Hafenbar

Hafenbar is a capacity-unlisted party club in Berlin, near Alexanderplatz, where maritime stage dressing supplies the distinction: fishing nets, illuminated portholes and worn wooden planks frame the dance floor. The room traces its identity to 1967 and presents itself as Berlin’s longest continuously operating club. Its appeal rests less on concert-hall polish than on a deliberately close-quarters, singalong-ready setting for Schlager, pop and rock parties.

A shipshape survival story

Hafenbar began in 1967 at Chausseestraße 20, when the East German Handelsorganisation remade the existing Clou dance venue as a restaurant and dance bar with a seafaring theme. Klaus Zagermann, who had arrived at Clou as an apprentice in 1957, became the figure most closely associated with its long run; the club’s own history places his career at the center of the transformation from local dance bar to Hafenbar.

Its sharpest modern chapter came in 2016. The last party at Chausseestraße was held on May 14 before demolition for a start-up campus. Staff removed the hand-painted portholes, wood panelling, lifebuoys and nets, then rebuilt the interior at Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11. Hafenbar reopened there on June 3, carrying 49 years of accumulated fittings into a former Kinzo/What Club space by Alexanderplatz.

The room today

The programming is party-led and repeatable: Schlager anchors the regular Friday format, while Saturday’s Käptens Club Party broadens the selection toward international pop and rock. Expect a casual, standing-room dance-bar experience, with the glitter ball and nautical props doing much of the visual work. Hafenbar suits groups keen on familiar choruses, themed DJ nights and a densely packed floor; Berlin’s club guide lists no step-free access.