Despite consistently good visitor numbers, there is a significant loss in revenue. This has troubled the Molotow Club in Hamburg St. Pauli to the extent that owner Andi Schmidt felt compelled to close the venue. In his statement on the club's homepage, he attributes this to the dramatically decreased beverage sales due to competition from kiosks, snack bars, and discount supermarkets in the immediate vicinity. Since a small venue with a capacity of about 300 visitors cannot sustain itself solely on ticket sales, he is now drawing a line under the Molotow after 18 years. This places him in an ever-growing list of closures on the Reeperbahn, which has already seen the likes of Marquee, Tanzhalle, Weltbühne, Echochamber, and Click fall victim. In the meantime, an initiative for the rescue of the Molotow has been established, attempting to avert the inevitable.
Official statement on the current situation from Molotow
So, now it’s out. The Molotow is pulling the emergency brake and terminating its lease. How did it come to this?
The Molotow is in a grotesque situation. Despite consistently good visitor numbers at concerts, less and less money is left over.
A central problem is that the production costs for a concert - including: exorbitant Gema fees, accommodation and catering for the artists, fees (which are usually just a percentage of ticket sales), sound technicians, setup helpers, etc. - are the same in a small club as they are in a large one. This leads to situations where, as happened this spring, we incur losses on a concert even though over 200 guests paid for entry.
Since a live show can only in the rarest cases be financed solely from ticket sales, it has always been necessary to include beverage sales in the calculations, which is commercially incorrect but unfortunately unavoidable. The beverage sales, which must also cover all fixed costs of the club (rent, salaries, social contributions, taxes, electricity, etc.), have unfortunately been continuously declining and collapsed at the beginning of this year. This may be partly due to the smoking ban, but also to the increasing density of kiosks, snack bars, and discount supermarkets offering cheap drinks.
I have always known that you don’t make money with a place like the Molotow; you do it for fun and idealism. My employees know this too; otherwise, they wouldn’t work so hard and passionately for relatively little money. It becomes problematic when you start losing money. And this problem has unfortunately grown so large that the Molotow can no longer finance itself without outside help.
After 18 years, it was more than difficult for me to drop the lease termination in the mailbox. It’s not just the sadness for my "baby," but also the sorrow for a once-thriving, internationally renowned scene district that the whole world envies us for. It is known everywhere by the names "Reeperbahn" and "St. Pauli," and these two names are even better known abroad than the name of our city itself. However, the city seems not to recognize this and watches as the shops that give this district its unique flair close and are replaced by supermarkets, chains, and system gastronomy. The list of music clubs already lost in St. Pauli is long. In recent years, among others, Marquee, Tanzhalle, Weltbühne, Echochamber, and Click have closed their doors - to name just the most well-known. The Kukuun is currently doing the same, and the Mandarin Kasino - formerly Mojo Club - will have to make way for new construction next year. This will continue until the Reeperbahn looks like any other main street, like those found in every district of every city.
And once that happens, it cannot be reversed.
"What’s gone is gone," they say in Hamburg - and unfortunately, that is true.
Andi Schmidt, owner and operator
