#429: Awful landlord, the Spandau kangaroo, apartment-hunting to get worse
It's a bank holiday!
Hey 20 Percent!
I apologize for this being the latest-ever newsletter. I spent two days this week at Oktoberfest and have the Wiesenseuche, the Oktoberfest plague. It’s what you get when you pay way too much for beer and spend hours singing songs from Robbie Williams, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Apache 207 alongside goofily clad tourists and Bavarians.
It feels a lot like a cold — I was asleep when I should have been writing.
But maybe it was the perfect way to pre-game Germany’s reunification holiday today — a Berliner celebrating (and, yes, enjoying) a Bavarian tradition. I realized it’s really just the equivalent of an American state fair. Just replace deep fried everything with giant beers.
If you’re partner’s German, I feel your pain on your holiday walk today (my wife also has the Wiesenseuche so I’m exempt this holiday). At least you get cake at the end.
Have a good weekend,
Andrew
PS: If you need to shop for food today, here are some stores that are open.
Yes, there was a kangaroo
Two years after cops in southern Berlin confused a wild boar for a lion, people in western Berlin this week actually saw a kangaroo. Well, a wallaby. The marsupial snuck out of its enclosure in Kladow, near Spandau, on Sunday where it lives with five others on the estate of Jakob Augstein, part-owner and heir of the Der Spiegel news magazine, according to Tagesspiegel. The animal was discovered nearby Thursday by local gardeners and then returned with the help of veterinarians from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. Wallabies can legally be kept in Berlin but I think I’ll stick with cats.
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F-hain/X-Berg picking up water tab
Think your landlord’s bad? Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg was forced to take over about €50,000 in water payments for 1,200 residents of a building on Hafenplatz, according to RBB24. The owner, the Hedera-Gruppe, failed to forward water payments it collected from renters to the Berliner Wasserbetriebe, our water provider. The district has accused the owners of trying to force renters out so it can renovate and sell the flats. Had the water been turned off, officials would have been legally required to re-locate all the renters. But the landlord says it changed management companies for the building, leading to an error in payments. It also accused the Wasserbetrieb of expecting unnecessarily high pre-payments. Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg hopes to buy the building, which includes a shelter for 600 refugees.
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Apartment hunting just got worse
The people in the troubled building on Hafenplatz should maybe be glad they have a roof over their heads — the Investitionsbank Berlin believes abodes between 70 and 100 square meters will become even harder to come by in the Hauptstadt in the coming years as demand continues to rise, according to T-Online. Many subsidized apartments are being returned to the regular market, creating even more demand for small, inexpensive rentals. Still, renters willing to pay €20 per square meter are seeing less competition, according to the bank. Unnecessary bureaucracy and inflation are hindering construction of new apartments, which could help increase supply.
Plus de trains de nuit
The night train between Berlin and Paris will end December 14 after the French government rescinded subsidies for the line, according to T-Online. The train requires millions in public support and Paris, like so many governments, is tightening its belt. Although the line is popular, the trains struggle to be profitable, in part because they sit idle during the day when most trains would be doing double duty on other routes.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🕵️ Far-right parliamentarian’s aide convicted of spying
💣 Oktoberfest (temporarily) closed by bomb threat
✈️ Drones in Munich, Schleswig-Holstein
Factoid
Today (Oct. 3) became a holiday in 1990 as part of the treaty that reunified Germany. Natives view the holiday with disinterest (it’s complicated) but I always like it because I get to use the odd British phrase “bank holiday,” which is a gentle reminder that money controls Anglo-Saxon life. In a weird bit of foreshadowing, Back to the Future debuted in Germany on Oct. 3, 1985 — four years later Germany would get back to its future.
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Hedera Group and its subsidies is run by a monster who most likely has ties to organized crime. We purchased a neubau apartment from Hedera Bauwert in 2018. It was supposed to have been completed in 2020. It now sits abandoned, unfinished and unlivable. Three lawsuits and five years of mortgage payments has wiped all of our savings, and we have nothing to show for it.
The owner has been under investigation for fraud since 2017, but the Berlin government has been so inept that he has managed to avoid *any* legal repercussions. We have requested that the court issue a warrant for his arrest, but we assume that he has already left the country.
So glad the Wallaby is back home.