The Berlin club that’s all about high culture – honest!

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.

Ravers rejoice! In what is routinely being described as a ‘landmark ruling’, a Berlin court has decided that the city’s Berghain nightclub should be classified as an ‘institution of high art’, thereby (sort of) elevating techno music to the status of opera and fine art.

The venue has made other cultural claims over the years, hosting numerous contemporary art installations (Sven Marquardt, the bouncer, is himself an artist) and counts none other than the cerebral former Tate Modern director Chris Dercon as a fan.

Nor is Dercon alone. MoMA PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach has previously flouted his groovy credentials by namedropping the club on Twitter:

i hate spellcheck….i try to type “berghain”and it makes ” bargain” out of it……that is either 1984 speaking or reality at its worst,…

— Klaus Biesenbach (@klausbiesenbach) September 22, 2012