#328: Crime stats, maglev dead, protected Plattenbau
25 years ago BVG tested e-tickets... and failed
Dear 20 Percent,
In a new RBB documentary titled “Limits of Immigration”, Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik says, in light of rising stastistics on crimes committed by foreign nationals, “I believe that a limit has been reached as to what is feasible.”
The stats for 2023: The number of crimes reported in Germany rose by 5.5% last year but reported crimes involving suspects without German citizenship rose by 17.8%.
These stats feed into the anti-immigrant narratives peddled by the AfD and other parties.
Fortunately, Olaf Lansen, director of the Brandenburg Ausländerbehörde, is also interviewed in the documentary: “What Germany does wrong is not letting people work immediately.” Lansen says immigrants’ right to work must be decoupled from their residence status. “Eliminate bureaucracy, let people work.”
This makes so much sense. Tens of thousands of asylum seekers — many of them young men — are stuck in overcrowded centres with no opportunity to work or participate in education or training. Allowing them to work could do wonders for their integration into German society. It seems like a no-brainer, but barely any political leaders dare suggest such a change in the law, and instead parrot far-right demands for deportation and not much else.
More news below.
Maurice
Thanks to today’s sponsor, Feather!
New feature: quiz of the week. The first one is pretty easy. Answer at the end of the newsletter.
Maglev DOA
About a year ago, we reported on mayor Kai Wegner’s (CDU) pet project, a maglev train running from Hauptbahnhof to… somewhere. Die Linke politicians asked the city government what had happened to the €100 million plan and found out that no feasibility study had been commissioned, implying the project was dead. Virtually all parties apart from the centre-right CDU opposed the maglev from the beginning. And Berlin is struggling to plug a €3-billion-shaped hole in the 2025 budget. “Therefore,” remarked Die Linke transport expert Kristian Ronneburg, “it is necessary to use all resources for a properly functioning public transport system and not to invest them in half-baked lobby projects.”
Protected Platte
Berlin’s office for historical protection has listed a number of 1980s Plattenbau apartment blocks in the trendy Spandauer Vorstadt area of Mitte as worthy of protection. East German Plattenbau blocks were built out of pre-fabricated concrete slabs. The buildings filled gaps created by WWII bombing. In some cases, the East German blocks have been demolished to make way for profitable real estate projects — so perhaps these buildings’ protected status could in some way help slow gentrification.
Amazon, nein Danke
My mum used to run a tiny bookstore, so I’ve always hated Amazon, whose ascent to world domination began by undercutting booksellers. Next Saturday, a group of activists who call themselves Berlin vs. Amazon will be protesting the opening of Berlin’s new Amazon tower on Warschauer Straße. According to the group, Amazon sucks both locally (there goes Friedrichshain) and globally (“monoply capitalism”, worker exploitation, etc). Hard to to argue with. You should check out Berlin vs. Amazon’s video “Jeff’s Berlin Adventure”.
Hot start-ups
Amazon aside, Berlin’s still got it. By “it” I mean, it’s still cranking out some interesting start-ups. At least according to Wired, which just published a list of new-ish tech firms including some niche generative AI apps, a virtual pet and some climate-friendly software. The list.
Events this week, in cooperation with The Next Day Berlin:
🎤Powering Inequality Tuesday, 22.10, 6:30pm. MOOS Space, Moosdorfstraße 7-9, Treptow, free This panel discussion (in English) addresses the global challenges of energy access and the intersecting issues of energy inequality, economic development, human rights and environmental impacts.
🪩Kimchi Records release party
Thursday, 24.10, 10 pm - 6 am. Sameheads, Richardstraße 10, Neukölln. Tickets: €10.
Celebrate the sixth release from Kimchi Records featuring Chicaiza! The party starts at 3 pm with an exclusive in-store event alongside 🎧Dea (6) and Kamyar Keramati. Later, head to Sameheads for a night with Pryma, Montei, Dani Labb, and local DJs 🎧Chicaiza and 🎧Patamamba!
🎹Future East Festival 2024
Fri-Sat, 25-26.10, 7 pm - 9 am. Musikbrauerei, Greifswalder Str. 23a, Prenzlauer Berg. Tickets: €23.99/€32.
The Future East Festival’s next edition, “EXTENSION,” will light up three floors of Musikbrauerei, featuring a diverse mix of ambient, electronic, and electro-acoustic music, A/V performances, and a club night led by the An(8)x festival and kwia. Artists from Asia and North Africa will showcase their talent, merging tradition with innovation. I went last year, and it was a good surprise! 🎧 Azu Tiwaline 🎧 bod [包家巷] 🎧Istanbul Ghetto Club
🧥Friendly Flohmarkt
Sunday, 27.10, 11 am - 5 pm. Jules B-Part, Luckenwalder Str. 6b, Kreuzberg. Free.
The "Friendly Flohmarkt" is a great place to find clothes, shoes, accessories, and home decor. With 40 stalls, it’s a perfect spot for some relaxed outdoor shopping.
Germany-wide news
🛂More visas for skilled Indian professionals
💻Russian disinformation growing
💡Handpicked Berlin: Career, tech, startup, and Berlin news, plus timeless inspiration. Mondays in your inbox.💡
Factoid
Twenty-five years ago, in October 1999, public transport operator BVG piloted one of the world’s first contactless e-tickets. 26,000 volunteers tested the the Tick.et system and 96% were satisfied with it. But Berlin shelved the programme within 7 months because the city’s finances were devastated by a major banking crisis. Sigh. Heise Online has an interesting long read in English about a time when Berlin was, for once, a digital leader.
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Quiz answer: Former Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD). The phrase “arm aber sexy” came out of his mouth in November 2003, when the unemployment rate was nearing 20%. Berlin was stuck with the unofficial marketing slogan for a generation.
Hey Maurice!
About the numbers of the Police officers in the RBB documentary, they are fake in many ways and statistically flawed, as the divulgation video "Die unangenehme Wahrheit hinter Rassentheorie" from the famous scientific communicator Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim (not in english though). It is available on youtube. Thanks for your substack. I enjoy it a lot!
You are so right about migration! IMO, the future is that people's smart phones will put them on the welfare and taxation strategy of a new country as soon as they walk over a border. This would be the most congruent thing with the universal declaration of human rights. One** of the biggest issues though is that labour unions worry about wages getting undermined. Business leaders apparently call the BMAS all the time begging for access to the migrants they see, but the BMAS / SDP have trouble getting all their ducks in a row. (** other issues: privacy concerns about being trackable by phone especially if you are fleeing abuse, everyone having a smart phone, but these are both manageable exceptions that need anyway to be handled for a number of reasons, many domestic.)