#334: Property tax, embassy occupied, parents do police work
Zero Waste Action Weeks!
Dear 20 Percent,
I’m late to the party, but hey we’re in the middle of the “Zero Waste Action Weeks”, organised by city sanitation bureau BSR’s inhouse “Zero Waste Agency”.
Basically, it’s a bunch of hands-on workshops, even a few in English (go to “Filter”, then “Sprache”).
The slogan is pretty radical: “REFUSE. RETHINK. REDUCE. REUSE. REPAIR.”
A highlight is the Zero Waste Future Festival on November 16 at NochMall (“Again Mall”) — with three main theme: repairing broken stuff, preventing food waste and upcycling.
Kudos to BSR for organising! Now can they also please empty the overflowing bins on my street corner?
Maurice
Note from Andrew: I’ll be doing about 20 minutes of comedy Thursday at Berlin’s best club: Downstairs Comedy Club on Oranienburger Straße as headliner of their monthly English show. Tix still available!
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18-20:00, Thursday 14.11, Other Nature: alternativer Sexladen, Yorckstr. 75, Kreuzberg
Having "the talk" with your teen will still be awkward. But sex educators from Other Nature wrote 100 conversation starters to help make it a little less awkward. Celebrate Other Nature's 13th birthday with cake, a prize raffle, and a short talk sponsored by their publisher Polar Embassy. Free, wheelchair accessible, 18+.
Quiz
Property tax hike
By the end of the year, the owners of around 900,000 properties in Berlin will receive a letter with their 2025 Grundsteuer, or property tax, based on a new way of calculating the tax that is too complicated to explain in this newsletter. Here’s a deep dive in English! Over the past few years, the tax authorities sent out surveys to every property owner in Germany to provide an updated picture of property values. Previously, the tax had been based on assessments made decades ago: 1964 in West Berlin; 1935 in the East. According to a survey of 200 homeowners in Berlin performed by property owners’ association Haus und Grund, the tax is going up by an average of 75%.
Greek Embassy occupied
Monday morning 18 people entered the Embassy of Greece in Hiroshimastraße, apparently to show solidarity with a radical anarchist who was killed while building a homemade bomb in Athens. According to Morgenpost, embassy staff eventually asked the occupiers to leave the building but they refused and so the police were called to remove them.
Parents do state’s job
In order to make Pfalzburger Straße in front of Nelson Mandela School in Wilmersdorf safer, a temporary car-free “school street” is being set up twice a day starting Tuesday, reports RBB. But instead of the school or the Polizei or the Ordnungsamt doing their job, parents are expected to put up and dismantle signs that weigh up to 700kg apiece. Parents have been fighting for years to reduce traffic outside the bilingual public school. District councillor Oliver Schruoffenegger (Bündnis90/Die Grünen), called the new solution “minimally invasive” (read “cheap”). But nobody’s happy. “Parents are of course concerned about the safety of their children and accept the responsibility and make the effort. But it is absolutely incomprehensible that the district and the state are so indifferent to the issue — it leaves me speechless!” comments Ragnhild Sørensen of the non-profit Changing Cities.
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Selected events this week from The Next Day Berlin:
🎸Crocodiles (US) + Guest: 250CC
Thursday, 14.11, 9 pm. Urban Spree, Revaler Str. 99, Friedrichshain. Tickets: €17.
Crocodiles deliver intense shows mixing noise-pop, punk, and psychedelia—perfect for indie, psych, and rock fans. 🎧 Upside Down in Heaven
🎤 Dekoloniale – what remains?!
Opening: Thursday, 14.11, 5:30 pm. Nikolaikirche, Nikolaikirchpl.Mitte. Free admission.
The Dekoloniale Festival 2024 opens with an exhibition and musical program, including the group exhibition “Colonial Ghosts,” exploring Berlin's colonial history, and the performance “Body of Blues,” featuring a soundscape by Nathanael Amadou Kliebhan and dancers embodying transformation.
📺 Videoart at Midnight: #145: Éric Baudelaire
Friday, 15.11, midnight. BABYLON, big cinema hall, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30, Mitte. Free admission.
Éric Baudelaire presents two films exploring avant-garde composer Alvin Curran’s work, blending music, history, and collaboration: “The Glove” (2020, 8 min) and “When There Is No More Music to Write” (2022, 59 min). This showcase is part of “Videoart at Midnight” —an event you should experience at least once.
🔊 The Bug presents: PRESSURE
Saturday, 16.11, 11 pm - 5 am. Gretchen, Obentrautstr.19-21, Kreuzberg. Tickets: €22.60.
Pressure Nacht brings together grime, dub, dancehall, and bass-heavy sounds. The Bug headlines with his album 🎧 “Machines I - V,” featured by Manga Saint Hilare and Logan. Ghost Dubs, Gorgon Sound, and 🎧 Holy Tongue add layers of dub, jazz, and experimental beats to the night.
Germany-wide news
🗳️ German elections planned for February 23
🗳️ “Paper shortage” not a thing
🤒 German bosses complain about Gen-Z calling in sick
🚨 US citizen spying for China in Germany?
⚖️ Controversial antisemitism law passes lower house
Factoid
Once upon a time, Christmas vibes were contained to December. Now we have Chocolate Santas in September and Christmas parties in November. And so, yes, the first Christmas markets opened the day after Halloween. Here’s a list of early Weihnachtsmärtke for those of you itching to sip an overpriced Glühwein in single-digit temperatures.
Quiz answer: In 1963 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said this, in reference to walled-off Cold War West Berlin’s vulnerability as a western outpost surrounded by communist East Germany.
My kids went to Nelson Mandela School (a few years ago now), most of the morning and afternoon traffic around the school were parents dropping off and picking up their kids. And embassy cars were the worst.
This was written to help people in the US, but might be adaptable to Germany https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4904008 Defending Jews From The Definition of Antisemitism. The authors presented the article (which was published in UCLA Law Review this year) to the Centre for Fundamental Rights at Hertie School, and they thought that since their defence works for Jewish people, it should work for everyone since the law obliges equal treatment. Basically it argues that it is antisemitic to tell Jewish people how their faith defines their relationship to Israel, so all laws written saying that defaming Israel is antisemitic are in conflict with any law defending freedom of religion.