German Clubs still await legal recognition as cultural venues

Despite the German Bundestag`s 2021 resolution recognising clubs as cultural venues, essential reforms to noise protection and building use laws remain unfulfilled. The LiveMusikKommission (LiveKomm) is calling on the new federal government to act swiftly. “It is urgently necessary to revise TA Lärm and the Building Use Ordinance (BauNVO) and to expand and stabilise funding programs,” the association stated. Draft legislation emerged only in 2024, and a first reading of a BauNVO amendment reached the Bundestag in September. But progress stalled with the end of the previous coalition. The group demands that clubs with proven cultural relevance be classified as cultural facilities in the BauNVO or placed in a separate category with better protections. It also calls for new regulations to distinguish between industrial and cultural noise, and for the Federal Noise Control Program to be made permanent and funded with at least €20 million annually. Iris Hinze (pictured), spokesperson for LiveKomm`s Cultural Space Protection Working Group, said: "According to the coalition agreement, the new government wants to protect and honor clubs as cultural venues. We therefore call on the new coalition to swiftly follow up its decisions with action: The Building Regulations (BauNVO) and the Noise Control Act (TA Lärm) must be addressed as a priority and separately, if necessary outside of bundled legislative packages. Reforms are more than four years overdue – the noise protection regulations, for example, have not been amended for club-related areas since 1968."