In Berlin, club culture emerged in post-unification Germany of the 1990s as a largely non-commercial subcultural movement with roots in squatting and punk culture, driven by Black and queer communities among others. Nowadays it is world-renowned, earning UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage status in 2024, and attracting millions of tourists each year. By drawing on Marxist and Bourdieusian approaches to class, I argue that the subculture has been reshaped to become more profit-oriented than community-oriented, through neoliberal governance and gentrification. Through the (re)valorisation of subcultural spaces and exploitative practices that capitalise on authenticity, club culture has been assimilated into neoliberal relations of production. Meanwhile, there is a lack of support from the state to preserve club culture. Therefore, commercialisation becomes a necessity for clubs to survive under the pressures of shrinking urban space. As a result, more affluent, cosmopolitan crowds are being attracted, while clubs become less accessible for intersectionally marginalised people on the basis of class, despite their portrayal as ‘diverse’ and ‘inclusive’. This becomes evident in Berlin’s infamous door policies and in the whitewashing of its historical roots. Combining economic and cultural approaches to class elucidates how the spaces and practices of marginalised subcultural communities become co-opted and exploited from above for the benefit of local governments and business-oriented private actors, reproducing intersectional inequalities in club culture. However, significant gaps remain in the literature on how race, gender, disability and other factors intersect with class and space in Berlin. Thus, future research is required.