#213: AfD in Brandenburg, fax hack, one room per person, celebs at Mustafa's

Guess who turned 55?

They’re back! Fridays for Future are striking again today, starting noon at Brandenburg Gate. Thanks, y’all. Photo: Stefan Müller

Hey 20 Percent!

Today, a little housekeeping. We got ahead of ourselves this week and turned on subscriptions. Our idea was just to give our readers more ways to help pay for this endeavour as we work on some upgrades. But we didn’t fully look into how subscriptions work, how they could work or how they should work.

We made this error because we, too, are just human (and a separate project took up all my time this week).

But it may not be an error at all, it may just be a feature. There shouldn’t be any changes to what you get from us — if there are, please let us know. You can still donate to us on Patreon or donate here instead by signing up for a subscription (the minimum substack will allow is €5/month).

Have a good, hopefully housekeeping-free weekend!

Andrew

Brandenburg, what are you thinking?

We’re not the only one who needs to do some housekeeping — every non-AfD party in Brandenburg (as well as the federal government) need to start paying more attention to the average voter in the leafy state that entirely surrounds Berlin: 32 percent of voters there would vote for the AfD were an election this weekend, according to an RBB poll. That’s up nine percentage points from the last poll in April. The left-leaning SPD came in second with 20% and all the AfD’s extra points came from parties in the state’s current government (the conservative CDU lost five, for example). Brandenburg will vote for a new government in exactly a year — time for everyone but the burgeoning fascists to regain some ground. It’s also worth mentioning that people never vote as reactionarily as they answer in polls but 32% is … well, it’s a lot.

Stop hogging all the rooms

Renters in Berlin might be forced to do less housekeeping: Berlin wants to limit new renters at its six residential property companies to a single room per renter, meaning singles could only rent studio apartments and couples two-room abodes (or one-bedrooms if, like me, you’re a Yank), according to Tagesspiegel. Our pols think the move will help ease the extreme lack of living space in Berlin but it could just make it worse — potential parents would have to begin the arduous task of looking for a new, three-room place while pregnant, for example. A cooperation agreement that guides policy for the companies expires this year and proposals will likely leak until it’s complete — rent hikes, after several years of no increases, are already part of the document.

The über-tourist-trap

Sometimes the slow-burning jokes are the best. I’ve always found the hype around Mustafa’s Gemüse Döner amusing. While it’s clear not every Döner is created equal, it’s equally clear Mustafa’s isn’t the best — and certainly not worth waiting an hour for. But I’ve appreciated how their early internet adopter attitude coupled with the rise of social media created Berlin’s — if not the world’s — weirdest tourist trap. And yesterday that trap lured its biggest fish — famous anti-semite Ye (Kanye West, for those not paying attention) and wife Bianca Censori were spotted both in line for the famous Fleischgericht (meat dish) and later devouring it in a nearby park, like so many of us have done so many times. According to the Morgenpost, a Ye representative asked if the über-famous couple could jump the line but Mustafa’s said no, because they keep an ordentlich house at their little stand.

Fax hack

Speaking of Ordnung, the Berlin immigration office could use a little: “I sent a fax on Wednesday and got an appointment on Monday.” That’s Brazilian software developer Cleber Neto, describing his “fax hack” of the Landesamt für Einwanderung. The few appointments it offers online every day are gone within seconds and if you do get one it might be nine months. E-mailing also appears to be futile. According to officials, a backlog of 10,000 messages remains unanswered. Agency boss Engelhard Mazanke expressed astonishment about the fax hack: “I am surprised because we practically no longer work with faxes except in certain urgent cases.”

Factoid

Glas. Steel. Black. Berlin. Photo: Rae Allen via Creative Commons.

(One of) My favorite Berlin building(s) opened on this day in 1968: Happy Birthday Neue Nationalgalerie! It was architect Mies van der Rohe’s final independent work and was renovated in 2021.

⛔ ⛔ ⛔ This is the end, my friend ⛔ ⛔ ⛔