While Berlin might be regarded as Germany’s “techno capital” right now, back in the late ’80s and early-to-mid-’90s, it was the city of Frankfurt that really set the techno agenda. At the center of it all was Sven Väth and his legendary club, Omen. Väth opened the venue in 1988 at the age of 24. For its ten years of operation, it nourished the techno explosion in Germany and played host to some of the international scenes biggest stars, including artists like Richie Hawtin.
Needless to say, Väth and Omen are central figures in any narrative of German techno history. The club became synonymous with a bombastic, no-rules party experience where the dancefloor and the DJ took turns out-intensifying each other.
The Omen, a club in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was founded in 1988 by Sven Väth, Michael Münzing and Matthias Martinsohn. Originally the club was founded in 1983 as club Vogue. In the Omen the German techno was more or less born and after it’s opening in 1988 the club became very popular and a center of the global techno scene. Big names like Sven Väth, Carl Cox, Frank Lorber, Toni Rios, Gayle San, DJ Dag, Chris Liebing and Jeff Mills played at the Omen.
What was often announced happened on October 19, 1998, the Omen closed its doors.
The last track played at Omen was “The Day After” from “Astral Pilot”. Three closing parties were held in the last week: On Monday, Wednesday and finally on the last one, which started on Friday and lasted till Monday morning. On Sunday the number of people was so large that a speaker was placed on the street and hunderds of people were dancing in the street in front of the Omen. The police did not intervene, but closed the street for through traffic for a couple of hours
For many, the Omen was a second home. Weekday school or work and at weekends Omen Frankfurt. It was initially inconceivable that the“institution” Omen suddenly was not there anymore. In order to remember the great time, there is an event hold every year in October, the so-called Omen Memorial
Day (OMD).
October 18, 1998 – Omen club closing party, Frankfurt.
