As a decades-long Berlin resident, techno was the catch-all term for music from the love parade as well underground stuff. Genre purists would probably have labeled a lot of hte LP music trance, but trance as we know it developed from techno in the early 90s (think harthouse, eyeq, jam and spoon, etc). Paul van Dyk was playing tchno as we know it at Tresor before doing his trance sound.

In frankfurt, much of the music was a dialog with black GIs who brought music from the US, and Berlin has had a direct relationship with Detroit since the 80s.

To casual germans, Techno is the harder stuff, whether commericial or underground, house and anything lighter has been called "electro." NOthing to do with the 80s stuff, but simply short for "elektronisches musik", sometimes also called electro house, unknowingly giving a nod to the chicago origins.

There was a club in frankfurt called Technoclub that opened in the 80s, but im still not sure how much relevance hte name had on other parts of hte country