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GERMAN OF THE WEEK

GERMAN OF THE WEEK

‘Hotties were always allowed in’

Sifting through Munich's riff-raff is no easy task - Klaus Gunschmann did it for two decades at the door of the city's most famous nightclub, P1. The empire he ran - as doorman and boss, turns 30 this year - he's our German of the Week.

'Hotties were always allowed in'
Photo: DPA

“Hotties can always come in. But two idiot guys without girls, absolutely not,” was Gunschmann's rule of thumb. His nightlife started at P1, partying every weekend, despite as a student not really being able to afford it, until at 23, he was offered a job on the door.

This was where it all began – he would cast his eye over everyone coming in the club for years to come, before eventually being handed the reins of the joint. On a good night, he would be faced with 200 people queuing up, hoping to get in.

P1 has seen more international celebrities than Munich's average dive. Although Oliver Kahn and Boris Becker were regulars, they were practically locals.

More stellar guests included Tom Cruise, who chatted up its bathroom assistants while celebrating the German premier of Minority Report. Leonardo DiCaprio rubbed shoulders with the city's pretty people there – and it's been down Gunschmann to make sure things don't get out of hand.

But even he wasn't sure what to do when Jennifer Lopez and P-Diddy ordered 20 bottles of champagne, and refused to foot the bill.

Gunschmann left the club, and its celebrity packed nights, in 2008, to open his own bar. But he bears evidence of his P1 duty on his face in the form of a scar from a fight with a member of the Toten Hosen punk band.

“The art of the job was not to apply a physical presence,” the 1.90-metre-tall bouncer told the Abendzeitung newspaper. “It's more like making a mixed salad. You have a bit of rocket, some leaves and raddicio, and too much of any can be too much.”

Now, P1 is in the hands of two 30-year-old men, Sebastian Goller and Sebastian Kunzler, while married father-of-one Gunschmann concentrates on his own bar which is more fine dining and dancing. Long gone are the days when ending a shift meant wading through smashed glass, cigarette butts and discarded clothing.

SEE ALSO: Germans work hard, let's give them a break'

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