Opinion: Visions of CDV
By Sandra Winkler As we’re locking our bikes to the iron bars of the dark bridge, we can already hear the steady drum of the bass from the small club below. Apart from this, the area is quiet. It is the summer of 2004, and we are visiting that cool new club that a friend of mine has recently discovered. The bar is a shack and the people are drinking their beers sitting on floats chained to the quay, on a warm summer’s night. The ‘Club der Visionäre’ (CDV) - clearly an insider tip with potential. Seven years later, it’s a critics’ choice in Time Out Berlin. Therefore it is not surprising that on a Tuesday evening in June 2011, the club is crowded, dominated by people speaking English, French and Spanish. Hip young Berliners (and those who want to be) are tightly packed into the small area of the club. There is still some space on the floats, where we are having our first drink of the night. Groups of people are crossing the bridge above us, as the ‘Arena’ next doors is also attract...