All About Ritter Butzke Berlin

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Berlin, Germany

Club / Indoor & Outdoor / S – 500-2k

City

Electronic

$$

Live Music, Underground

Casual

Ritter Butzke is the definitive destination to experience Berlin’s nightlife.

Immersing itself in the vibrant culture of Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, Ritter Butzke renovated a former factory to become its new home. This area is celebrated for its multicultural atmosphere and inhabitants who hail from all walks of life.

Embrace the underground and experience an unforgettable night at Ritter Butzke – where Berliners, newcomers, and out-of-towners alike come together to enjoy some of the most driving beats.

Step inside the pulsing heart of Berlin and indulge in a unique nightlife experience – whether it’s an outdoor event or indoor visual projections, Ritter Butzke is your ultimate destination.

Here is everything you need to know about Ritter Butzke Berlin.

Ritter Butzke was born as an illegal Berlin club

We are back in time. It is an icy February in 2007, Berghain shenanigans reimagine public spaces as afterhours shelters, factory raves are the ‘it’ clubbing spaces, and the name Ritter Butzke is taking over Berlin’s streets. 

Unlike most of the techno churches that kicked off their journey on the right side of the law, Ritter Butzke was an anarchist at heart. With a hush-hush spirit and bona fide lust for the elusive underground, the music hub emerged as an illegal club. 

No permit, no alcohol license, no nada. That’s exactly the scarcity that made adrenaline-seekers and electronic devotees lick their lips thinking about next weekend. 

Just like any good thing, Ritter Butzke’s impassioned topsy-turviness was a short-lived protest. A few months after its name became a Berlinesque staple, an anonymous tip led to a police raid – which, surprisingly or not, transformed Ritter Butzke into a deserted space. 

Authorities may have killed its raving sessions, but it didn’t do the same to locals’ appetite for marathon-like parties.

For a little while, Ritter Butzke’s ethos continued in what used to be Germany’s highest institution for Marixst-Leninist education – the foresaken Party Academy Karl Marx. 

In 2009, Ritter Butzke cut its illegal roots and reopened doors at its original location. Although it kissed its lawless days goodbye, the Berlin club has hardly adopted a mainstream approach. 

Living and breathing an industrial The Wonderful Wizard of Oz iteration, Ritter Butzke found its forever home in a former power plant. The Berlin club carries its abiding legacy by bearing its name – Butzke – and leaves its highborn mark by adding ritter – which translates into knight. 

Since then, Berlin’s Ritter Butzke morphed into the type of club that needs no advertising to fill up its rooms.

With a low profile but relentless commitment to give nightcrawlers clubbing sessions memorable enough to be passed through generations, Ritter Butzke transformed from Berlin’s best kept secret into a lusted-after music temple. 

The club found shelter in Berlin’s bohemian heart 

If Kreuzberg was a person, it would be a flower child whose religion translates into hippie cafes and thrift shopping. Located in central Berlin, the district oozes a laid-back vibe through its urban grit and countless attractions. 

Home to funky architecture and probably the best kebab shops in Berlin, Kreuzberg is a pro at sheltering dozens of cultures and seamlessly meshing them.

Although more than 180 nationalities found their home in the cultural district, most of them are Turkish immigrants – which might be why some of Kreuzberg’s neighborhoods are dubbed “Little Istanbul”. 

Once ranked as one of the city’s poorest areas, Kreuzberg morphed over the years into a microcosm of its own.

With contrasting cultures, an alternative identity and graffiti art covering more than half of the district, the Kreuzberg ecosystem feeds on multiculturalism. 

Beyond all those clichés, Kreuzberg shelters the type of vistas, tastes, and feels that no other Berlin district can deliver. In between the vivid murals, third-wave coffee roasteries make tourists believe they’ve never sipped on a real Americano before.

Berlin Wall’s longest continuous section sits in the East Side open-air Gallery, reminding locals about the days when they were separated from their loved ones. 

A fan of avocado toast, food stalls, and vintage shops, Kreuzberg is the type of Instagram influencer whose je ne sais quoi is always replicated, but never achieved.

Tumble down the White Rabbit’s hole to get inside Ritter Butzke

For a former factory that once manufactured metal goods and lamps, Ritter Butzke looks like a psychedelic afterworld.

Spanning four dance floors and three levels, the cavernous building is a carnival of cultures where wildly decorated walls, red brick structures and fairy lights tell clubbers an Alice in Wonderland story. 

Half decadent, half nirvana, Berlin’s Ritter Butzke had many creative visions for its music temple. Since it couldn’t settle for one theme, the 2,000-capacity techno institution gave birth to four different worlds by attributing an outlandish theme for each room.

As an underground fairyland, Ritter Butzke doesn’t follow the warehouse appeal of Berlin techno temples.

The clubbing destination’s tireless passion for attention to detail translates into mesmerizing disco balls, hefty chandeliers, and mirror balls. 

Picture it like this – the bunker-like rooms are a canvas and Ritter Butzke is the painter. Brush strokes turn into elaborate light installations and color splattering hits the dimly-lit walls to symbolise the artist’s devotion to creating a living room. 

In a place where coziness reigns supreme, the wonderland allure is cooled off by vintage furniture scattered across every room. Colorful umbrellas wrapping up the high ceilings are a leitmotif while lush greenery branches off steel structures. 

The carnival-inspired glamor goes further down the tube-like floor labyrinth. While one of the main rooms shelters a huge teapot, another dance floor is home to circus-like decor elements. 

In between the maze-like rooms, there is an adjoining lounge where nightcrawlers can retreat. But that is far from being the only spot where party animals go for a proper time out. Away from the thudding beats and hypnotic lights, there is a beer garden attached to a pergola. 

Scattered with tables and surrounded by stained-glass windows, the outdoor area morphs into a party zone for open-air clubbing sessions.

Ritter Butzke is one of the techno Gods 

Techno for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack? Berlin’s Ritter Butzke is happy to comply. With a deeply-rooted musical philosophy, the clubbing destination is forever loyal to authentic Berlin techno but makes the genre more melodic and uplifting. 

Far from being as bumpy and chaotic as an acid fan might expect, Ritter Butzke’s setlists feature an inimitable soundtrack.

Most of the club’s music heroes come from distinct musical backgrounds – some play deep house, others are all about minimal, while the restfeed on tech house.

If you really want to open the drawers, the familiar faces taking over the audio decks are local DJs.

With simple lineups and limitless possibilities, Ritter Butzke forms a playground for the unsung DJs that, in spite of their low-kept profile, have honed their mixing skills for years. 

Blue-blooded and homegrown talent such as Matthias Schuell, Monkey Safari, Lexer and AKA AKA take you on a groovy journey. 

With a slower tempo and focus on melodic progressions, Ritter Butzke doesn’t relate to techno temples like Watergate and Berghain.

Unlike those music-fueled hotspots, Ritter Butzke doesn’t care about how many calories you burn during a raving session, but about how many emotional levels you experience.

Getting inside Ritter Butzke is not like taking an exam

As a victim of its own reputation, Berlin’s Ritter Butzke is usually a full house. While tickets aren’t cheap (prices range from €15 to €20), party-goers queue for hours to get the bouncer’s affirmative nod. 

Unlike other Berlin techno clubs, Ritter Butzke’s door policy is easy to crack. But that is no way to say that you should take admission for granted.

Bouncers will stare at you long enough to see if you’re ready for what Ritter Butzke has prepared. 

If you don’t want to queue up for longer than your legs can, don’t show up at peak hours – 1AM and 3AM.

With over 190 events per year, you already can imagine that the techno temple is a pro at organizing raving sessions. Depending on the event, energy level and audience, parties at Ritter Butzke can last for half a day and beyond. 

Ritter Butzke runs two of Berlin’s top record labels 

While it has become a cliché for iconic clubbing destinations to create their in-house record labels, Ritter Butzke goes that extra mile. With two eponymous record labels in its pocket, the Berlin club climbed the ladder to the city’s most lusted-after EPs. 

Ritter Butzke Records and Ritter Butzke Studio were born out of the club’s devotion to deliver the best Berlin beats. As part of its long growing vision for over a decade, both record labels worship warm synths, smooth melodies, and ’90s-tinged remixes as if they were gods.

The club’s backstage features a toilet decorated with Swarovski crystals

Berlin’s Ritter Butzke might not be all about traditional VIP treatment with expensive bottles of bubbly and intimate booths. However, the DJ behind the decks will be in for a real treat when nature calls. 

In an interview with The Clubmap Magazine, a Ritter Butzke crew member said that a toilet is the club’s most expensive purchase.

Mind you, it is not your average toilet – this bad boy is decorated with Swarovski crystals.

As a dance temple with a timeless flair, Ritter Butzke is one of the clubbing institutions that freed itself from the shackles brought by fast-moving trends.

In an era where everything is ever-changing, the Berlin club stays loyal to its mission of getting every leg swinging on the dance floor.