Speeches

Alexander Krüger

Musician, visionary, festival organizer

Alex has been organizing events and festivals for most of his life, including Feel, Artlake, Rocken am Brocken, Akasha and Whole Festival. Having studied culture and economics, he also produces music himself and is co-operator of the cultural venue “Alte Münze”. The former coin factory in Berlin offers exhibition and event spaces, art and music studios as well as a future lab, on a total of 9,000 square meters.

Alex supported Rave The Planet before, at the project “Cultural Heritage: Techno.”, and will give a speech at the Rave The Planet Parade. We will announce the topic shortly.

Artur Wojtczak

Germanist, book author, journalist

He is a tireless ambassador of club culture in Poland and co-author of the book “30 Years of Techno Scene in Poland”, which is the first and only anthology about the history of the electronic scene in Eastern Europe.

Artur is a freelance journalist and works for magazines such as Muno.PL, electronic beats (GER& PL), Laif and Noizz. He writes reviews, essays and articles about the latest developments in the Polish club scene: House-Nation Poland and Clubland Polska.

He also publishes abroad and collaborates with magazines such as MixMag, Pulse Radio, Only Techno, Faze and Resident Advisor. He is also a member of Fryderyk Phonographic Academy, spokesman and communications director of Instytut Festival and a collaborator of Goethe Institute Warsaw.

Caren Lay

Member of the German Parliament, Spokeswoman on Club Policy (Die Linke)

“I only listen to techno.” Caren was socialized in the peace, women’s and environmental movements… and on the dance floor. That’s where you’ll find her every weekend, because club culture is not only important to her in her work in the German Parliament, but simply an important part of her life.

For many years now, the politician has been actively promoting electronic dance music. We are very happy that with her speech on the topic “Destruction of Berlin’s free club and techno culture through gentrification” she is giving proper emphasis to our demand for the protection of clubs and other venues as cultural sites. 

Dimitri Hegemann

Tresor Berlin, Atonal, Happy Locals

Dimitri Hegemann, cultural worker and spatial researcher, likes to deal with things that are different. He sets things in motion. On the one hand, it is unusual forms of expression in image and sound, and on the other hand, it is spaces for alternative culture that interest him. Stages of his work are the non-conformist Atonal Festival, the development of the Tresor Club, which decisively brought together young people from West and East Berlin.

This also happened at that time through the new electronic music, called “techno”, which Dimitri had discovered in Detroit one year earlier.

In recent years, Dimitri has devoted himself to forgotten industrial spaces. He often refers to himself as a “space explorer.” The process of transforming a ruin into a living cultural space is his strategy for new, modern workplaces.

In 2012, together with Annette Ochs, he founded the group “Happy Locals” , which develops strategies for small and large communities, in Germany as well as abroad, that are affected by migration. Especially for young people, small towns often lack platforms and structures to express themselves. The consequences: Migration to big cities and a shrinking or even cultural extinction of cultural programs for young people in small communities.

Since 2021, Hegemann has built the Tresor Foundation Berlin, which works to pull cultural spaces out of speculation and give cultural professionals planning security. He presented the “Clubs for Germany” initiative to the German Association of Cities in October 2021.

His speech at the Rave The Planet Parade on July 9, 2022, was entitled “Techno is Peace.

Dr. Matthias Pasdzierny

Musicologist, Berlin University of the Arts

Matthias studied school music, musicology and German studies in Stuttgart, Berlin and Krakow. In 2013, he received his doctorate with a dissertation on returnees from exile and West German musical life after 1945.

Since 2007, he has been a research associate at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). His research interests include techno culture. We highly recommend the book “Techno Studies – Aesthetics and History of Electronic Dance Music”, which he wrote together with Kim Feser.

Matthias also supported us in our project “Cultural Heritage: Techno.” and added a rousing cover letter to our UNESCO application. His speech will revolve around the history of electronic dance music culture.

Dr. Motte

DJ, Musician, Inventor of the Love Parade, Managing Director at Rave The Planet

One man who, if anyone does, qualifies for the title of legendary must surely be Dr. Motte. An original through and through, this DJ, producer and remixer from the original vanguard of Technos few pioneering souls initiated and successfully staged what became the biggest cultural celebration of music, tolerance, love and indeed life itself, that the world has ever seen: the Love Parade.

Even with such achievements to his credit, Dr. Motte has stayed true to his ideals, true to the underground that has been his home for decades. By his chosen way of life, he remains attuned to and a part of that all important zeitgeist. Now like then, he stands for peace, love, unity and respect.

With the Rave The Planet Parade 2022, he will continue the tradition of what was once the world’s largest techno parade. He will give the opening rally on the Kurfürstendamm and the closing rally on the Straße des 17. Juni.

Dr. Sissy Kraus

Lawyer, former director of CSD Berlin

Sissy has been working as a lawyer in Berlin and in the Human Rights Committee of the German Bar Association for 20 years. During this time, she has represented and advised on countless cases in the LGBTIQ, women’s and discrimination fields.

Since 2010, she has been involved in the Berlin CSD association on a voluntary basis, where she was a board member of the large pride march, from 2010-2015. She is also a co-founder of the organizing team of the idea for the “CSD on Rail”, the queer pride train, with the Berlin S-Bahn.

Her speech at Rave The Planet Parade is titled “Atypical” and focuses on the history and importance of LGBTQIA+ communities in the emergence and development of club culture.

Marc Wohlrabe

LiveKomm, Stadt nach 8, Clubcommission Berlin

Marc studied World Heritage Management with a focus on “Historic Urban Landscape” and “Marine World Heritage” (M.A.). He recently supported our UNESCO application to have Berlin’s techno culture protected as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

In 2000 he was co-founder of the Clubcommission Berlin. Furthermore, he is a member of the advisory board of Musikboard Berlin, the extended board of LiveMusikKommission, secretary general of the European club association LiveDMA and co-initiator and director of the conference “Stadt nach Acht”.

His topics are urban development, night economy, safe partying, noise immissions and for the parade he will contribute a speech titled “Safeguarding Techno Culture”.

Miriam Witz & Michael Bohmeyer

Mein Grundeinkommen e.V.  (non-profit)

Miriam is a campaigner for the “Pilot Project Basic Income” and responsible for the campaign management of Germany’s first scientific study on this topic. She is researching what an unconditional basic income actually achieves.

Michael is the founder of “Mein Grundeinkommen”. The non-profit organization raises money via crowdfunding. Whenever €12,000 is raised, the money is raffled off as an unconditional basic income: €1,000 a month for one year. No conditions attached. For everyone.

At the Rave The Planet Parade, Miriam and Michael will of course speak on their core topic.