Gretchen

Prussian stables, vaults and basslines

The discreet facade on Obentrautstraße does not hint at what lies inside: the former stables of the 1st Queen Victoria's Guard Dragoon Regiment, a listed building from 1854 in the Dragonerareal of Kreuzberg. Cast-iron columns recovered during the venue's renovation and cross vaults turn the stable into a resonance chamber. This is where Box1 and Box2 operate, two dance floors for concerts and club nights, far from the 4/4 techno that monopolizes much of the Berlin night.

From Icon to Mehringdamm

Pamela Schobeß and Lars Döring opened Gretchen on October 1, 2011, after years at the helm of Icon in Prenzlauer Berg, a smaller venue not really designed for live music. Icon closed at the end of that same year; Gretchen was born with a stage, two dance floors and a booking policy that mixes DJ sets and live concerts. The company Good Day Berlin Kultur und Veranstaltungen GmbH remains in charge: Döring manages the program and Schobeß the management. The name takes Gretchen from Goethe's Faust—purity and object of desire—and from Chelsea Cain's Gretchen: music, they argue, brings those poles together.

Cutting-edge, beyond 4/4

The club structures its program according to the cutting-edge principle: niches, new sounds and heroes of intersecting genres. The spectrum ranges from electronica, bass, drum'n'bass, dubstep and trap to IDM, glitch, experimental and avant-garde, and from there to hip hop, funk, soul, folk, afrobeats, jazz and world. Each year it hosts around 250 concerts, as well as slams, readings, theater and panels. An L-Acoustics system covers both dance floors; in summer, the Gretchen Yard, the backyard, hosts open-air concerts. The venue declares itself a platform for FLINTA*, LGBTIQ*, POC and other minoritized communities. Drum'n'bass club nights coexist with jazz, live electronica and bass nights.

Awards and defense of the site

The program has received the federal APPLAUS award in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2023; in 2023 it took the main prize for the best live music program in Germany. The Berlin Senate distinguished it at the Tag der Clubkultur in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Since 2015, Gretchen has been pushing for a 4.7-hectare Dragonerareal oriented towards the common good: privatization was avoided and the club is part of the site's Zukunftsrat, along with senates, the district and neighborhood movements. In 2021, it replaced steps with fixed ramps in Box1 and Box2; the venue is wheelchair accessible, with an adapted restroom behind the stage.