--- title: Lightning Struck Berlin's Most Exclusive Nightclub on Sunday description: The lightning strike shut down the power, but the party raged on for hours as revelers stripped their clothes to cool off during the outage. canonical: https://time.com/4473185/lightning-strikes-berghain-berlin/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-30T21:29:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:36:02.803Z og:title: Lightning Struck Berlin's Most Exclusive Nightclub on Sunday og:description: The power went out but the party continued at the world's coolest techno club. og:url: https://time.com/4473185/lightning-strikes-berghain-berlin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0910b28b4d466f9b/6988a440e20a878435a9237f/berghain-berlin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4256 og:image:height: 2394 og:image:alt: Artists At Yellow Lounge og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lightning Struck Berlin's Most Exclusive Nightclub on Sunday twitter:description: The power went out but the party continued at the world's coolest techno club. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0910b28b4d466f9b/6988a440e20a878435a9237f/berghain-berlin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Lightning Strikes One of the World's Most Exclusive Nightclubs But the Party Rages On > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=38db9ef4-72ea-4a25-8e97-0d20fbea4231&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 30, 2016 9:29 PM UTC  A projection on the facade of Berghain nightclub in Berlin. A projection on the facade of Berghain nightclub in Berlin. Stefan Hoederath—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 30, 2016 9:29 PM UTC Berlin’s [Berghain nightclub](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/germany/berlin/articles/Berghain-how-to-get-into-Berlins-most-exclusive-nightclub/) is legendary for its intense [techno music history](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/berghain-the-secretive-sex-fueled-world-of-technos-coolest-club-20140206), a strict, brutal, and inscrutable door policy, and a nonstop party. And now it’s legendary for one more reason: the building was struck by lightning on Sunday night— causing the power to go out and the lights to go on — but revelers continued to make the most of their wild night. In posts to Facebook and Twitter, partiers recount things during the power outage heating up to the extent that everyone was stripping off their clothes in the packed space. To the credit of the committed dancers, there was apparently no mass exodus over the three-hour period in which the club was impacted by the strike. In fact, it seemed like everyone had a _very_ memorable experience. “Adrenalin \[sic\] is still running through my veins,” wrote one of the evening’s DJ’s [on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/deejaytea/posts/10154029904344285). “I will never forget that view from the iron stairs down on that ocean of naked flesh waving and pulsating. Wish I had a photo of that scenery, but, well, what happens inside these walls stays there and it’s good that it is the way it is!” Another DJ [told music site _Pitchfork_](http://pitchfork.com/news/67907-lightning-strikes-berghain/?mbid=social%5Ftwitter) that the evening was emotional. “The reaction from the crowd including Dax and myself in the DJ both \[sic\] was that we thought it was a new light feature, but the lights stayed on while I took over the booth and were on for almost my whole set of four hours… the club was extremely hot and humid, meaning the already lightly dressed crowd disrobed more and more as I played. From what I heard they had to get the fire department down to be able to turn the lights off again,” Pär Grindvik said in his statement. > [](https://twitter.com/samvoltek/status/770270166894710785) > [](https://twitter.com/samvoltek/status/770272471132037120) > [](https://twitter.com/DaxJ/status/770573714635235328) > [](https://twitter.com/djvolvox/status/770335627791466497) > [](https://twitter.com/codeinedrums/status/770534888881721344) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4473185/lightning-strikes-berghain-berlin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4473185/lightning-strikes-berghain-berlin/"},"headline":"Lightning Strikes One of the World's Most Exclusive Nightclubs But the Party Rages On","datePublished":"2016-08-30T21:29:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:36:02.803Z","description":"Party on","url":"https://time.com/4473185/lightning-strikes-berghain-berlin/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0910b28b4d466f9b/6988a440e20a878435a9237f/berghain-berlin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0910b28b4d466f9b/6988a440e20a878435a9237f/berghain-berlin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Artists At Yellow Lounge","caption":"Artists At Yellow Lounge","creditText":"Stefan Hoederath—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4473185/lightning-strikes-berghain-berlin/","name":"Lightning Strikes One of the World's Most Exclusive Nightclubs But the Party Rages On"}}]}] ```