Red light floods the black room, pictures of naked bodies hang on the walls, the DJ fills the club with loud music. “It’s a focal point here,” club operator Sven Künast calls out over the bass to Munich’s third mayor Verena Dietl (SPD) and “night mayor” Kay Mayer from the “Moderation of the Night” (Mona) department. “Müllerstraße is very special,” agrees Mayer, who has been the first port of call and contact person for everything to do with nightlife in the city since 2021.
It’s just after 10 p.m. on Friday evening in the Pimpernel, the staff is getting ready for the night, while Künast and his colleague Maurice Löw are talking to Dietl and Mayer. Mayer’s task is to network different actors in nightlife with each other, to solve problems through dialogue. He is with Dietl on their first tour of Munich’s nightlife: they want to hear from club operators, street workers and actors from the scene which topics and problems are relevant. The Pimpernel is the first stop, Dietl is a bit nostalgic, she used to party here sometimes.
Künast has a lot to tell. “We get some death threats,” it says. The volume of the rejected guests is also a problem. There are not enough police patrols on site, but there are also problems in the background, a jumble of specifications. “One district committee decides like this, the other like that,” says Künast.
Before the tour, Mayer and Dietl explained how complex the topic of nightlife is in the Lesbisch-Queer Center (LeZ) on Müllerstraße. “I also want to be there at night and see what’s going on,” says Dietl. Both emphasize the importance of mutual understanding between the various interest groups in Munich. “It’s important to me that we don’t lose sight of the young U18 target group, youth parties are a big topic right now,” says Mayer. In two to three weeks it should be announced at which locations in Munich young people can celebrate the open-air season as part of a “low-threshold offer”.
Night mayor Kay Mayer and his rucksack catch the eye on the tour of Sonnenstraße, here at Harry Klein. Mayer would also like to establish this type of inspection in the city districts.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Mayer is in contact with many young people, with DJ collectives, the city school student council. But not everyone sees the “diverse and colorful approach that way,” he says. An important part of his work is therefore mediation with residents of clubs and restaurants. “There is an individual need and interest situation.”
This evening, the next stop is Club Harry Klein, which will soon be closing its doors. On the way there, Mayer goes first, he’s carrying a backpack with the words “Mona – Moderation der Nacht” flickering over it. It’s about half past ten. “Of course there’s more going on later, we’ll probably be out and about later in the night on the next rounds,” says Mayer. Via the Sendlinger Tor you reach the Sonnenstrasse, whose nickname “Feierbanana” seems a bit provincial. On the way, Dietl talks about the “hearings” she holds in the town hall, where children and young people can describe their concerns.
Despite many young people, the scene has a problem with young people
In the golden corridor in front of the Harry Klein rooms, co-operator Peter Süss is standing with a drink in his hand and says to Dietl: “We cried a lot at Kay. It’s difficult to find cultural spaces without specifications.”
The search for young talent in the club landscape is also difficult, according to both Pimpernel and Harry Klein. Many young people organize themselves in DJ and party collectives and make themselves heard politically. Financial aspects are mentioned as well as a lack of space.
The group around Dietl and Mayer scattered in the corridor to let a wheelchair user and a friend through. “It’s all right, I want to smoke another one,” he says. How well does he get through the nightlife? “I’m lucky that I can walk short distances,” he says, standing up. “I can overcome small hurdles, otherwise I would be even more dependent on the help of great friends,” he says. “If I couldn’t go, I would be much more restricted. Bahni is the only club without obstacles,” he says, referring to the signalman Thiel.
When it comes to inclusion, it’s not just the premises that are obstacles in Munich, but sometimes the police too. Ravers feel criminalized at unauthorized events, queer people and people with a migration background feel discriminated against. Mayer talks about his earlier work as a street worker, where young people told him about their experiences with the police. “I can confirm a lot,” says Mayer. He emphasizes that these problems do not only exist in Munich. Previous rounds with the police have gone well, he appreciates them: “We’re still at the beginning, but we’re not hitting walls, despite the problems, the police system is definitely part of nightlife.”
Street workers at the Stachus address young people in a targeted manner: In addition to prevention, intervention is also an important part of the work.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
This approach becomes clear at every station on the tour: Mayer and Dietl are interested in the topics, including the Condrobs street work team bus that is parked at Stachus. More and more people are meeting here, getting refreshments at McDonalds, people in costume stumble over from the bus stop. “Now they come from the spring festival,” says Birgit Treml from Condrobs. Her young team tells Dietl about the different approaches to the work. So, earlier in the evening, a conversation is sought, talked about alcohol abuse. “Activating people is important to us,” says Treml. So cliques are encouraged to take care of each other, to go home together.
“Spots, substances, are there any special anomalies this year?” Night mayor Mayer would like to know before we continue. No, but there are many who would ask about drug consumption rooms. Another one of the aspects to consider. But what if people don’t use drugs voluntarily? “Yes, knockout drops are a huge problem,” says Mayer seriously. His demands are faster and standard tests, but above all prevention. “I don’t believe in telling people, ‘Then you have to be even more careful with your glass’. Such substances shouldn’t even be in circulation.” He sees a greater need for action: “If you want to do it right, you have to do it comprehensively.”
The last stop on the tour is the Call Me Drella, the queues here and in front of the other clubs are slowly filling up. Everything is fine here, operator Martin Putz has no complaints apart from the construction site in front of the door. Midnight has long since passed, the mood is changing. If Peter Fox sings about the transition from night to morning with “black to blue” in his Berlin anthem of the same name, the color gradient on the celebration banana at this time is red to blue: police cars with and without sirens and ambulances drive on Sonnenstraße and whitewash the streets as they drive past red lights from the clubs with flashing lights. Between the night owls, Mayer walks in the direction of the Sendlinger Tor, the lettering on his Mona backpack glows blue on black.