Overview

• Berlin’s SchwuZ, regarded as Germany’s oldest queer club, recently filed for insolvency, underscoring the sector’s financial strain.
• Several long-running Berlin venues have shut in recent months, including Die Busche, Connection, Mutschmann’s and the café Berio, while Berghain has evolved into a tourist magnet.
• Large, venue-based scenes are now largely concentrated in Berlin and Cologne as cities like Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich have seen many dedicated spaces disappear.
• Reporting points to inflation and operating costs, gentrification, the rise of dating apps, and harsher rhetoric from some quarters as key pressures on traditional bars and clubs.
• The scene is fragmenting into niche and safer formats, with drag and bingo nights, fetish and wellness events, busy saunas such as Boiler, and heritage-style offerings like tours at Munich’s Deutsche Eiche.