 Ultraschall II in the former potato washing facility of thePfanni factory | |
 Interactive map of Ultraschall | |
| Address | Grafinger Str. 6, Kunstpark Ost |
|---|---|
| Location | Berg am Laim,Munich,Germany |
| Coordinates | 48°7′24″N11°36′30″E / 48.12333°N 11.60833°E /48.12333; 11.60833 |
| Operator | Ultraschall GmbH |
| Type | Nightclub |
| Event | Techno |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1950s |
| Opened | June 1994 |
| Closed | January 2003 |
| Website | |
| Ultraschall | |
Ultraschall (German:Ultrasound,German:[ˈʊltʁaʃal]ⓘ) was anightclub inMunich, Germany from 1994 to 2003. Thetechno club belonged, besides theTresor andE-Werk in Berlin, theDorian Gray andOmen in Frankfurt, and the Munich-based clubsKW – Das Heizkraftwerk,Natraj Temple andMillennium, to the most renowned clubs of Germany's 1990stechno culture.[1] According toFazeMag, Ultraschall was "for many techno fans the most authentic techno club alongside the Tresor".[2]
The origins of the club lie in the monthly Ultraworld parties on the grounds of an alternative cultural center in Munich'sOberföhring borough, which was calledKulturstation and often also hosted punk concerts.[3] The techno club nights were inspired by the nascent techno scene in Berlin and especially the clubsTresor andPlanet at that time. Because of the popularity of the parties and the lack of ventilation, the music had to be interrupted every two hours and to open the windows in order to supply sufficient oxygen.[4][5]
On 17 June 1994 the first Ultraschall club was opened by Peter Wacha, David Süss and Dorothea Zenker in the formercanteen kitchen of the recently decommissionedMunich-Riem Airport.[6] The club is considered to be the first pure techno club in Munich, after earlier clubs in the city also had other music genres in their program besides techno (such asParkcafé,Nachtwerk,Pulverturm,Tanzlokal Größenwahn orBabalu Club).[3] At the opening gig,Jeff Mills still played in front of only 120 paying guests and decided not to charge anything, but a few months later the club took off and became a grand success. A special feature of the club was that it was completely coated with white ceramic tiles.[7][6][8] Moreover, large parts of the club were fitted out with spaceship decorations taken from the science fiction movieThe High Crusade.[9] With suchavant-garde decorations, and the overall concept of an "world of experience", where beyond the music also light installations andvideo art played an important role, Ultraschall achieved international fame.[10] The crew members andresident DJs of the club includedDJ Hell,Monika Kruse,Richard Bartz andAcid Maria.[7] There was noheadliner at Ultraschall; no one told the DJs who had to play when and for how long, they had to decide among themselves.[8] The parties at Ultraschall were notorious for being experimental and wild. According to Monika Kruse "one day the whole dancefloor was arranged as a giant bed. People came around to consume mushrooms, or just brought along theirbongs with them. They all lied on the floor and chatted".[11][6] As the area of the former Munich Airport was needed for the planned new boroughMessestadt Riem, the Ultraschall I and all other clubs and halls on the compound had to close in summer 1996.
The complete party area of the Riem airport now moved to theKunstpark Ost, a former factory site of 90.000 m2 close to theOstbahnhof train station in Munich'sBerg am Laim district. Ultraschall was re-opened there byMichi Kern and colleagues in the former potato washing facility of thePfanni factory on 13 September 1996.[12] The new premises were much larger than the first Ultraschall and allowed to establish two dance floors. The main floor was located in the factory's former swimming pool for washing potatoes and, as with the first Ultraschall club, was completely lined with white ceramic tiles and divided by columns. The floor tiles were later covered by a wooden floor.[13] The space, characterized by simple geometric shapes, had the ambience of an industrial production site, but due to its strong angularity it did not have the atmosphere of a warehouse club.[14] The main floor was known for the cold clanking sound,[15] as well as for the wooden floor which was vibrating strongly due to the basses.[4] Due to its decoration with greenflokati, the second floor became known as theGreen Room. Since 1998 this room served as a home base for the popularFlokati House Club, which was initiated byTobi Neumann and in the 2000s moved on to theHarry Klein Club when Ultraschall closed. On Saturdays, the green room served as thechill out for theMain Floor, which provided space for 1,500 people and where international acts such asJeff Mills,Carl Craig,Jay Denham orGreen Velvet played. Just as the Ultraschall I, its successor put a lot emphasis on decoration, light installations andvideo art by theHighflyer crew,[5][16] and both incarnations of the club are considered as being some of the best decorated venues of all time.[10] When theKunstpark Ost party areal had to close on 31 January 2003, Ultraschall had to close as well.[4]
DJs and live acts who played at Ultraschall include international acts suchJeff Mills,Underground Resistance,Carl Craig,Miss Kittin,The Hacker,Blake Baxter,Robert Hood,Anthony Rother,Joey Beltram,Umek,Chris Korda,Chicks on Speed,I-F,Adam Beyer,Cari Lekebusch,Marco Carola,Ian Pooley,Cristian Vogel,John Tejada,The Advent,Jay Denham,Green Velvet,Anthony Shakir,DJ Tanith,Robert Görl, Johannes Heil,Electric Indigo, among many others.[17] The club also launched the careers of many of its residents, some of which became important representatives of the German techno scene themselves. Famous resident DJs of Ultraschall includeDJ Hell,Monika Kruse,Richard Bartz,Acid Maria andTobi Neumann. Ultraschall and Munich-based techno labels such asInternational DeeJay Gigolo Records,Disko B andKurbel Records formed a close network, and the club was used as a test platform for all new records of these labels. Further the club was used by the labels to get to know and enlist guest DJs, such as for exampleBlake Baxter,I-F orAbe Duque.[7]
In the converted halls of theUltraschall II main floor, on 12 March 2005 theOctagon club opened, after a club calledPhosphor had tried a fresh start there in 2004. One part of the Ultraschall crew opened the much smallerHarry Klein Club, which can be seen as a successor of theGreen Room, and became one of the world's most popular clubs as well.[18] The other part of the Ultraschall crew opened the clubRote Sonne, which reminds of theUltraworld and also became one of Europe's most popular techno clubs.[19] In the 2010s, theNox Club was the last venue that resided in the former bar area of the Ultraschall,[13] before the factory building was demolished in January 2016, in order to create space for the plannedWerksviertel working and residential district.
Media related toUltraschall at Wikimedia CommonsDE-BY_type:landmark48°7′24″N11°36′30″E / 48.12333°N 11.60833°E /48.12333; 11.60833