Berghain Nights

A Journey through Techno and Berlin Club Culture

Liam Cagney author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Reaktion Books

Publishing:1st Oct '25

£15.99

This title is due to be published on 1st October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Berghain Nights cover

Liam Cagney is residing in a Berlin squat when one night he finds himself at Berghain. Fascinated by the strange techno and even stranger dance floor, he sets out to explore Berlin’s unique club culture in all its intensity. Berghain Nights is the result, the first major literary exploration of Berlin’s club scene.


Blending essay and memoir, Berghain Nights features interviews with major electronic dance music artists like Ellen Allien, Rrose, Luke Slater, Eris Drew and Function, alongside other figures from Berlin’s night-time economy and the history of techno. From kinky parties at KitKat Club to the industrial gloom of Tresor, from the queer garden of Buttons to the gay psychedelia of Cocktail d’Amore, Berghain Nights not only captures the excitement of Berlin’s clubs, it explores how spaces like these can help one find a truer self.

Liam Cagney doesn’t just write from the middle of the dance floor. He’s there in the queue, in the club toilets and in dark corners. Zooming between histories of techno, Berlin clubs and his childhood in rural Donegal, this no-holds-barred exploration of dance-floor life describes a site of transformation and repair, as if Toner Quinn went on an intellectual bender with McKenzie Wark. * Emma Warren, author of Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through the Dancefloor *

ISBN: 9781836390831

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

304 pages