Clärchen's Ballhaus

Clärchen's Ballhaus review

In 2005, Clärchen's Ballhaus, a dancehall frequented by nimble Berliners since Clara Haberman established it in 1913, reopened after nearly a year of closed doors. Under new management - the rakish duo of David Regehr and Christian Schulz - Clärchen's is more popular than ever.

'People come here to find the love of their lives,' Schulz has said. These people can range from twentysomething hipsters to 75-year-old Ballhaus veterans to celebrities (such as German actress Heike Makatsch,or even Charlotte Rampling) who've stopped in to cut the rug during Berlin film fest parties. Best of all, as the night wears on, these drastically divergent demographics start intermixing. It's not unusual to see a geriatric Fred Astaire teaching a young pink-haired artist how to tango or foxtrot.

The Ballhaus actually has two ballrooms. The vast ground-floor space is lined with silver tinsel streamers. Its spacious dancefloor is ringed by wooden tables bedecked with white tablecloths and candles, while a huge disco ball spins overhead. But upstairs is another room that never fails to elicit gasps of awe from first-time visitors. Smaller but with high ceilings and a fin-de-siècle vibe, the chandeliered Mirror Salon has huge cracked mirrors, ornate moulding work and candlelight that transport guests straight back to the 1920s.

In fact, very little has really changed since then. When Clärchen's turned over to its new owners, Berliners who'd loved to dance here for decades feared that it would fall prey to the homogenisation that 'renovation' in Berlin often brings. But Schulz and Regehr left the interior almost exactly as it was - both upstairs and downstairs are vintage details, fixtures, even wallpaper… as well as a heady smell of history that's hard to pin down. Is it all DDR, or is it the Weimar era?

Most regulars don't care (after all, more than a few were around during the DDR era). They're here to tango on Tuesdays, learn to swing on Wednesdays, attend the 'pasta opera' nights in the Mirror Salon, or yes, find the love of their lives on weekend nights. Some initially come to have an inexpensive oven-baked pizza inside or in the beautiful front garden. But it never fails: sometime after midnight, both ballrooms teem with all types in a free-for-all that begins with live music and then segues into Michael Jackson, the Beach Boys, old German schlager music, or all of the above. It's more cheesy than chic, but that's part of the charm.

The door policy at the Ballhaus is one of the most democratic in the city. But don't even think about entering on a busy night without checking your coat, old-school style, with Gunter. The 74-year-old has manned his Garderobe for the better part of 40 years, and has seen it all.