The historic 1982–90 festival is the main concern. Across five editions Hegemann made Atonal the leading European industrial gathering of the 1980s, the place the Berlin scene and the touring British and European acts came together.
Berlin Atonal was founded in 1982 by Dimitri Hegemann (born 1954 in Münster, then twenty-eight, already well placed in the West Berlin alternative scene). The timing matters. The West Berlin scene of 1981–82 had formed fast around the Geniale Dilletanten (the September 1981 Festival genialer Dilletanten at the Tempodrom is the scene-defining moment, with Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Tödliche Doris, Die Haut, Mania D., Malaria! and Sprung Aus Den Wolken among the acts), and Atonal grew straight out of that network. At the same time the European industrial founding of the late 1970s and early 1980s (Throbbing Gristle's 1981 dissolution, Cabaret Voltaire, the early Coil and Psychic TV, the touring circuit forming through 1981–82) gave the new festival a ready roster to draw on, and from the first edition Atonal set itself up as the main gathering for that transcontinental industrial scene.
The 1982 first edition (mostly at SO36 and nearby West Berlin venues, with Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut, Sprung Aus Den Wolken and Malaria! as the local programme, and touring British and European acts alongside) set the pattern: a multi-venue, multi-day event mixing Berlin acts with international ones, established names with newcomers. From the start it gathered the Berlin scene around the festival, and the five editions across 1982 to 1990 made Atonal the main European industrial gathering of the decade.
The 1983–90 editions carried that on across West Berlin's pre-reunification years. The main touring industrial acts settled their Berlin showings at Atonal: Psychic TV's mid-1980s appearances, Cabaret Voltaire's 1983–86 touring, Coil's appearances from 1985 around Atonal and SO36, Test Department's from 1984. The Berlin programme continued too · Einstürzende Neubauten as a recurring presence, the Geniale Dilletanten acts through the mid-1980s, and the emerging post-Geniale-Dilletanten scene of 1985–90 · all gathering at Atonal across its run.
The 1990 edition closed the historic period, roughly with the post-reunification transition of 1990–91. The 1989 fall of the Wall threw the 1980s West Berlin scene into a reckoning, and the fast growth of the new scene (Mitte and Friedrichshain, the birth of Berlin techno across 1990–92, the founding of Tresor on 12 March 1991) drew off the energy that had gone into Atonal. Hegemann turned mainly to Tresor from 1991, and the festival went quiet through the 1990s and 2000s.
The 2013 revival opened the contemporary period at Kraftwerk Berlin (the former heating plant at Köpenicker Straße 70 that has housed Tresor since 2007, after the original site was demolished in 2005). The revival programmes a quite different field from the early years · contemporary industrial techno (Powell, SHXCXCHCXSH, Ron Morelli, Helena Hauff), noise and drone (Lustmord, Roly Porter), dub techno and experimental work (Demdike Stare, Donato Dozzy, Lee Gamble), a contemporary avant-electronic field distinct from the early industrial and Geniale Dilletanten one. It continues through Hegemann's founding role but is distinct from the historic festival.
The two periods are the main editorial point. The early years (1982–90) gathered the 1980s Berlin industrial scene around the festival, with the main British and European industrial acts coming through it. The revival (2013 onward) gathers the contemporary Berlin avant-electronic scene the same way, with the main contemporary industrial-techno and experimental acts coming through it. The two are siblings rather than one continuous thing · the first about industrial consolidation, the second about contemporary avant-electronic work. The Bureau's main concern is the historic festival; the revival is filed alongside.
The venue network is the secondary cross-reference. SO36 (founded 1978, the early Berlin punk-and-industrial venue) is a sibling through scene and as the main founding venue for early Atonal · the 1982–85 editions ran largely through SO36 and nearby venues. Tresor (founded 1991, the post-reunification Berlin techno club with industrial DNA) is a sibling through Hegemann's shared founding and through the 2013-onward Atonal at the same Kraftwerk Berlin complex that has housed Tresor since 2007. Across four decades, Hegemann's run (Atonal 1982–90, Tresor 1991 onward, Atonal revival 2013 onward, Kraftwerk Berlin from 2007) is the continuing Berlin industrial-and-techno infrastructure.
Where Berlin Atonal sits: filed at Tier I · the main Berlin historical industrial-and-experimental festival and a founding moment of the early-1980s Geniale Dilletanten scene. The 1982 Hegemann founding, the 1982–90 historic period as the main gathering of the 1980s Berlin industrial scene, the Einstürzende Neubauten and British / European residencies through it, the 1990 close near the post-reunification transition, the 2013 revival at Kraftwerk Berlin, and Hegemann's Atonal-and-Tresor run across four decades are the main filings. The festival is still active in 2026.