Ragnar Schmuck: 'Lost in Clubs'
A look at some of the (sometimes bizarre) items of lost property found in seven of Berlin's most popular clubs.
Forgotten anything?
visitBerlin, the city's main tourism office, estimates that overnight stays in 2012 topped 20 million. With such colossal numbers of people flocking to Berlin, many of whom come here to sample the world-famous nightlife, clubs are swamped with both visitors and locals. Photographer Ragnar Schmuck recently visited seven key venues to see what some of the guests forgot to take home with them.
Salon zur wilden Renate
One of Berlin's most popular weekend venues, Salon zur wilden Renate (known locally simply as Renate) is a sprawling, ramshackle old building featuring countless dancefloors, rooms, passages and nooks and crannies. A perfect place, in fact, to lose all of your personal posessions. While this collection of lost property is interesting, it does raise the question: "Who takes a book to a club?"
Watergate
Fans of techno regularly flock to Watergate on the banks of the River Spree, a venue regularly featured in top ten lists of best clubs in the world. All-night techno parties - or in Watergate's case, all-weekend techno parties - are always a good opportunity for amusing people watching. Seeing the girl who staggered home minus a shoe would certainly have been worth the entry price.
Weekend
Weekend club, just off Alexander Platz in the heart of the city, is arguably most famous for the spectacular views afforded by its open-air rooftop bar, a perfect spot to see the sun come up over Berlin after hours of hardcore clubbing. Inside, it's suitably dark and atmospheric with plenty of gloomy corners to forget your stuff - as evidenced by the girl who managed to lose her bra.
Berghain
The granddaddy of Berlin techno clubs, Berghain - so named because the club straddles the districts of Keruzberg and Friedrichshain - is arguably a main reason clubbers flock to Berlin by the thousands. Its all-weekend parties, line-up of big name DJs and anything goes attitude are all major draws. Just don't forget to bring your sunglasses. Or, it seems, your pliers.
Horst Kreuzberg
Horst Kreuzberg, located on Hallesches Ufer in Kreuzberg, has only recently - and somewhat mysteriously - bitten the dust. In its heyday, it was one of the city's most popular venues for electronic music. While admittedly the lost property found here is standard fare, hopefully the clubbing essentials of credit card, sunglasses and shoes didn't all belong to the same person.
Kater Holzig
A sprawling, labyrinthine indoor venue boasting a huge outdoor area backing onto the River Spree, Kater Holzig - particularly in summer - is the successor to the now defunct Bar 25 and is run by many of the legendary club's same people. But be careful if you do make it there; as this picture shows, the club seems to inspire people to lose their wallets.
://about blank
A relative newcomer to the Berlin club landscape, ://about blank has quickly established itself as one of the most popular places in town. Its massive popularity neatly reflected in this picture, the most diverse selection of club lost property. Books, combs, wallets, watches...they're all here. And at least two clubbers liked the place so much they turned in their passports and decided to stay.