KitKatClub

Infobox Venue
name = KitKatClub


image_caption = KitKatClub Berlin
nickname = Kitty, KitKat
location = Mitte, Berlin, Germany
coordinates = coord|52|30|40|N|13|25|00|E|
type = Nightclub
opened = March 1994
owner = Simon Thaur and Kirsten Krüger

"For the 18th century English club in London with strong political and literary associations see the Kit-Cat Club."

The KitKatClub is a night club in Berlin, opened in March 1994 by Austrian pornographic film maker Simon Thaur and his life partner Kirsten Krüger.

Overview

The Kit Kat Club is said to attract patrons from all over Europe and other parts of the world because of its music selection (techno and trance music) and its sexually uninhibited parties. The motto of the club is "Do what you want but stay in communication".

Guests are allowed to engage in sexual intercourse openly at the venue. A strict dress code needs to be respected in order to get into the KitKatClub door, most of the time being held by Kirsten herself, her door policy being very strict. The dress code allows fetish, latex, leather, kinky, high style, glamor. The venue consists of three dance floors and an outdoor area with a pool. It is decorated with ultra-violet light and fluorescent color paintings done by the Berlin based painter Der Träumer.

In recent years, the KitKatClub tends to be less unruly. Enjoying music and dancing are now more important to the guests than coitus with their fellow patrons.

The guests of the "Kitty" (as most of the Berliners like to name the club) are not only heterosexual, a large number of homosexual men also spend their weekends in the club, allowing a high level of diversity amongst the clubbers.

Through the years the KitKatClub became a notorious Berlin institution. While Berlin was under a conservative regime in 2001, the club was harassed by the police and was charged with "invitation to public intercourse," a crime since pre-World War II.

The club moved four times since its opening in 1994. It opened in Glogauerstrasse in the Kreuzberg district in the former Turbine. In 1999 the KitKat was then located in one of the biggest nightlife regions of Berlin, Neues Schauspielhaus at Nollendorfplatz. In 2001, it moved to another lot in the gay district Schöneberg in Bessemer Straße, the club stayed there for seven years. At the beginning of July 2007 it moved then to the SageClub in the Mitte district (Brücken Straße 1), very close to the techno club Tresor. It could be considered a noteworthy change in Berlin's clubbing landscape as Berghain, Tresor and KitKatClub were now located very close to each other.

The KitKat party program presents more or less the same pattern of events for Friday nights in the new location as at Bessemer Straße. On Saturday nights, the famous "Carneball Bizarre" parties continue to take place, the Friday night events are being organized by other event makers and groups, closely related to Kirsten and Thaur, just as it used to be during the last years in the old location. What is changing however is the after-hour-party during Sunday. Under the name of "Relapse", the staff has changed the concept. The former "PiepShow" after-hour is now given the 4th Friday night of the month. On Thursday night the Sage Club group still uses the location.

Through the years a musical style has developed that some guests refer to as the "KittySound". To give this style a platform a KitKat record label was founded in 2005 and two CDs were released. "Hedonistic Nightlife in Berlin" and "The Piep Show Compilation #0". When the KitKat opened its doors in 1994 the musical profile of the club was mainly classical trance mixed with goa trance, but through the years the owners have opened the club to a much larger choice of electronic music.

Name origin

The name KitKatClub is inspired by the frivolous Berliner night club featured in the American musical "Cabaret". Bob Fosse’s "Cabaret" was set in Berlin in the early 1930s, against the backdrop of the uprising of the Nazi party, at a burlesque theater called the "Kit Kat Club". The original Kit-Kat Club (sometimes spelled Kit-Cat Club) was an 18th Century English liberal political society.

External links

*en icon [http://www.kitkatclub.de KitKatClub's official website]
*en icon [http://www.kitkatclub.de/Club/kitkatbooklet2.pdf KitKatClub DVD booklet (English/Deutsch - PDF)] 1994 - 2005 - History of the KitKatClub by Kirsten.
*en icon [http://www.myspace.com/kitkatclubberlin KitKatClub@Myspace]
*de icon [http://www.sonntagspiepshow.de/ Piep Show]
*de icon [http://www.kitkatclub.org/SeitenVorlagen/Club/Bildergalerien/OpeningSage/070707_grand_open/index.htm KitKat-photo gallery] - Opening @ sageclub July 2007
*en icon [http://www.berlin-life.com/drink/pubs_cafes_details/89-KitKatClub Read KitKatClub's reviews on Berlin - Life.com]
*de icon [http://www.taz.de/pt/2004/02/28/a0322.nf/text.ges,1 „Die Bühne ist der Star“] – about the KitKatClub, by Henning Kober, die tageszeitung (taz), 28. Feb. 2004
*de icon [http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2001/0503/lokales/0036/ „Erlaubt ist, was gefällt“] – by Elmar Schütze, Berliner Zeitung vom 3. Mai 2001
*de icon [http://www.parapolitik.de/kitkat/ "Locker trotz SM"] - S&M view about the KitKatClub
*de icon [http://www.insomnia-events.de/kitkatclub.htm KitKatClub @ Alter Wartesaal (Köln)]