#382: Cyberattack, S-Bahn deaths, AfD eviction, May 1
Bike theft stats
Dear 20 Percent,
I love to rant about Germany’s reluctance to digitise its healthcare system. Doctors faxing each other medical records is still a thing in 2025. Thanks to data protection rules e-mailing them is verboten.
But things are changing. Today, the Elektronische Patienten Akte aka ePA (digital patient record) is being rolled out across Germany after a trial run in select regions. The 75 million people insured over a statutory Krankenkasse can now start using the system. Some 200,000 medical practices, hospitals and pharmacists can access the system although it’s still voluntary since many haven’t sorted out the software yet. ePA becomes mandatory for all healthcare provders on October 1.
Germany’s journey towards digital records has been painful. Data protection officials have raised concerns. Red-pilled types fear state surveillance. Hacker collective Chaos Computer Club discovered some security vulnerabilities (German) at the end of last year. Officials say the bugs have been fixed.
You can view the ePA with your Krankenkasse’s ePA app. You can limit which records are visible or opt out completely. Here’s a good ePA overview in English.
Privately insured folks need to request an ePA but each private insurer is handling it differently.
ePA has the potential to make healthcare in this country significantly more efficient. Fingers crossed.
Maurice
🎙️Achtung! Achtung! Episode #11 of the 20% Berlin Podcast just dropped.🎙️
🪶Thanks again to our sponsor Feather. This is Germany. You need insurance. Feather’s there to help. 🪶
Don’t surf the S-Bahn
A 17- and and 18-year-old were killed early Sunday while subway surfing in western Berlin, according to the Morgenpost. The two men were atop an S1 at about 5.20 AM when they collided with an overhanging signal. A 12-year-old subway surfer was also injured severely in February in the same area and a 19-year-old was killed in a similar accident in 2023.
Adults: You can die riding on the roof of trains.
Kids:
Cyberattack targets berlin.de
The city adminstration’s website berlin.de was hit by a cyberattack over the weekend, including service.berlin.de, the place for citizen’s services like registering your car or ordering a copy of a birth certificate, according to Tagesspiegel. The attack began Friday but most of the website was up and running by Monday. This was a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, where the attacker sends vast amounts of traffic to a server, overloading the applications running on it. Usually in these cases attackers don’t access confidential information. They just cause disrupution. I just tested the appointment finder: It was as impossible as ever to find an appointment. Hard to tell if that was the hacker or just the normal state of affairs.
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AfD eviction?
The landlady of the buidling housing the AfD’s national HQ in Reinickendorf is suing the far-right party because they won’t move out despite having their rental contract terminated in March, according to BILD. The owner says the AfD broke the terms of the lease agreement which forbade political advertising — the party projected its logo on the outside on election night. The AfD offered €10,000 to make the affair go away but the landlady said no thanks.
May Day May Day
Six thousand police officers will be on hand for protests planned for May 1 while we’re all nursing hangovers from April 30. The main protests are the German union associations protest (DGB) at 11am and the satirical Mygruni bike protest at 1pm in Grunewald (which is promoting sending the ulra-rich to Mars) and, of course, the legendary revolutionary May 1 protest at 6pm at Südstern. 10,000 protesters expected, including Antifa. There’s also a rave demo in Görli and the Flinta Take Back the Night demo at Mariannenplatz at 8pm. And, in case you forgot, all shops will be closed on May Day, except for these ones in train stations.
Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
📷Miron Zownir – Berlin Noir
Opening: Wednesday, 30.04, 6-9pm. Exhibition open-air - until 11.05. MegaFence Tresor, Köpenicker Str. 70. Free entry
Raw portraits of Berlin’s nightlife and subcultures from 1975 to today, shown on a 100m fence. The afterparty takes place at Tresor from 9pm.
🪩Block Party
Thursday, 01.05, 10am - 12am. Riwaq, Skalitzer Str. 68.
Laid-back vibes, cool crowd, music and sun all day long. A cozy May 1 celebration with good music.
🍊Tangerine Dream – CONTINUUM Tour
Thursday, 01.05, 8pm. Admiralspalast, Friedrichstraße 101. Tickets: €50-€72.
Legends of the Berlin School and Krautrock, 🎧 Tangerine Dream return with cosmic synthscapes.
🪩Refuge Worldwide May Day Fundraiser
Thursday, 01.05, 2-8pm. Oona Bar, Weserstr. 166. Ticket: Donation
Feel-good grooves by 🎧 Musclecars, 🎧 DJSOULSEEK, and more in a street party. Worth stopping by for a drink, the vibe is always good.
🖼️Gallery Weekend Berlin 2025 The 21st edition of Gallery Weekend Berlin brings together more than 50 galleries, transforming the city into a vibrant map of contemporary art. All official openings take place on Friday, May 2, from 6-9pm.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
👩💼 Merz’s first cabinet picks
😬 Most charges related to racist video incident dropped
❄️ Why is cocaine flooding Germany?
🪙Can Germany ditch its 1 and 2-cent coins?
👮Investigation launched over Oldenburg police shooting
Factoid
Last year’s bike theft stats are in: 24,209 stolen bikes were reported to the Polizei, according to Tagesspiegel. The district of Mitte (which includes Tiergarten and Wedding) was worst, with 4,000 reported cases, followed by Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (3,500) and Pankow (2,750). The average reported value of stolen bikes was €1,262. One can imagine a huge number of thefts go unreported as the cops only solve 4.3% of such cases. And so the only point of reporting a theft is to make an insurance claim. My advice: Ride a junker or get the best lock money can buy and some insurance.
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Kind of uncool posting a video of kids jumping from a S-Bahn in the context of 2 recent deaths?!
😕
(It’s not too nice, I guess, to merely reach out and post comments when being unhappy. I *was* unhappy now, which made me write this comment. Do enjoy your newsletter though! Big time.)