It may not feel like it, especially when you're being steamrolled by catastrophic daily headlines, but the answer to all the chaos is surprisingly simple: civil resistance. That can be methodical, or it can just mean saying: I don't give a damn, I'm staying in my community, I'm building something within the framework I've been given, and trying to make a positive difference there. Die Anstalt are living proof of that approach.
Watch the Video for “Kalter Schweiss”
Emerging in 2023, Die Anstalt are a Berlin-based post-punk and minimal synth trio who quickly established themselves with a blistering fusion of early EBM, synth-punk, and classic post-punk. Their sound channels the grit and tension of 1980s industrial subcultures while feeling unmistakably contemporary. City Slang is proud to announce the signing of Die Anstalt with the upcoming release of their debut album. They have also announced a UK and Ireland tour supporting A Place to Bury Strangers, alongside a hometown headline show at Berlin's legendary SO36 in November 2026.
When Carmen, Jakob and Emanuele decided to start a band two years ago, that was one of the reasons. Simply to exist, to feel like you exist. I scream, therefore I am. Die Anstalt - in German, it means the Institution or the Asylum. Both meanings fit the context.
That touchstone is relatable to a lot of young bands in Berlin, and everywhere else. The endless conversations about touring economics, royalties, streaming, and arts funding (assuming that lasts much longer) feel beside the point. Not out of ignorance, but because none of that actually applies to them. You don't make music from a business plan, it comes from a deep inner drive. And that drive is what propels this band forward.
So they do it all themselves: making tapes, pressing records, booking shows. They play every squat and DIY venue in Berlin and across Germany. In 2024, their EP Rat Race comes out and leaves its mark on Berlin's underground scene. Early 2025, Berlin-based booking agency Milk Me (Joshua Murphy and Cat Elsässer) come on board and start introducing the band to the international touring circuit — first small shows, then small tours, then bigger shows and festivals, culminating in a headline tour across Europe in October 2025. By the end of 2025, their first proper album is released, limited to 300 LPs, and sells out almost immediately. The shows get bigger. The record gets repressed to keep up with demand. One week, they're playing Köpi, Berlin's infamous squat venue, and the next they're in New York, flights paid out of pocket, broke but fearless, when A Place to Bury Strangers walks up to them and says: "You guys are great. Come tour England with us."
Then, months after the first album came out, a legendary (read: ancient) label, City Slang, shows up with a left-field offer: "Hey, we love what you’re doing, we’d like to help." And the reply wasn’t "Cool", it was "Yeah, but…"
Die Anstalt and City Slang. It was love at first sight. But like any healthy relationship, we had to get to know each other first. First, we explained who we are, why we think they're great, and asked ourselves, how could we support them without asking them to compromise what made them special in the first place? It's extremely important to us that this band keeps doing exactly what it does. We love the music, the people behind it, the integrity, everything about it. There's no telling if the algorithms will approve. Our only questions were, is this music we can stand behind? Do we believe in what it’s saying? Is this something of genuine artistic value? And right now, nobody answers those questions as convincingly as Die Anstalt.
Die Anstalt sound like no one else, even if everyone hears something different. Depending on who you ask, you'll catch traces of Malaria!, Boy Harsher, DAF, early EBM, synth-punk, or X-Mal Deutschland. Then there's the surf guitar, a detail that shouldn't work but somehow holds the whole thing together. The result is theatrical, confrontational, hypnotic, and relentlessly physical. They write slogans that stick. They're appropriately furious. Live, they're less a concert than a controlled explosion.
Their songs give voice to generational exhaustion, the dystopian absurdities of the present, warmongers, the manosphere, and the constant sense that the world is coming apart at the seams. Somehow, they also sound unmistakably like Berlin. That doesn't happen often, maybe once a decade, if we're lucky.
Most of all, Die Anstalt are proof that beneath the noise, the algorithms, and the endless churn of industry discourse, something vital still burns: rage, conviction, and hope in equal measure. At their core, they are a punk band. No posturing. No compromise. No messing around. They don't ask for permission. They burn it all down.
Tourdates:
DIE ANSTALT LIVE
17.07.26 - DE - Sehnde - Snntg Festival
24.07.26 - DE - Magdeburg - Datsche Open Air
14.08.26 - DE - Friedland - Chimaera Festival, Klingemühle
22.08.26 - PT - Leria - Extramuralhas / Fade in Festival
19.09.26 - ES - Barcelona - Razzmatazz
17.10.26 - DE - Hamburg — M.S. Stubnitz
19.11.26 - DE - Berlin - SO36
02.10.26 - DE - Hof - Galeriehaus
23.10.26 - DE - Nürnberg - Bunker Rituals Festival IV
DIE ANSTALT + A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
24.08.26 — UK — Brighton — Concorde 2
25.08.26 — UK — Sheffield — Sidney & Matilda
26.08.26 — UK — Manchester — The White Hotel
27.08.26 — SCT — Glasgow — Stereo
28.08.26 — IE/UK — Belfast — The Deers Head
29.08.26 — IE — Galway — Róisín Dubh
30.08.26 — IE — Dublin — The Grand Social
02.09.26 — UK — Birmingham — Hare and Hounds
03.09.26 — UK — Norwich — Waterfront
04.09.26 — UK — Southampton — Papillon
05.09.26 — UK — St. Leonard's-on-Sea — The Piper
07.09.26 — UK — London — The Dome
08.09.26 — UK — Newcastle — Anarchy Brew
09.09.26 — UK — Oxford — The Bullington