Tresor

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Tresor (German for safe or vault) is an underground techno nightclub and record label - one of the most influential clubs for techno music in the 1990s. The club was founded in March 1991 in the vaults of the former old Wertheim department store in Mitte, the central part of the former East Berlin, next to the famous Potsdamer Platz, however the history of the club goes back to 1988 when the electronic music label Interfisch opened the UFO Club in Berlin. UFO was the original centre of Berlin house and techno, but due to financial problems that club closed in 1990.

After UFO closed, Interfisch's head, Dimitri Hegemann and some investors in the club found the new space in East Berlin. This was advantageous timing, as it was only a few months before Germany unified. The vaults under the Wertheim department store proved to be the perfect location for a club, and Tresor quickly became the place to be in Berlin. Tresor continued to be a popular club to this day, having expanded and reconstructed continuosly several times to include an outdoor garden area, and a second "Globus" floor. The concept for the Tresor floor in the basement was specifically hard techno, industrial and acid music while Globus was featuring mainly more mellow house sound. The recordlabel Tresor Records was founded soon after the club first opened, in October 1991. Featured artists on the label include Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, Robert Hood, Joey Beltram, Pacou and many others.

In 2004 the documentary "Tresor Berlin: The Vault & the Electronic Frontier" was released. Directed by Mike Andrawis, it features interviews with Hegemann, Carola Stoiber, and DJs & artists associated with the club & label. ^[1] The film covers the period from Hegemann's involvement with the Fishladen and UFO clubs in Berlin-Kreuzberg to the final months prior to Tresor's closure.

Tresor closed on the 16th April 2005, after several years prolonged short-term rent. The city sold the land to an investor group to build offices on the Leipziger Straße location. It was open for each night of April 2005, with the final event starting the Saturday night with queues stretching all the way down the road, and still going Monday morning. A new location at an old power plant is currently being prepared for a re-opening of the seminal nightclub in 2007.