SO36

SO36 opened at Oranienstraße 190 in Kreuzberg in August 1978 as an experimental venue for the West Berlin punk and no-wave scenes. Its name — from the old Kreuzberg postal district SO 36 (Südost 36) — is a badge of neighbourhood identity in a way that's always been half serious. Within two years it had become the epicentre of Neue Deutsche Welle: Einstürzende Neubauten, Nina Hagen, Blixa Bargeld, Die Ärzte and the Fehlfarben all played here regularly. Nick Cave was a resident regular in the mid-1980s. SO36's queer identity is inseparable from its role as a mixed anti-Establishment venue. From the beginning it was open to queer punk, trans performers and drag; in the early 1980s it hosted regular AIDS-benefit shows before the epidemic was named in the German press. The venue's Turkish-German diasporic identity — Kreuzberg 36 was and is a majority-Turkish-heritage neighbourhood — made it the natural home for **Gayhane**, the monthly oriental-queer club night founded by drag queen Ipek İpekçioğlu in 1997 and still running. The venue is a converted 1920s cinema; capacity roughly 400. Programming today mixes concerts, film screenings, drag revues, benefit parties and the ongoing Gayhane nights (last Saturday of most months). The floor is famously worn; the ceiling is high; the atmosphere depends heavily on the specific event. Entry usually €8-15 depending on programme. Check the schedule at so36.de. This is not a "gay bar" — it's a mixed radical venue with a queer history baked into its identity. Come for the specific event; stay because Oranienstraße at 2 AM is one of the last spots in central Berlin that still feels like Kreuzberg used to feel.