A graduation ceremony venue in Berlin, in the main hall

Graduates, teachers and families arrive in waves, not as one school class with one committee. The invitation names Humboldthain and building 17. Anyone describing the night as a school ball orders the wrong shape.

The address stays Gustav-Meyer-Allee 25, 13355 Berlin, building 17, on the ground floor. The locality is Gesundbrunnen and the borough is Mitte. S Humboldthain is about a ten-minute walk. U8 Voltastraße and Gesundbrunnen station are nearby. From Hauptbahnhof the journey is about 30 minutes. Wedding is the former borough name and a wayfinding cue, not the address.

The entrance is step-free and the house is accessible. A wheelchair route comes off a pure chair count. Parking on the grounds carries the build and does not replace the footpath when many people arrive in the same minute.

On the walk-through we measure the path from the gate into building 17 to the spot where the real moment sits. A photograph of the courtyard does not replace that walk.

Parking on the grounds belongs to the build. People walk from Humboldthain, about ten minutes. We do not promise a lift on the railway.

The walk-through ends with one sentence: which floor carries the event, and which figure we do not add. That sentence belongs on the invitation, not only in the conversation.

Date and headcount are checked on the Gala and dinner.

The names need a seated main hall, about 400, with a view to the spot where the certificate is handed over. Standing, about 600, is the later part, not the handover. Philosophia can hold a small circle of teachers and is not added.

The main hall, more than 600 square metres, holds about 400 seated and about 600 standing. Philosophia, about 180 square metres, holds about 100 at banquet tables and about 200 in a row. The terrace, about 400 square metres, holds about 500 for a standing reception and about 300 at banquet tables. Open air on the AEG grounds runs to about 5,000 people on up to 5,000 square metres. These figures are not added. Row and parliament layouts in the main hall are drawn on request. Every figure is a guide, not a blanket clearance.

The cloakroom sits so coats do not block the first view into the main hall. In winter that is the pinch point, not the decoration on the wall.

One producer holds the kitchen, the sound and the clock. Nobody deals with three companies at three gates. That is the production for this event.

Filling the main hall to the wall blocks the path to the bar and the toilets. For this event we keep the aisle open, even when that removes places.

First the names, then the meal, then the louder hour. Opening the party before the certificate loses the people whose names have not been said.

Tables that move for the later hour need time. The change is in the running order. A stage that blocks the aisle takes places off the about 400.

The change between parts of the evening sits on the clock, not as a surprise after the last course. Tables that move need a path that does not send anyone into the kitchen.

The kitchen cooks in the same house. A course leaves the kitchen without crossing a courtyard where a van is still parked.

Open air for about 5,000 people on up to 5,000 square metres is another format. The figure is here so it does not wander into the room.

The open kitchen stays visible as long as it does not cut the running order. Service moves along the edge. The speech or the greeting stays on the sightline of the main hall.

Photographs on the terrace stay a wish after the certificate, not the place of the names. Rain cancels that photograph. The handover stays in the main hall.

The courtyard is planted and sheltered, but it is not a roof. The main hall on the same grounds is the rain plan. A second address in another borough is not one.

Sound and light stay on one drawing. The arrival needs a different volume from the later part. Two kits without a plan make two evenings.

A second format on the same day is another booking. Anyone stacking them checks first whether the main hall can be reset between the two pictures.

One light change is enough between the arrival and the later part. Every extra mood needs a rehearsal, or the room feels restless before people have arrived.

Every microphone has to make the surname clear in the last row. A rehearsal with a real name from the list belongs on the walk-through. A second trade in the courtyard disturbs that rehearsal.

Kitchen, bar and sound run through Cantinerie. A second trade in the courtyard crosses the path between the gate and the room. Ground-level delivery keeps the build short. One producer holds the clock.

The terrace, about 400 square metres, can hold the arrival, about 500 standing. It is not a roof. What moves into the main hall in the rain is fixed before the invitation.

The first reply names the floor that carries the plan, and the floor we do not add together. Every figure stays a guide, not a blanket clearance.

The main hall does not carry a graduation above about 400 seated, nor a school ball on another clock. Several faculties in eight rooms do not fit. The 5,000 people outdoors are not a certificate handover.

Logos on the homepage are references. They are not headcounts and not a named job in this text. A fixed row count is not published for the main hall.

Philosophia, about 180 square metres, stays its own measure: about 100 at banquet tables, about 200 in a row. It is not added to the main hall just because both rooms are in the house.

The public lunch counter, Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 16:00, is a different offer. This event runs by arrangement, not from the lunch card.

The waves are family, then the graduates, then whoever missed the train. The cloakroom must not block the view to the handover. Parking carries the build, not every parent in the same minute.

Minutes pass between the gate and the cloakroom. S Humboldthain stays the plan. A taxi queue on Gustav-Meyer-Allee is not one. About 5,000 people on the AEG grounds are mentioned here only so nobody adds them to the indoor floor.

Chairs against the wall close the wheelchair route. We take that width off the chair count before anyone reads about 400 as a fixed promise.

Ground-level delivery keeps the build short. Vans are gone before the first train from Humboldthain arrives.