#411: Hamburg further away, no New Years party, Schwuz is bankrupt
Some thoughts on death because it does that to you
Hey 20 Percent,
The newsletter’s a bit late today because I didn’t get it finished before I had to go to a funeral. As my wife said, “When you live somewhere long enough, you’ll know people your own age who die there.”
I was going to write a different intro — I don’t want to harsh everyone’s Friday — but since death is a part of the human experience, it stands to reason that it’s also part of the ex-pat/immigrant experience. Why deny it?
But funerals do have a silver lining. You get to see people who are important to you but who you just don’t have a pressing reason to see. You get to remember the friend you’ve lost while catching up with the others. It was good to see everyone, as rough as it was.
If you haven’t taken a walk through a Berlin cemetery — even an unremarkable cemetery — I can recommend it and do it myelf often. They’re a different kind of history and add a new dimension to the city. The odd names. The unimaginable dates.
When I first moved here, I couldn’t imagine being buried in one. Now it’s a question of which one.
Have a good weekend y’all! Give your friends an extra hug.
Andrew
Appointments everywhere
Berlin has maybe, finally solved the getting-an-appointment-at-the-Bürgeramt problem. The offices now have 1,400 more appointments per day city-wide than a year ago, according to RBB24. More than 80% of people who need an appointment can now get one within two weeks, up from 59% a year ago, according to Tagesspiegel (paywall). The creation of 100 new spots as well as 20 floating employees who can fill in during vacations and illness has supposedly helped the situation — as have the 400 services now online (76,000 services have been completed online so far this year, including my residential parking permit that took three months to get here). I looked — how odd it is to see that familiar Berlin appointment calendar with actual available appointments in my Bezirk in just days. I haven’t seen that in literally years.
Big party no more
While we may be able to see appointments online now, German pop stars and commercial fireworks won’t be visible at the Brandenburg Gate this New Years. Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) said Berlin won’t be subsidizing the annual show, forcing the producers to cancel the event, according to Tagesspiegel. The show has been held for decades and is traditionally broadcast nationwide on ZDF, though the public broadcaster said it will now look for an alternative. Wegner said it’s not the job of taxpayers to fund a giant party — Berlin apparently kicked in several hundred thousand. To me it felt like the kind of good PR Berlin needs, rather than the quirky billboards the city pays to have placed throughout Germany.
My commute just got worse
And people traveling by train between Berlin and Hamburg will now get to see more of Germany as Deutsche Bahn renovates the stretch for the next nine months. Trains will be routed through Stendal (wherever that is) starting tonight, adding an hour to what had been a leisurely two-hour jaunt through northern Germany. Deutsche Bahn is following a new strategy of closing and completely renovating routes — often including stations — rather than doing piecemeal upgrades. Blitzkrieg repairs, if you will. The work is to be complete April 30. While high-speed ICE traffic takes a detour, many local trains are being replaced by the dreaded Schienenersatzverkehr (bus replacement service).
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Factoid
Schwuz is Germany’s oldest queer (night)club — founded in 1977 — but it is now also facing extinction as clubbing tastes and inflation take their toll. The club, in a former Berliner Kindl brewery in Neukölln, filed for insolvency this week after laying off 30 employees, according to RBB24. The club often lacks up to €60,000 at the end of each month and is uncertain it will be able to continue. Despite being a cornerstone of Berlin nightlife for decades, the club seems to be lacking support — a recent call for donations brought in just over €3,000 rather than the asked-for €150,000.
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I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. That's one of the (many) difficult things about aging that people rarely prepare you for.
I would love to know more about the differences (or similarities) between US and German funerals, if you feel like talking about it.