Munich has a new club space. PRINTHOUSE, set in the former printing plant of the Münchner Merkur and tz newspapers in the district of Moosach, holds its first night, Edition 0001, on Saturday, October 17. Doors open at 22:00, and the venue’s events page lists Budino, Euphrat, Isabel Soto, The Lady Machine and Zenker Brothers.
German magazine Groove calls it one of the most ambitious club openings in Germany in recent years. In Groove’s interview, booker Christoph Pankowski says the opening night is sold out; a few days earlier, the organisers told Munich daily tz that presale, at €20, had started very well.
From presses to dancefloor
The building on Dessauer Straße printed newspapers for more than 30 years, according to tz, until production moved to Penzberg at the end of last year. The main hall reaches 13 metres at its highest point. Since June, the team has filled in the twelve pits that once held the presses and the rails for the paper rolls to make the floor safe to dance on, but has otherwise left the industrial fabric largely as it was.
PRINTHOUSE is run by three people. Henrik Szilit, who previously worked for the newspaper group and had the idea while the presses were still running, develops the site; Robert Benke runs operations and hospitality; and Pankowski is responsible for programming, booking, sound and lighting, working on bookings with Lucas Brell. “It’s a printing house, and you should be able to hear that,” Pankowski told Groove (translated by BEZ).
The sound and the rules
The main hall will focus on techno, with a smaller room, the Kantine, dedicated to house. Groove reports a Void Incubus sound system, with lighting by the Berlin team Bachstelzen. Phones are not allowed on the dancefloor; tz describes the house rule as no phones or screens.
Built to stay, permitted to try
The venue is an interim use. Pankowski told Groove that PRINTHOUSE is starting with temporary use and permits for individual events, that planning talks on a longer-term future are at an early stage, and that he would not give a timeframe that might later prove wrong. “We are building the house as if it were going to stay,” he said (translated by BEZ). He cites London’s Printworks, another former newspaper print site, as a reference, while acknowledging that Printworks was temporary from the start and has since closed.
That tension is the story beyond the opening. At a time when club closures are a recurring headline in Europe, interim use of former industrial sites is one way new venues manage to open at all. Whether PRINTHOUSE becomes a fixture depends on permits as much as on crowds.
What’s next
According to Groove, the Kantine opens on October 31 with Alinka, Euphrat, Marie Montexier, Massimiliano Pagliara and Virginia, and November 14 brings Kinzua, .VRIL (live) and Recondite (live). tz lists further dates on December 12, January 9 and February 13, 2027. Tickets are sold via printhousemunich.com.
