About Blank at Ostkreuz
Address: Markgrafendamm 24c, 10245 Berlin. S-Bahn Ostkreuz, Markgrafendamm exit, lifts on site. Buses 194, 347, M43, N94. The Sektgarten door is on the south side. Source: aboutblank.li/sektgarten.
Styled ://about blank, short Blank. The name sits in a browser bar, the building is a 1970s house with graffiti, a former kindergarten. Groove, April 2020: two relatively small floors, a large garden. NovaFuture 2019, the collective itself: 400 indoors, 500 outdoors, floors MDF, Lobby, garden, tent.
2010, collective, kindergarten
Wikipedia: opened 2010, techno club, Friedrichshain, run as a worker cooperative. Imprint: about blank eG. Wikipedia, About Blank.
The crew, Groove 2020: 2006 an empty S-Bahn arch, an open meeting in the left scene, 30 people. Twelve to 14 stay, they want a club with wages, not only DIY. They do not get the arch. Two years of looking, then the plot on Markgrafendamm. 2009 lease and rebuild, the kindergarten kitchen still in the photos. taz 2017 on the seventh birthday: rented 2009, step by step, do-it-yourself.
Same hourly wage at the door, booking, bar, cleaning, collective. No profit, no sponsors, no corporate nights. DJ fees, Groove: the flat wage failed there. Feminist quota in crew and booking, women bouncers sought on purpose. Wikipedia points to the 2019 taz interview with door staff.
Sound: techno and house, series with their own brief. NovaFuture 2019: Blank Generation as the monthly flagship, Elements for hard techno. Groove names Staub and Homopatik as garden platforms. Founding role model, Groove: a hybrid of Golden Pudel and Berghain, in a wreck of a house.
Sektgarten
May to September, Tuesday to Friday from 17:00, free entry. Sparkling wine, juice, pizza, table tennis, foosball, bathtubs, a rain tent, children with a guardian, dogs on a lead, a step-free toilet. Bookings up to 20 people. Official: ://sektgarten.
A100, rent, 1312
The lease ran to 2020 first, then it was extended. Wikipedia. The next stretch of the A100 aims at this no-man’s-land by Ostkreuz. tagesschau, April 2024: dance until the diggers come. The Blank calls itself a bulwark against the motorway, Tagesspiegel 2025.
April 2025, Tagesspiegel: the club depends on city and borough money. District mayor Clara Herrmann holds the press conference in the room. Golden club card: 1,312 euros, free for life, no plus one, not transferable, only with good behaviour, until 3 May 2025. 2,500 parties since opening, same report.
2020 United We Stream, Wikipedia. Groove on the tenth year: crowdfunding over 130,000 euros during the shutdown.
Boycott, benefits, attacks
This sits in the middle of the file, not at the start and not at the end. Wikipedia, chapter on the controversies. 2018: Room 4 Resistance cancelled after backing #djsforpalestine. 2019: BDS call against Golden Pudel, Conne Island and About Blank. 2021: the Buttons series ends. Official club FAQ: “The Middle East conflict cannot be solved on the dancefloor.” And: the Blank does not define itself as an anti-German club. Some people in the collective have that background. Source: aboutblank.li/faq, Wikipedia.
18 November 2023: Queer Soli Rave for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. 19 November: Moving the Needle for the victims of the Supernova festival at the Re’im massacre. Wikipedia. September 2024, Tagesspiegel: graffiti, faeces, butyric acid, boycott calls against the club.
In the yard a concrete sculpture of the slogan “Nie wieder Deutschland”, Wikipedia, a 1990 current. Zeitmagazin 2017 filed the club under the anti-Germans. The collective rejects the drawer. Wikipedia quotes the FAQ.
Listen, tickets, the next night
Programme and door: aboutblank.li/next. Sound: SoundCloud, Bandcamp. Private bookings: aboutblank.li/feiern.
| Fact | ://about blank, Markgrafendamm 24c, 10245 Berlin-Friedrichshain, opened 2010. Wikipedia. |
|---|---|
| Fact | Operator about blank eG, cooperative, same hourly wage. Wikipedia, imprint, Groove 2020, FAQ. |
| Fact | Regularly open the night into Saturday and the night into Sunday around midnight. Wikipedia. |
| Fact | Sektgarten May to September, Tuesday to Friday from 17:00, free entry. aboutblank.li/sektgarten. |
| Fact | 400 indoors, 500 outdoors, floors MDF, Lobby, garden, tent. NovaFuture 2019, interview with the collective. |
| Fact | Former kindergarten, rebuild 2009. Groove 2020. |
| Fact | Lease first to 2020, then extended. A100 extension as a threat. Wikipedia, tagesschau 2024. |
| Fact | Tagesspiegel April 2025: 2,500 parties in 15 years, golden club card 1,312 euros. |
| Hypothesis | The next A100 stretch clears the plot. Medium confidence: the plan exists, the club stands, the lease was extended once already. |
| Rumour | “About Blank is Berlin’s anti-German club.” FAQ and Wikipedia: the club does not define itself that way. Zeitmagazin 2017 used the drawer anyway. |
Sources: Wikipedia About Blank, aboutblank.li, FAQ, Groove 2020, Tagesspiegel 2025, tagesschau 2024, NovaFuture 2019, taz 2017.