At the city’s center, the Mitte district is generally home to the fancier end of the party spectrum, including current glam hotspots like TheLiberate (Kleine Präsidentenstrasse 4, Mitte. Tel: 030-8867-7778. www.theliberate.com) and cool mixed lounges like Saint Jean(Steinstrasse 21, Mitte. Tel: 030-2408-8464. www.barsaintjean.com). Meanwhile, circuit-party lovers will appreciate that the once-roving Revolver Berlin(www.facebook.com/RevolverPartyGlobal) has now taken up permanent residence on the second Friday of every month at KitKatClub (Kopenickerstrasse 76, Mitte. www.kitkatclub.org), home to both the annual Hustlaball (www.hustlaball.de) and the infamous monthly-ish FickstutenMarkt Horse Fair (www.fickstutenmarkt.com) parties.
On the east end of town, Berghain (Am Wriezener Bahnhof, Friedrichshain. Tel: 030-2936-0210. www.berghain.de) is still the ultimate in no-holds-barred Berlin dance clubs (lasting literally all weekend long from Friday night to Monday morning), but on the third Friday of every month it now has competition from Homopatik (Markgrafendamm 24, Friedrichshain. www.aboutparty.net), the dance-fest of choice for the city’s gay hipsters.
For the latest info on the city’s ever-changing club scene, pick up a free copy of Berlin’s gay magazine, Siegessäule (www.siegessaeule.de), that now includes an English-language events calendar. Another great resource, especially for the city’s many raunchy party offerings, is Disco Damaged Berlin (www.discodamaged.net).
Berlin even has two separate annual Pride events, the massive and mainstream CSD, short for Christopher Street Day, (www.csd-berlin.de) and the more political and alternative Transgenialer CSD (www.transgenialercsd.blogsport.de). Both happen on the same day, which in 2014 will be June 21. The main CSD pride theme this year is “Back to the roots: human rights and equality now,�? and will, as usual, culminate in a huge festival stretching through the eastern half of the Tiergarten from the Siegessäule (or Victory Column) to the Brandenburg Gate.
At the other end of the Tiergarten, and bordering the Schöneberg neighborhood, lies an area that’s once again one of Berlin’s most dynamic districts, the rejuvenated City West. During the Wall years, the city’s original downtown area (Mitte) sat wholly in East Berlin, forcing West Berlin to create its own shopping and business core. The blocks around the wide avenue of Kurfürstendamm (just Ku’damm for short) on Charlottenburg’s east side were a logical choice, and from 1961 to 1989 this neighborhood served as the bustling hub of West Berlin. That all changed when the Wall came down, and Mitte was restored as the heart of reunited Berlin, leaving the Ku’damm region struggling to find its place within the new city. Only in just the past few years has this beautiful and central area, rebranded as City West, seen a remarkable rebirth, with some of the city’s top art galleries relocating here alongside a slew of new ultra-luxe hotels and restaurants. The star among these has been the Waldorf Astoria Berlin (Hardenbergstrasse 28, Charlottenburg. Tel: 030-814-0000. www.waldorfastoriaberlin.com). Set in the top floors of the area’s tallest building, the new 32-story Zoofenster (or “Zoo window,�? referring to the adjacent Zoological Garden). Opened at the beginning of 2013, the five-star Waldorf offers 232 lavish rooms and boasts its own Michelin-starred restaurant, French Chef Pierre Gagnaire’s Les Solistes.
Another plush new Zoo-view hotel is Das Stue (Drakestrasse 1, Tiergarten. Tel: 030-311-7220. www.das-stue.com) that offers a blend of highend luxury and contemporary design within what was once the Royal Danish Embassy. (For more on Berlin’s broad selection of gay-friendly accommodations, check out the Pink Pillow Berlin Collection (www.pinkpillow-berlin.com), a new designation by the city’s official tourism bureau, VisitBerlin).
