’s most heralded nightlife institutions, Watergate permanently closed at the end of 2024. Club co-founder Ulrich Wombacher cited inflation, the energy crisis, rising costs, and high rent charged for the club’s location on the banks of the River Spree as the primary reasons for its closure.
Other storied venues in Berlin are facing challenges similar to those of Watergate and are meeting similar fates. In August, Renate announced its upcoming closure due to financial pressures and rent increases when its lease ends later this year. Both Renate and Watergate have the same landlord.
Many more of the city’s clubs are also threatened by the proposed 17th construction stage of the city’s A100 motorway, which opposers say would wipe out prominent venues in the region.
In response to the closures, Steinzeit.alter has shared plans to continue memorializing other lost music venues with headstones.
“Most importantly, we want to create attention on the issue of clubs dying and get people in this city—locals and tourists—to really think about that issue,” they wrote in another Instagram post. “Every stone is a monument, and every monument is a reminder of the vibrant, cultural, and diverse life this city is built on.”
Learn more about the renegade Watergate memorial in the posts below.
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Featured image courtesy: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB).
