#327: BVG exec ousted, assaults at FU protest, more deaths

And more people prefer paying by cash than credit card

German president, some army dude, US president. Photo: US Embassy Twitter

Hey 20 Percent!

All my various endeavours (comedy, journalism, parenting) mean I have business relationships informal enough to allow WhatsApp communication but not to merit hanging out or having a beer together.

And I cherish my communication with Germans within those relationships because many, if not all, treat WhatsApp messages as letters. Letters that were carefully written by hand, sealed in an envelope and then stamped and delivered by some royal postal service or other.

“Lieber Andrew,” they’ll write. “Four PM is fine. Grüsse, Bettina”

“Bis denne (see you then)” I usually write back, smiling.

I’m not complaining. I love cultural differences and, to be honest, bemoan many that are being lost to mass media and the internet. Though I’d be fine if Germans got friendlier. OK, they’d have to be friendly first.

Have a good weekend (and a great fall break, if you have school-age kids).

Andrew

As always, please check out this issue’s sponsor (Ironhack) below or consider upgrading to a paid subscription so we can really feel the love.

BVG execs exiting the subway (company)

At least they’re trying to do something — the crisis at public transport authority BVG has claimed its second victim, board member Rolf Erfurt will leave the company at year’s end, according to Tagesspiegel. The COO was seen as a weak manager, more interested in equipment details than solving the company’s problems. No replacement has yet been named. He joined in 2019 and was defacto CEO until new CEO Eva Kreienkamp joined in 2020: Kreienkamp was reportedly an even weaker manager and left the company in April 2023 — the first victim (or maybe part of the problem). Let’s hope new executives can get more BVG trains on the subway lines.

Aggresssive protest at Freie Universität

About 20 masked protestors forced their way into the presidential offices of the Freie Universität in Dahlem Thursday, kicking down doors, wrecking computers and spraying inverted red triangles on the walls, according to RBB24. Several university employees were injured by the protestors, who fled when police arrived. Three women and one man were arrested outside the building. The school has often been the target of protests surrounding the war — in May about 150 people occupied a university building before being forcibly removed by police. University President Günter Ziegler decried the attack because he saw it as an attempt to limit open discussion. “And that of course includes everything that’s happening in the Middle East from Gaza to Lebanon and Israel,” he told RBB.

Joe is in the Hauptstadt

I was tempted, as a joke, to just post one of our earlier items about the traffic chaos caused by the recent visit from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky but I figured it was too subtle — but the traffic chaos caused by Friday’s visit from American President Joe Biden is the same. Like Zelensky, Biden will meet with both German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (both SPD). And like with Zelensky, the S-Bahn thinned out the frequency of trains to lower the chance that one has to stop between stations, sparking passengers to bail and walk on the tracks (doubling the chaos). Extra rush hour trains on the S1 will stay at home today and the S26 and S45 are cancelled. The S2 will be less frequent than the usual 10 minutes between between Nordbahnhof und Buch. The U5 isn’t stopping at Bundestag and don’t count on buses M41 and M48. Good luck!

Cash is annoyingly king

We’re probably to blame — the acceptance of card payments is highest in eastern Germany, according to Tagesspiegel (paywall), though a majority would still prefer to pay with cash. 47% of consumers favor credit card payments in our region, followed by 46% in southern Germany, 32% in western Germany and just 21% in stodgy northern Germany — the figures come from a self-serving study from SumUp (shout out to our readers there). One in five consumers just leave businesses without buying something when only cash is accepted as payment, hurting sales.

Germany-wide news

✈️ Lufthansa to pay €4m fine for treatment of Jewish passengers

🚒 German fire station burns because it had no fire alarms

🇮🇳 Government trying to lure Indian workers to Germany

⚡ Chancellor Scholz unhappy with e-car tariffs

Factoid

They just walk your body across the street. Photo: abbilder via CC

As the old joke goes: People are just dying to get in. The number of people dying in Berlin jumped to 39,572 in 2022 from 30,980 in 2007, according to taz. And yes, the first thing we all thought when we heard someone died in Berlin is whether their apartment was now available. However, coinciding with increase in deaths was a decrease in the acreage available for burial — 1,094 hectares last year from 1,174 in 2006. Officials say it isn’t a problem because one of the few things the new Germany adopted from East Germany was a love for cremation, which means less space needed for burials. However, some religions require eternal burials while Germans usually only rent graves for about 35 years. The Hauptstadt may run out of room for people to die.

Note: The original version of this items said Muslims require burial for eternity, which was incorrect. ̶T̶h̶e̶ ̶N̶e̶w̶ ̶Y̶o̶r̶k̶ ̶T̶i̶m̶e̶s̶ 20 Percent Berlin regrets the error.

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