In pictures: The ravers who danced through 90s post-Wall Berlin

In the early 90s, Berlin cracked open. The Wall had fallen, communism had collapsed, and the city became a sprawl of abandoned buildings and industrial ruins. While Germany dragged itself through reunification, a new youth culture took root in the cracks, turning squats into homes, derelict spaces into clubs, and dancing through the shadows of what came before them. Among them was a 17-year-old photographer, Christian Stemmler, newly moved into a squat, camera in hand, ready to document the world around him as it changed.

The result is ANFANG/BEGINNING: BERLIN 1994-99, Stemmler’s new book of photographs taken between 1994 and 1999. Shot on film and never before published, the photographs are an archive of a time that laid the foundation for much of today’s club culture. Meaning ‘beginning,’ the book captures a city and culture on the edge of reinvention. “Back then, it was the beginning of my independent adult life, but also the beginning of a new political system. The GDR (former East Germany), the country most of us were born in and grew up in, no longer existed,” explains Stemmler. 

At the time, the city was still scarred by war and division. “It really felt like a black-and-white movie,” Stemmler recalls. “Especially in winter, which in Berlin meant seven to eight months of the year.” Much of the city centre was still marked by bombed-out ruins. But it was in those empty spaces that something colourful began to grow. “That’s where the clubs moved in,” he says. “We dyed our hair bright colours to lift our spirits in all that tristesse, and we filled those spaces with life and joy.”

At the time, youth lived without digital distractions. “We weren’t constantly drowning in fragments of videos of war, cute animals, celebrities, fashion editorials, workout clips and sponsored posts for AI apps claiming to replace our work,” Stemmler says. “We could focus on one thing at a time.” That absence of constant stimulation created a kind of freedom, though it was also “the privilege of not knowing.” Stemmler points out that most of his friends “were East German working-class kids with little education,” so much information simply wasn’t accessible.

The release of ANFANG/BEGINNING comes at a purposeful moment for Stemmler. In late 2023, after speaking out about humanitarian crises, including the genocide in Gaza, his fashion and styling work slowed down. This unexpected break gave him space to revisit his archive. “I really enjoyed going back to a time and place that felt calmer, slower, and far less saturated with stimulation and information.” He describes how the images of his flatmates hit him the hardest. “That moment when you photograph someone for the first time, not knowing that they’ll become someone you share a home and life with, and you become a part of that story.”

Berlin today feels very different from the city he first encountered and what the project documents. He describes the transformation from “Arm, aber sexy” (meaning ‘poor, but sexy’) to a city that is “corporate and unaffordable for most people.” The demographic changes are hard to ignore, with fewer working-class residents, students, and artists able to live there. Politically, he also shares a concerning shift: “the political landscape has become increasingly conservative, leaning to the right.” Funding for the cultural sector has diminished and artists who challenge the government’s views face censorship and unemployment. But despite this, he refuses to be entirely pessimistic. “If life has taught me anything, it’s that things can change very quickly, sometimes.”

While he no longer frequents Berlin’s nightlife – he stopped going out regularly in 2005 and has attended only a few parties in the last decade – Stemmler’s love for authentic club culture remains untouched. Now, he spends most of his time in Tbilisi, where “the original spirit of clubbing is still alive, partly in resistance to those in power oppressing the LGBTQ+ community, and partly because the clubs only last around 10 years and haven’t been overrun by tourists.” For Stemmler, club culture is community and resistance at its most essential, and in that sense, the party never ends.

ANFANG/BEGINNING: BERLIN 1994-99 is available from 26th June at IDEA