Berlin set to unveil techno museum

Tresor, a former underground safe room for a pre-war department, became the top dance club in Berlin’s budding techno scene in the 1990s. Photos: AFP

Berlin, the cash-strapped capital of Europe’s top economy, has long tried to turn alternative culture into gold, but ambitious new bids to present underground art in museum settings could break new ground.

Street art and techno music took root across the city in the hothouse environment of post-Wall Berlin, drawing young creative types from around the world with cheap rents and disused industrial spaces ripe for the taking.