RECOGNITION
“Clubs are Culture”: A Major Breakthrough Within Reach in Germany
Iris Hinze
23 July 2026
© DHP Family
Another step towards club recognition as cultural infrastructure is underway in Germany, as the Federal Government introduces a draft law that would change building regulations and give them stronger protection from eviction. Iris Hinze, chair of LiveKomm and spokesperson for the Working Group âKulturraumschutzâ (âprotection of cultural spacesâ), unpacks what this law reform means for the future of German clubs, and what challenges still need to be addressed.
In May 2026, the German Federal Government introduced a draft law to modernise urban development and spatial planning legislation. For the German club and live music scene, this could become the most significant planning law reform in decades. For the first time, music clubs are to be classified as an independent category of use under building planning law. In doing so, the Federal Government is responding to a cultural policy development that has long since become reality: music clubs are not entertainment venues, but cultural infrastructure.
This reform does not come out of nowhere. As early as 2021, the German Bundestag had established by a broad majority that clubs are cultural venues. However, what had already been decided in cultural policy terms had until now only limited impact on planning law practice. There, music clubs continued to be treated as entertainment venues, in the same category as amusement arcades, adult cinemas, betting shops and similar establishments. For many operators, this was far more than a symbolic problem. The classification affected permits, location decisions and development opportunities across different area categories.
The reform now before us is intended to change that.
A Shift in Perspective in Planning Law
The draft law acknowledges that music clubs have a cultural dimension and make an important contribution to social and cultural life. This recognition is more than a linguistic correction. It changes the starting point for municipal planning processes and permitting procedures.
Particularly relevant are the new area admissibility rules. Music clubs are to be generally permitted in mixed-use areas, urban areas, core areas and commercial zones. In addition, they are to be exceptionally permissible in special residential areas, village areas, rural residential areas and industrial zones.
For many existing music venues and clubs, this means a more realistic planning law classification for the first time. At the same time, the reform opens up new prospects for the development of future locations. Municipalities gain greater scope to consider music venues and clubs as part of their cultural infrastructure and to include them in urban development processes.
This development is urgently needed. Music clubs are not merely venues for concerts and nightlife. They are experimental spaces for new music, platforms for emerging artists, meeting points for diverse social groups, and often the first places where cultural participation becomes possible at all. They create identity, animate neighbourhoods and contribute to the attractiveness of cities.
Wherever people live, we need easily accessible music venues that bring neighbourhoods to life and enable cultural participation.
Why the Reform Is Still Not Enough
Despite all the progress made, it would be premature to speak of a breakthrough in cultural space protection.
Obtaining a permit is not the issue for many threatened music clubs today. Their problem is that they already exist and are coming under increasing pressure. Encroaching residential development, rising land values, conflicts of use and noise[1] complaints are leading to the gradual displacement of cultural infrastructure in many places.
Recent years have provided numerous examples. The Berlin club GriessmĂŒhle lost its location in the course of property development. Hamburg’s Molotow repeatedly had to fight for a venue. Munich’s Harry Klein closed its doors after decades of operation when its lease expired. Behind these prominent cases stand countless further cultural venues that receive less public attention, particularly in smaller towns and rural regions.
The current reform only partially addresses these challenges.
From LiveKomm’s perspective, the most consistent solution would be to classify music clubs as facilities serving cultural purposes, in the same way as theatres, opera houses or concert halls. Instead, a separate category of use is now being created. This is progress, but at the same time a special path whose practical implications have yet to be seen.
The definition of a music venue and club also remains open to interpretation in some respects. What will be decisive is that the cultural and artistic focus of a use is placed at the forefront going forward. Modern club culture is diverse â it encompasses live concerts, electronic music, curated club nights, interdisciplinary formats and cultural experiments. This diversity must also be reflected in the interpretation of the law.
The Real Test Begins After the Law Is Passed
One of the most interesting innovations in the draft concerns the possibility of designating so-called special zones for music clubs.
Municipalities are to be expressly granted the option to secure existing or planned music clubs through development plans. This creates, for the first time, an instrument with which cities can actively protect and develop cultural venues.
Yet this is precisely where the limits of federal legislation become apparent.
No law protects a venue or club automatically. Whether the new instruments are actually used will be decided at the local level. After the parliamentary process, it will be the municipalities’ turn. They must take up the new possibilities, integrate cultural venues into their planning and understand live music as a component of forward-looking urban development.
From LiveKomm’s perspective, what is additionally needed is a nationwide club and cultural register. Only what is visible in planning processes can be taken into account and protected. Without a systematic record of existing cultural venues, there is a risk of a patchwork of engaged municipalities on the one hand and blind spots on the other.
The Unresolved Issue: Sound Emissions
One further central point remains entirely unaddressed.
While the German Government is now reforming planning law, a reform of noise regulations â and in particular of the Technical Instructions on Noise Abatement (TA LĂ€rm)[2] â is still lacking. Yet many conflicts arise not in planning law, but in emissions control law.
Even the best planning law classification is of limited help if existing cultural venues continue to come under pressure from conflicts of use and outdated noise assessments. Without a further development of the TA LĂ€rm, situations will continue to arise in which clubs are forced to close or drastically curtail their programmes despite their cultural significance.
The debate on cultural space protection must therefore not end with the current draft law.
Parliament Still Has Room to Act
The draft law is now in the parliamentary process. There remains the opportunity to make key improvements.
These include a stronger anchoring of the cultural character of music clubs in the legislative text, better consideration of existing cultural venues in land use planning, and long-term solutions for cultural space protection and noise regulation.
The current reform is an important step. It corrects outdated perspectives and creates new scope for action. Whether it will ultimately result in effective protection for live music venues, however, remains to be seen in the years ahead.
[1] Since language, in particular, plays a decisive role in the political arena, we no longer refer to it as ânoiseâ but as âsoundâ. That is why we do not refer to ânoise protectionâ but to âsound insulationâ
[2] The TA LĂ€rm (Technical Instructions on Noise Abatement) has been in force since 1968 and is an administrative regulation issued under the Federal Immission Control Act, establishing uniform nationwide limit values and assessment criteria for protection against harmful environmental noise.