Photos & Videos From Inside Sisyphos: The Berlin Club Time Out Named Europe’s Best
Photos and videos of Sisyphos, the former dog biscuit factory in Berlin Rummelsburg that Time Out named Europe's best club in 2026: the duck gate, the five floors, the garden, the rules and how a weekend works.
Sisyphos is the Berlin club that Time Out’s network of nightlife writers named the best in Europe in September 2026, ahead of Shelter in Amsterdam and UNVRS in Ibiza. It is also one of the hardest clubs in the city to see from the inside. Phones get a sticker at the door, the rule is enforced, and in 17 years the club has never run a photo feed of its floors. What exists is the outside: the rusty gate with the two ducks, the red and white fence on Hauptstraße, the queue. This page collects the licensed photos, the recordings made on its floors and the story of how a dog biscuit factory in Rummelsburg became a weekend that starts on Friday night and ends on Monday morning. It is the fourth part of our Berlin series, after inside Berghain, inside KitKatClub and inside Tresor.
Why there are no photos from inside Sisyphos
Sisyphos has the same camera rule as Berghain and KitKatClub: phone lenses are covered at the entrance and photographing guests on the grounds is not allowed. Time Out called it “a strict no-photos rule” in its ranking, and the club’s own entry guidelines even ask people not to take pictures while they wait in the queue. Unlike Tresor or Berghain, there are no press photographs of the floors on Wikimedia Commons either, so every licensed image of Sisyphos shows the outside. That is not a gap in this page, it is how the place works: the garden, the lake and the floors are meant to be seen in person.
Photos of Sisyphos
This is the picture everyone recognises. The rusty sign, the two ducks facing each other on the iron gate and the circus-striped fence with white stars are the club’s whole visual identity. The ducks are its emblem, and regulars call themselves Enten, German for ducks.
From the street Sisyphos looks like very little: a long fence, a gate and the top of a brick chimney. The grounds behind it are the old factory yard, with the halls, the garden, a pond and the beach that make up the club.
What Sisyphos sounds like inside
There is no walk-through video of Sisyphos, because the camera rule holds. What DJs do publish are recordings of their sets, often a whole night long, which are the closest thing to standing on the floors. Three of them, from three different rooms.
The Strand, the outdoor beach floor, on its opening weekend, with Acado’s Techno Frühstück set.
The Hammahalle, the main techno hall, in October 2025: TiM TASTE on a three-hour minimal run.
The Dampfer, the deep house and tech house room, recorded live on 19 October 2019.
The five floors
- Hammahalle: the main hall, a high factory room for techno. It is where the bigger names play and where the night peaks after 3am.
- Tunnel: a smaller, darker techno room.
- Dampfer: deep house, tech house and techno.
- Wintergarten: the wooden house floor near the entrance, and the only one that plays around the clock for the whole weekend.
- Strand: the beach floor outside, by the pond, with a directional sound system installed to keep the noise inside the grounds. It runs in the warmer months.
Between them is the garden, which Time Out singled out as the real reason to go: sand, fires, old cars and quiet corners to lie down in, and a newer stage built out over the pond. In summer most of the weekend happens out there.
From dog biscuits to Europe’s best club
1894: Spratt’s dog biscuit factory
The site on Hauptstraße was built in 1894 for Spratt’s, the British dog biscuit maker, which moved its Berlin production from Wedding to Rummelsburg that year. The brick buildings and the chimney you still see from the tram stop date from that factory.
1972 to 1992: a GDR feed plant
In East German times the factory became a state-owned animal feed plant from 1972. Production stopped in 1992, two years after reunification, and the site stood largely empty for more than a decade.
2008 to 2009: Sommerleuchten
In 2008 the arts association Sommerleuchten took over the grounds, and the first small parties followed in 2009. The club grew outward from there, one hall and one corner of the garden at a time, into a partly open-air venue with room for around 1,500 guests, run by Sisyphos Event GmbH. The name comes from the Greek myth of Sisyphus, condemned to push a boulder up a hill forever, which anyone who has seen the Hammahalle on a Sunday afternoon will understand.
2022: soundproofing
As Rummelsburg filled with new flats, noise became the club’s biggest risk, as it has for many Berlin venues covered in the Clubcommission’s 2026 study. In 2022 the state of Berlin gave Sisyphos Event GmbH 79,972 euros from its soundproofing fund, and a directional sound system was installed on the Strand. More housing is planned nearby, with 158 rental flats on Schlichtallee due in 2027.
2026: number one in Europe
On 8 September 2026 Time Out published its ranking of Europe’s best nightclubs, chosen by its local writers, and put Sisyphos first. Its description: a multi-stage marathon venue that “runs like a permanent summer festival”. It is an editorial list rather than an award, and it put a club with no photos above Ibiza’s UNVRS and Amsterdam’s Shelter.
What a weekend at Sisyphos is actually like
- When: every weekend from spring until New Year, usually from Friday 22:00 non-stop to Monday 10:00. After New Year’s Eve the club takes a winter break until about early March. Dates and themes change each weekend, so check the club’s own site before you go.
- Age: 21 and over, no exceptions.
- The door: more relaxed than Berghain, but not a formality. The club’s rules say no camouflage or military-style clothing, no football or national team shirts, no large backpacks or suitcases, and no smoking or photos in the queue. Big groups tend to do worse than twos and threes. When the grounds are full, entry stops for a while.
- Re-entry: guests are usually stamped or given a wristband so they can leave and come back during the weekend, which is how people manage two or three days.
- Getting there: Hauptstraße 15, 10317 Berlin, in Rummelsburg. Trams stop right outside; the nearest S-Bahn is Rummelsburg, about a 15 to 20 minute walk. If you take a taxi, say Hauptstraße in Lichtenberg, because Berlin has several.
- Timing: Friday night is for the committed, the Hammahalle fills after 3am, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the garden are what the club is famous for.
- What to wear: comfortable, layered and dark enough for the night, with something for the morning sun. Our techno dress code guide has ideas, and our 25 best techno clubs in Europe puts Sisyphos in context.
For other nights in the city, see what is on in Berlin this week.
Sisyphos vs Berghain vs KitKatClub
| Sisyphos | Berghain | KitKatClub | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opened | 2009 | 2004 | 1994 |
| Building | Dog biscuit factory, Rummelsburg | Power station, Friedrichshain | Sage complex, Mitte |
| Door | Relaxed but rule-based, 21+ | Famously unpredictable | Dress code first |
| Photos | Covered at the door | Covered at the door | Covered at the door |
| Outdoors | Huge garden, pond, beach | Small summer garden | Pool and garden |
| Sound | Techno, minimal, deep and tech house | Berghain techno, Panorama Bar house | Trance, techno, house |
| Best for | A summer weekend outdoors | The marathon indoors | Freedom and fetish |
Planning Berghain as well? Read how to get into Berghain. For the rest of the city, our best techno clubs in Berlin covers ://about blank, Kater Blau, Club der Visionäre and Ritter Butzke.
Sisyphos FAQ
Can you take photos inside Sisyphos?
No. Phone cameras are covered at the entrance and photographing guests is not allowed, which is why licensed images of the club only show the outside.
Where is Sisyphos?
Hauptstraße 15, 10317 Berlin, in Rummelsburg in the Lichtenberg district, in a former dog biscuit factory. Trams stop outside and Rummelsburg S-Bahn station is about 15 to 20 minutes away on foot.
When is Sisyphos open?
Weekends from spring until New Year, usually from Friday 22:00 to Monday 10:00, with a winter break until around early March.
How old do you have to be to get into Sisyphos?
21. The club applies the age limit to every event.
Why did Time Out name Sisyphos the best club in Europe?
Its local writers picked it in September 2026 for the size of the weekend, the five indoor floors and above all the garden, describing it as a venue that runs like a permanent summer festival.
Is Sisyphos better than Berghain?
They are different nights. Berghain is an indoor marathon in a power station with a famously hard door; Sisyphos is a looser, mostly outdoor weekend that is easier to get into and best in summer.
The TA view
Berlin sells Berghain to the world, but Sisyphos is the club Berliners talk about when they talk about summer. Time Out’s ranking will bring a new wave of visitors, and that is the club’s real test: the door, the camera stickers and the 21+ rule exist to protect the garden from becoming a tourist attraction. Go in late spring or early autumn, arrive on Saturday afternoon rather than Friday night, leave the phone in your pocket and give it a full day. If you only see the gate, you have not seen Sisyphos.
Keep exploring: Sisyphos club page · inside Berghain · inside KitKatClub · inside Tresor · Berlin events · techno clubs
