Yellow Submarine (club)

The Yellow Submarine was a nightclub in Munich and Germany's first underwater discotheque.

Yellow Submarine
The Yellow Submarine (1974)
AddressLeopoldstraße 202, 80804 Munich
LocationSchwabing, Munich, Germany
Coordinates48°10′26.9″N 11°35′10.1″E
Typenightclub
Construction
Opened1971
Closed1982
Demolished2013

History and Description

The Yellow Submarine, also called Haifischdisko ("Shark disco"), opened on April 2, 1971 as part of a complex that was completed in 1973 with the avantgardistic Schwabylon shopping and leisure centre. The concept of the discotheque was a sensation in Europe at that time, and it became famous overnight throughout Germany. The Yellow Submarine was located south of the Schwabylon and became a bestseller for the adjoining hotel. In the first years the discotheque recorded peak sales. The name of the nightclub referred to the Beatles song from 1966.[1][2]

The three-storey nightclub was surrounded by an aquarium like a diving bell, through portholes the patrons could watch 36 sharks and giant turtles that had been caught in the Gulf of Mexico and swam here in 650,000 litres (171,711 gallons) of seawater.[3][4] In June 1971 the aquarium overflowed once and flooded the venue. As it was Sunday morning and the club was empty nobody was hurt, and the sharks could swim in all three floors of the discotheque.[3]

The interior design of the club was reminiscent of a submarine, with leather seats, iron railings and a staircase connecting three floors in an open, nine-metre high space. The entrance fee of the Yellow Submarine was 6 German marks, and the gastronomic offer included shark fin soup and grilled shark.[3]

In later years the nightclub was renamed to Aquarius, and it closed in 1982.[2] The building was demolished in 2013 for the construction of the Schwabinger Tor building complex, after a citizens' initiative had unsuccessfully tried to save the discotheque as a monument.[1][4]

Literature
  • Mirko Hecktor, Moritz von Uslar, Patti Smith, Andreas Neumeister: Mjunik Disco – from 1949 to now (in German). Blumenbar Verlag, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-936738-47-6.
  • The Yellow Submarine and surrounding high-rise buildings (1972)

References
  1. Tibudd, Michael (3 September 2011). "Club Yellow Submarine: Haie hinterm Tresen" [Club Yellow Submarine: Sharks behind the bar counter] (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  2. Hecktor, Mirko; von Uslar, Moritz; Smith, Patti; Neumeister, Andreas (1 November 2008). Mjunik Disco – from 1949 to now (in German). ISBN 978-3936738476.
  3. Schauberger, Anja. "Club Legenden #1: Cocktails zwischen Haifischen im Yellow Submarine" [Club Legends #1: Cocktails between sharks in the Yellow Submarine] (in German). Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  4. Goetz, Joachim (March 2019). "Gebaute Utopien: 70er-Jahre-Kult in Schwabing" [Built utopias: 1970s cult in Schwabing] (PDF). Design Schau (in German). MCBW. Retrieved 28 October 2019.

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