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Berlin · Venue

Schokoladen

A compact Berlin-Mitte room with a courtyard concert tradition and a long-running independent-culture history.

Upcoming shows
74
Capacity
90
Address
169 Ackerstraße, 10115 Berlin
Phone
030 2826527
Next show
Mon, 16 Nov 2026
Official siteDirections
Schokoladen in Berlin

About Schokoladen

Schokoladen is a 90-person live room in Berlin-Mitte where a concert can share the building with a bar, club and reading stage. Its distinguishing feature is the setting: the programme also spills into the courtyard for outdoor bills, then returns indoors for late activity. That mix gives a show the feel of a cultural house with music at its centre, shaped for close-range sets and direct audience contact.

A house shaped by a fight to stay

Schokoladen began in 1990 when its operator association moved into Ackerstraße 169; the project grew from Berlin’s squatter scene. The address occupies a former chocolate factory, a history echoed in the venue’s name and in the theatre that opened there in 1999. Conflict with the owner began three years after the 1990 move, according to operator Chris Keller. In January 2012, a regional court backed the owner’s eviction claim amid a campaign to keep the culture project, its bar, studios and theatre in the building. The standoff gives the place a specific survival story, rooted in the property battles that accompanied Berlin’s post-Wall redevelopment. Schokoladen marked its 35th birthday with a courtyard party on July 18–19, 2025, featuring punk, indie and post-rock acts including Sex Beat.

The room today

Schokoladen’s booking form invites pitches across an unusually broad spread: acoustic, folk, jazz, hip-hop, electronic music, punk, metal, indie, noise rock, shoegaze and singer-songwriter sets all appear as categories. In practice, punk, indie and rock provide a strong through-line, with the calendar also making room for pop, soul and experimental bills. The venue presents around 230 popular-music concerts each year. Expect a compact indoor capacity of 90, plus occasional courtyard concerts that expand the experience into the open air; the bar remains part of the building’s wider cultural set-up.

Sources

  1. Schokoladen Events — Schokoladen
  2. Räumung Schokoladen: „Das wird die Szene nicht kampflos hinnehmen“ — Der Tagesspiegel
  3. Schokoladen — German Music Information Centre (miz)
  4. Courtyard Party: 35 Years of Schokoladen — Berlin.de
  5. Theater im Schokohof — Wikipedia

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