#307: You can't get an appointment at the Ausländerbehörde
#307: You can't get an appointment at the Ausländerbehörde
The Spree is swimmable but you're breaking the law
Hey 20 Percent!
Did you know that the water in the Spree is actually OK for swimming? Usually, that is. If it rains a lot, the stormwater system spills into the sewage system, which then backwashes everything (yes, everything) into the Spree. Yuck.
But even when clean it’s still illegal to swim in our trademark river. Several years ago the inventive Flussbad Berlin proposed re-opening a once-popular Spree swimming spot near the Humboldtforum.
They want €70 million for a swimdock as well as an organic filtering system to offset the heavy rain problem. A good idea — several Swiss cities have downtown swimming holes and Paris is trying to get the Seine in shape. But they’ve found little support so now they’re just publicizing the Spree’s water quality in hopes of at least getting some swimming legalized.
Various city offices told RBB they too think we should be able to swim in the Spree. So maybe soon the river won’t be limited to nocturnal skinny dipping expeditions but also occasional, legal backstrokes.
I hope so. Until then, have a good weekend swimming in our (and Brandenburg’s) lakes.
Andrew
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Is it really a feature though?
Congrats to the Ausländerbehörde for converting a bug to a feature — but not fixing the underlying systemic issues. The appointment website for the Landesamt für Einwanderung (the Ausländerbehörde) broke earlier this year and now the LEA says it won’t be repaired. It will no longer offer unsolicited appointments. Since many processes have been moved online, it says us immigrants first have to submit our documents digitally and we’ll be assigned an appointment if everything is in order. That sounds like progress. The efficiency of digital plus it removes the parasites who hog and sell appointments. But the progress ends there because the LEA still isn’t making approvals and extensions on time. You can still contact them for an emergency appointment but what isn’t an emergency at this point? They continue their old mantra that just contacting them extends visas for work and other internal Berlin activities BUT NOT at the border, which makes it all moot — have to go home for an emergency before the LEA can do what they are legally required to do? Tough luck. You might not get back in. The LEA gave us a new feature … in a hive of bugs.
Doctor suspected of killing four patients, maybe more
A hospice doctor is accused of murdering four elderly patients in their Neukölln homes between June 11 and July 24 and then setting three of the four apartments ablaze to hide his crimes, according to RBB24. The victims were all female and between 72 and 94 years old and at least one will be exhumed to gather additional evidence. The 39-year-old palliative care doctor remains behind bars but has not yet revealed how the women were killed — investigators are checking to see if there are more victims. Even worse, the fires often spread, injuring neighbors.
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BSR not laughing about nitrous oxide bottles
About five not-entirely-empty nitrous oxide bottles explode daily in the Berliner Stadt Reinigung’s (BSR) incinerator in Ruhleben, potentially causing permanent damage, according to Morgenpost (paywall). The explosions have increased from one-a-day since 2023, along with a national trend, and require Berlin’s garbage company to store household waste while the ovens are inspected for potential repairs. Nitrous oxide is known to most of us as “laughing gas” and is a popular (and legal) party drug — but trash companies around the country are worried about the trend, especially because commercial-size bottles are becoming more popular and can lead to even bigger explosions.
Germany-wide news
🏨 Hotel collapse kills two in central Germany
🇺🇸 US, not China, now biggest buyer of German exports
🧑🏾⚖️ Constitutional court says Bundestag can be reduced
🥃 East Germany’s unbreakable glass
Factoid
Archaeologists have unearthed about 600,000 historic objects during construction at Molkenmarkt, that never-ending construction site between the Rotes Rathaus and the Spree near Alex, according to RBB24. The items range from the city-state’s oldest sidewalk (wood, from 1215) to East German products and even more modern detritus. The above clay pots from the 15th century were found in what is believed to have been the cellar of a wooden house at the site — toys and other tools were also found in the cellar. The archeological work will be complete next year and Molkenmarkt will eventually be redeveloped into five new buildings including 450 new apartments.