Named after jazz patron Pannonica “Nica” de Koenigswarter, the club opened in November 2024 with Richard Bona at Alter Wall, right on the canal in Hamburg’s old town. Around 300 seats, a view of the water and more than 250 concerts a year on five nights a week: here jazz meets funk, soul, blues and world music. Artistic director Fee Schlennstedt, formerly at Unterfahrt and Quasimodo, brings in names such as Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stacey Kent and Kurt Elling.

Named after Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, the club opened in September 2018 on the lower level of the Congress Center Rosengarten, right across from Mannheim’s Wasserturm. Trumpeter Thomas Siffling runs the venue, which is operated as a non-profit. Four nights a week the program features blues, vocal jazz, Latin and big band, on the Steinway grand and with international guests such as Till Brönner or Fred Wesley. Ella & Louis won the APPLAUS in 2021, 2022 and 2024.

Since 2015, drummer Dimitris Christides has been bringing world-class jazz to Friedenau: at Zig Zag, around 90 guests sit just a few meters from a stage that has already hosted John Scofield and Billy Cobham. On some 250 nights a year the program ranges from swing and gypsy jazz to soul, funk and fusion, and on Tuesdays the Jazzed Up Jam Session takes over. That has earned the club the APPLAUS four times. A move to larger premises in Kreuzberg is already planned.

Since 1992, the A-Trane in Charlottenburg has been one of the top addresses for jazz in Berlin. The name combines “Take the A Train” with Coltrane’s nickname, and Till Brönner played at the opening. Since then Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall and Brad Mehldau have performed on the small stage for an audience of just 80 to 100. On Mondays, Andreas Schmidt & Friends play with free admission. The club has won the Live Entertainment Award as Germany’s best jazz club and the APPLAUS three times.

The JazzHall of Hamburg’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater lies almost entirely beneath the garden of the Budge-Palais on the Outer Alster. Opened in 2021 and funded largely by the Dr. E. A. Langner-Stiftung, the hall seats around 200, and its glass front opens up into seating steps facing the Alster meadows. Around 200 events a year bring the university’s students together with international guests. The Abendblatt dubbed it “Hamburg’s new little Elbphilharmonie of jazz”.

Since 1996 the Theaterstübchen has been as much a part of Kassel as the Hercules monument, and the city calls it its most famous cellar. There is room for around 200 guests when blues, jazz and cabaret take the stage on roughly 280 nights a year. Mondays bring the session with an open jam, Tuesdays belong to jazz, and every March the JazzFrühling runs for four weeks. In 2021 the club won the APPLAUS main prize for program of the year.

Golden poles, chandeliers and a brass dance floor recall the dazzling past of the bar on Ebertplatz, which has been called King Georg since 1968. Since 2019 the small club, with room for around 120 guests, has been devoted entirely to jazz: pianist Martin Sasse is in charge of a program with series such as Female Jazz and Young Talents, the King Georg 12 Bigband and a monthly jam session. In 2025 it earned the APPLAUS once again.

Founded in a cellar in 1969, the domicil is today one of the defining addresses for jazz and creative music in Germany. Since 2005 it has been based in the converted former Studio cinema in Dortmund’s Westfalenhaus, with a large hall and an intimate club room. Around 250 concerts a year, the Jazztage Dortmund and the free-admission Monday Night Session shape the program. The venue is carried by a great deal of volunteer work, rewarded with eleven APPLAUS awards, most recently the main prize in 2025.

The cellar on Gärtnerstraße has been swinging since 1985: Heidi and Dieter Reichert brought greats such as Art Blakey, Chet Baker and Ray Brown to their club, and today the next generation of the family keeps the Birdland going. Dark wood, hand-painted portraits of musicians and room for around 150 guests create a genuine jazz cellar atmosphere. Thursdays bring the legendary jam session with free admission, and on Saturdays the stage belongs to the Saturday Night Live Jazz series.

Named after cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, the BIX Jazzclub opened in 2006 in the Gustav-Siegle-Haus on Leonhardsplatz. Winding, brass-colored aluminum bands in the room pay homage to its namesake’s cornet. Around 250 concerts a year range from international top acts to late-night “Nachtschwärmer” concerts, and almost every Tuesday students from Stuttgart’s Musikhochschule perform. A multiple APPLAUS winner, the club is regularly listed by DownBeat among the best jazz clubs in the world.