#401: Storms, headscarves, car-free Berlin?
A true-crime Factoid
Hey 24 Percent!
The big bureacratic reform that’s supposed to make everything better in Berlin was passed this week and they’ve already started arguing about who really organized the thing — this government or the last. I’m optimistic that it’ll work, because otherwise I’d want to cry.
It’s been months since I ordered a parking permit for my car online and I still don’t have it. It baffles me what’s so difficult about writing 14 letters on a sticker and then sending it to me. A digital procedure would probably eliminate the need for an employee at all but that’s somehow a Datenschutz violation I’m sure.
Even more infuriating is that I got a copy of my car registration two days after I applied for one. Sure, I had to get an appointment two months in advance but after a pleasant meeting with a Beamte and €14, there was my new car registration.
Berlin bureaucrats know how to do it right, they just apparently don’t always want to. 😠
Anyway, it shouldn’t be too hot this weekend and no more storms — have a good one.
Andrew
Berlin can outlaw cars
Speaking of cars: Berlin’s constitutional court Wednesday said a proposed law that would limit private automobile traffic within the S-Bahn ring would be constitutional, according to taz. The Berlin city legislature had questioned the legality of the proposal even though it’s clear the law will never actually become law. The court said the city-state’s streets are not exclusively for cars and the streets can even be recategorized by Berlin to exclude cars (Berlin had argued the opposite). The law’s authors, anti-car activists Autofrei Berlin, will now have to gather about 175,000 signatures to get a referendum on a future ballot to ask lawmakers to pass the law. Car owners would be limited to 12 trips per year within the ring, though there’s lots of exceptions and how are you even going to enforce that? Autofrei Berlin is the PETA of motorized travel in Berlin — outlandish, unrealistic proposals to get people to focus on the real issue: cars (and trucks) need to be more strongly limited within the city limits.
Headscarves, again
A ban on teachers and police officers wearing headscarves was lifted this weekend by the Berlin government — sort of, according to taz. The ban was instituted in 2005 during a broader international debate over the headgear but the German labor court and constitutional court have both said such a ban is illegal because it limits the free practice of religion. However, a more recent ruling makes the issue more complicated (this is, after all, Germany) and Berlin wanted to adjust to the new ruling — headscarves will be allowed on an individual basis and only if they “don’t threaten peace at school or the government’s neutrality”. What does that even mean? The opacity of Berlin’s decision is just an invitation for discrimination, diversity advocates rightly argue.
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The toll of the storms
We all lived through them — two severe thunderstorms this week left one person dead and several severely injured while twice hobbling the entire S-Bahn network, according to Tagesspiegel. The S26 and S85 were still offline Friday. Two pedestrians were injured severly in Heiligensee Thursday and two Monday in Potsdam by falling trees while a woman in her car was killed by a falling tree Monday in Spandau. Tegeler forest in northern Berlin remains off-limits as foresters deal with damaged trees. The weather this weekend is supposed to be cloudy and in the upper 20s but with no more storms — maybe avoid big trees anyway.
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Factoid
Two armed men pulled off one of the most spectacular bank robberies in Germany on this day in 1995. The duo attempted to rob the Commerzbank in Zehlendorf by digging a tunnel from a nearby garage into the bank’s vault. But they triggered a silent alarm as they stepped into the vault. Trapped, the robbers took 16 hostages and a tense four-day standoff with police followed. The robbers demanded 17 million marks (€8.7 million), a getaway car and safe passage, even attempting to use hostages as human shields. The standoff ended with the arrest of the robbers and the safe rescue of the hostages, but the case gained lasting notoriety due to the dramatic tunnel and prolonged siege. RBB Wahre Verbrechen has a podcast episode on it.
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