About us

The domicil is a venue for jazz and contemporary music in Dortmund. It ideally combines music and culture, civic commitment, catering, and architecture. Since 1969 the club has made a name for itself far beyond the region, initially as the legendary basement club at Leopoldstraße 60 in the North of Dortmund, and since 2005 in a converted UFA cinema in the centrally located Hansastraße.

The building project was realized with the support of the program "Taking Initiative", a campaign for civil involvement funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with the help of the Cultural Office of the city of Dortmund, and around 15,000 volunteer working hours by members of the domicil's supporting organization.

The domicil is supported by the non-profit organization domicil Dortmund e.V. The venue is run by the domicil gGmbH, which is in charge of the program of events and the restaurant. The volunteer work done by the members of the supporting organization amounts to around 5,000 working hours a year, guaranteeing the realization of the venue's cultural program and making the volunteers indispensable for the domicil's cultural activities.

 

The domicil is financed by box office revenues, donations, catering and renting proceeds, the city of Dortmund Cultural Office's funding of cultural institutions (since 1998), and sponsoring. More than 80 per cent of its share of turnover are generated by the domicil itself.

The domicil gGmbH offers around 40 full- and part-time positions as well as employing freelancers. It is accredited by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce as a company that offers training in event organization. Besides hosting more than 300 events a year, including concerts, sessions, workshops, and festivals - amongst others, the annual Christmas jazz matinee in the opera house and the Jazztage Dortmund - the venue cooperates with a wide range of creative artists and organizers from Dortmund and the surrounding region.

In addition to numerous awards for the domicil's restaurant, the venue has received diverse distinctions. It has been nominated for the 2010 LEA-Award as one of the 3 best German live clubs, received a state-funded award for outstanding venues in 2010 and 2011, and has been listed as one of the "100 Great Jazz Clubs worldwide" by DownBeat Magazine.