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Old big factory halls, bizarre colourful wooden houses and huge open-air areas where you can dance until sunrise in summer: This is what we love about Berlin's club scene and what makes it - and therefore Berlin - so unique.

As colourful and different as the clubs in Berlin are, they all have one thing in common: many are threatened with closure - whether for the construction of a new motorway, due to rising rents or "personal use". The Berlin club scene is on the brink of extinction: With the announced closure of our Neukölln cultural location Griessmuehle, the disaster is coming to a head.

The current rental contract ends on 31.01.2020 and will not be extended further by the owner of the site (SIAG Property II GmbH). If we do not act now, yet another piece of Berlin club culture will disappear!

All our attempts to get the S IMMO Germany GmbH (responsible administrator) or the SIAG together have failed so far. The cultural location, which has been built up over eight years, must therefore make way for new commercial units. Furthermore, together with the district, the business development agency, the Club Commission and the senator for culture we are trying to get the owners to talk to each other, because we too can be met at eye level. We are not just a club: with ping-pong evenings, cinema nights and flea markets, a neighbourhood meeting place for the district and the people here in Berlin-Neukölln is lost.

That is why our concrete demands on SIAG Property II GmbH and S IMMO Germany GmbH are:

• Contact and communication at eye level between owners and us
• Transparent and fair sales procedure - consideration of our investors
• Extension of the rental contract until the start of construction, or until there is an alternative

Four years ago, SIAG Property II GmbH bought the property at Sonnenallee 221 in order to redevelop the site. This was followed by fixed-term leases at six-month intervals. At the beginning of November 2019, the building permit for the property was granted. The current owner would now like to resell the site quickly. A new owner has not yet been found, so that there is no possibility of negotiating a continuance. Several investors who would assure us of continued operation for the next seven to ten years have already contacted S IMMO in September 2019, but have not yet been considered.

We are not alone with the threat of being squeezed out by new buildings. Other cultural locations in Berlin are also currently having to fight against this. This can be attributed to the lack of protection that clubs should actually receive. After all, they are much more than just places to party. That is why our concrete demands to politicians are additional:

• Protection of existing clubs and consideration of club sites in development plans until 2030
• Recognition of clubs as cultural sites
• long-term inner-city alternatives for threatened sites

All information and statements, our SOS video and the newsletter registration here on our website: http://www.saveourspaces.berlin