The World’s Nightclub Capital Faces an Existential Crisis

BERLIN—The saying goes that in Berlin’s nightclubs, you can be or do whatever you want, as long as you don’t put anyone in danger.

In a pandemic, that’s a problem.

Paris has the Louvre, London its royal palaces and Berlin its nightclubs. Rooting back to the years after the fall of the Wall, when wild, improvised parties took place in abandoned industrial buildings, legendary techno club Tresor, rival Berghain and the city’s myriad other dance spots form a wild party scene that caters to all tastes—in music, drugs or sex.