#279: Peaceful May 1, Free Brandenburg villa, Green politician hassled in Brandenburg
Berlin doesn't write a lot of speeding tickets
Hey 20 Percent!
The biggest change I’ve seen in Berlin in the more than 20 years I’ve been here is May 1. We used to spend Mayday evenings watching live coverage on RBB of the riots on Oranienstrasse. It was a little like a sporting event — sometimes the cops could progress down the street. Other times they’d retreat under a shower of cobblestones and bottles.
I was ambivalent about the event — I assumed both the left-wing radicals and the cops enjoyed the once-a-year free-for-all where they could face off against each other. But politicians and activists in Kreuzberg weren’t so amused and, thanks to things like the defunct Myfest, May 1 went from a day of street battles to a day of street parties. Even we switched off the TV and started spending the day with the kids around Oranienplatz.
After all, what could be more Berlin than Spätis with DJs? Correct — a Döner stand with a DJ.
According to RBB, Cops made just 34 arrests and are considering an 39 additional charges, which seems very low considering 55,000 people protested at about 30 demonstrations on May 1 — apparently the fewest arrests since the ‘80s. No idea how many people partied seemingly everywhere in the city.
Good job, y’all! Let’s do it again next year.
Have a good weekend!
Andrew
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The heat is coming from inside the city
History isn’t just reappearing in the number of arrests on May 1 — Berlin Friday completed its €1.4 billion re-purchase of the city-state’s district heating network, including 10 power plants sprinkled through the city, from Swedish utility Vattenfall, according to taz. Berlin sold many of its utilities around the turn of the century to plug budgetary holes sparked by a real estate scandal. Politicians have recently been working to undo the privatizations and have already bought back our water business as well as the city-state’s electricity network. Next up, Gasag, the natural gas company owned by Vattenfall as well as German utilitiy E.On and France’s Engie. Vattenfall has already granted Berlin a right to buy its 31.6% Gasag stake.
Green politician unable to leave campaign event
It’s not easy being a Green. Cops in Brandenburg, the leafy land of lakes that surrounds Berlin, admitted Friday they hadn’t properly staffed a recent campaign event where protestors prevented Bundestag vice-president Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Die Grüne) from leaving, according to Tagesspiegel. Two men positioned themselves behind and in front of Göring-Eckardt’s car after the event Saturday while others screamed and hit the car with bottles. The politician was stuck for 15 minutes as the two cops on-site called for backup. Green politicians are repeated targets of farmer protests in Germany — economy minister Robert Habeck was trapped on a ferry in northern Germany in January because of a blockade and Ricarda Lang, who leads the party, called off an event near Stuttgart in February over fears of violence.
Berlin will give you a weekend house in Brandenburg
We’ve already talked about Berlin’s desperate attempt to unload a forest getaway from Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels and it now may be your chance to get a weekend place — Berlin finance minister Stefan Evers (CDU) said this week he’ll give you the villa near Wandlitz, north of Berlin, free of charge, according to the Morgenpost. The catch? You also have to accept and maintain the adjacent 17 hectares with a number of buildings that used to be a leadership academy for East Germany. Neither the state of Brandenburg nor the German government were willing to accept the offer. If no one steps up, Berlin wants to raze the buildings and just let nature take over.
Factoid
Berlin sent out just 106,948 speeding tickets last year from speed cameras, down from 449,436 in 2019, because ticketing officials are overburdened, in part because the city-state has expanded the paid parking regions, resulting in more parking tickets, according to Tagesspiegel. Berlin had also hoped to install 80 new speed cameras this year but it probably won’t even be 40 because of the lack of personnel.
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