Philipp Schröder-Ringe
Appearances
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
Yes, I'm Jerry. Hi, Jerry. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
First things first, can you just say your name and what you do? My name is Philipp Schröder-Ringe, and I'm a lawyer. And what type of law do you practice? Event laws have many clients from the event industry, like clubs or organizers, festivals, etc.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
The typical problems where we could help with is, for example, noise issues with the neighbors, for example. Clubs are too loud or festivals, concerts need noise permission. And we try to get these kinds of permission. We help the organizers to fight back neighbors that have an issue with these permits, and then we go to court.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
By the way, did you realize that Berlin technoculture became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage? Yesterday, right? It was yesterday.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
Because when you have to outweigh the interests between neighbors and club owners, it will be a bit easier to get the permits with this decision now.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
Yeah, we're talking about like hundreds of thousands of euros. It would have been like an earthquake and it would have been dramatic. And I think there would have been some clubs that had to close the doors if they had to pay back all that money. So it was existential, absolutely.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
I remember it was at the top of the building, very impressive old building. And we were sitting there with older people gray-haired people that didn't look like they would go clubbing. And we sat there together with the different club owners. I couldn't say who was there, but they also tried to dress up a bit and to behave seriously in that situation.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
And that was a very funny conversation because you have to agree on two things for the reduced taxes. First, it has to be a concert, so you need an artist. So we had discussions about the DJs being artists. How do they use instruments? What are they doing there? And the tax authorities was of the opinion that, no, this is not art.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
I mean, you put on a CD or LP and you just let it play, it's no art.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
And fiscal authorities, they said, oh, no, we checked it, and you have bars, and you drink very much, and you have low entrance price. You make much more with drinks. So this holds against a concert. And what also holds against is that people don't know who's playing, who's the DJ. And the DJ is not like on a concert on a big stage. He's maybe in the corner.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
There's no light and people move around and they don't really care who's playing there. And we went into all this discussion and said, OK, come on, look, we have lower entrance fees because we want to provide opportunity for many people to enjoy club life. But at the same time, the clubs pay a lot for the DJs. I mean, they have residents, they have international DJs, they are well-known.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
Of course people come because they want to see these DJs. They celebrate the DJ. If he's doing a good job, then they're applauding, they are cheering.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
Yeah, it is like a very old school, maybe... prussian way of looking at concerts like everybody has to sit in a row and be quiet and do nothing else but listen and i had a good feeling after this conversation that we have the better arguments obviously yeah but the fiscal authorities and these people didn't agree and instead they went to court
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
I was very happy that it was the Berghain, because it is still one of the most famous clubs of Germany. And if it wouldn't work here, it wouldn't work for other clubs.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
I don't think that they changed the program or the culture. But what they are doing now is, of course, to do their paperwork. So they make sure that the running order is published before, like online or on social media, that they have scans of their flyers. And maybe you realize if you go out here, they might ask you if you know who's playing tonight.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
So this is also something they do since the discussion started to make sure that the people come to the club because of the resident did and DJ or whatever.
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Why didn’t Chris and Dan get into Berghain? (Part 2)
Yeah, it starts from the discussion with the tax authorities, I'm sure.