Kater

The cat that returned to the sunny shore

When the Bar 25 plot returned to the hands of the collective that had turned it into a myth, the party settled once again by the Spree. Kater, known as Kater Blau until August 2025, opened in 2014 at Holzmarkt 25, almost at the same spot in Friedrichshain where, between 2003 and 2010, Bar 25 had rehearsed a hedonism of wood, circus, and house. In the interval, the same team had crossed the river to Kater Holzig, in an old soap factory; the bankruptcy of that company and the cooperative rescue of the original site returned the club to the sunny shore.

An entire neighborhood against the office tower

The venue is not an isolated box at the water's edge: it is part of a cooperative neighborhood of about 12,000 square meters, acquired with the Stiftung Abendrot against the logic of Mediaspree. Studios, workshops, cafes, and a public riverfront surround the dance floors. Christoph Klenzendorf, co-founder of the two previous houses, also promoted this third life. The venue mixes wooden huts, colored spotlights, and a permanent festival aesthetic that contrasts with the industrial concrete of other electronic clubs in the city.

The weekend as a unit of time

The musical identity has been defined from within as colorful, melodic, and open to experiment: house and techno, from local residents to international names. In the Heinz Hopper beats the main body of the night; the Acid Bogen, smaller, hosts live acts, ambient, and stranger drifts. To those two floors are added extra rooms, a kiosk, and, in good weather, the open air and the deck of a boat anchored seasonally. The usual program does not fit into a single night: from Friday to Monday morning, with the Katernacht and marathons of more than seventy hours, the clock is replaced by the end of the lineup. The club presents itself as a safe space and, when the dance floor rests, it opens the venue to the Seifentheater.

The blue is gone; the cat stayed

In August 2025 the venue shortened its name to Kater, with a new visual identity and the promise of an even broader and more inclusive sound. The building, the shore, and the genealogy remain the same: a physical electronic club designed so that the myth of Bar 25 would not remain just nostalgia, and which continues to measure time in long weekends on the banks of the Spree.