#263: Women's Day, Dysfunctional Ausländerbehörde, Tesla production
A Knifecrab comic and trams that have WiFi

Happy International Women’s Day!
Berlin was the first of Germany’s 16 states to declare the day a holiday (in 2019) and was joined by Mecklenberg Western-Pommerania last year. It’s always felt weird to me that everyone gets the day off. Seems like just women should be excused from work while everyone else slaves away — and for like a third less than normally.
But I guess that’s not how holidays work.
International Women’s Day has been a thing in Germany ince 1911, when leftist politician Clara Zetkin organized it following a similar event in 1907 in New York. Both were tied to suffrage and socialist politics.
A number of demonstrations pushing for a variety of issues from equality to more funding for social institutions are planned for Friday. Several unions have planned a protest at 11.30am on Oranienplatz, which will then move to the Brandenburg Gate. Meanwhile, a much larger demonstration is planned for 2pm on Unter den Linden which will then — wait for it — move to Kreuzberg.
Hope you’re having a nice holiday. It might be cold but at least the sun is shining! I’m off to Brandenburg to celebrate with a little Angrillen (the first BBQ of the seaon).
Andrew
PS: Huge thank you to everyone who came to the News Quiz Wednesday. It’s always a blast and it’s great to see our readers in person. More events to be announced soon.
No, the Ausländerbehörde is not on permanent holiday
The problem at the Landesamt für Einwanderung (or LEA, the official name of the Ausländerbehörde) may be at the top. Eberhard Mazanke, the LEA’s top bureaucrat, shrugged off possible improvements suggested by experts at a parliamentary hearing Monday on the “disfunctionality” of his agency saying he had no time, according to taz. Instead, he said new appointment-setting software will be introduced by June that will eliminate the ability for wily entrepreneurs to snatch appointments and sell them to the highest bidder — us foreigners will first have to upload our documents before gaining access to appointments. He also said his office will hire 108 new full-time and temporary workers to deal with backlogs (but they haven’t been hired yet). The new naturalization office also got 120 new positions, though they too haven’t all been filled. At least Berlin politicians have a just as frustrating experience with the place.
Arson halts Tesla production
Workers at Tesla got an early holiday this week after left-wing activists set a high-voltage power pole ablaze early Tuesday. The arson knocked out power to an industrial area southeast of Berlin that includes the Tesla plant but also a key distribution center for grocer Rewe, according to Tagesspiegel. Production at Tesla was stopped for at least this week while some Rewe stores were forced to go without fresh produce ahead of Friday’s holiday as the company scrambled to set up generators and reroute logistics through other warehouses, according to RBB24. The Vulkangruppe claimed responsibility for the arson attack, which comes amid growing criticism of Tesla’s plans to expand the new factory — residents are concerned the plant could use too much of the area’s dwindling water supply and are also annoyed at losing 100 hectares of forest to the expansion.
Train strike ends Friday, more expected
Deutsche Bahn workers will end their latest strike-holiday at 1pm Friday but more strikes are expected soon and their union — the GDL — has said it won’t provide any forewarning for subsequent strikes. The union wants a 35-hour workweek, which is why the strike lasted 35 hours, a level of creativity I would never have expected from a train union. The Frankfurter Rundschau has an interesting interview with a rail expert who says the 35-hour workweek is nothing new and has long been the standard in German industry. Don’t hate the union, the expert says, hate Bahn executives who pull down millions in salaries and bonuses while doing little for transport. He’s also no fan of high-speed rail because the infrastructure (cement, mostly) damages the environment.
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Knifecrab

Factoid
And maybe it’s time to introduce another holiday as Berlin slouches toward the digital era. Digital Berlin Day, or something. Yellow public transport provider BVG Thursday said all trams now have free WiFi. I thought my phone was broken the other day when it automatically connected on the M10 — so low are my expectations of anything digital in this town.
📯📯Postkutsche 📯 📯
Reader Cris has organized a free workshop to help get more women in tech careers:
Django Girls is a one-day workshop, completely free, and it will be happening on April 21st. The sign up form is open on our website until March 17th, and for those that are already in tech (from any gender) can sign up as coaches as well. We have an email on the website that we can answer any questions that people might have.