#441: Fireworks zones, a stolen gate, billions for Berlin

I have some thoughts about all that trash

Nov 14, 2025

*Sperrmüll* at my son’s Munich student housing estate.

Hey 20 Percent!

In my inner-German travels, I often confront piles of trash on city sidewalks. Worn out couches. Dismantled kitchens. Broken TVs. I know it just sounds like another Wednesday in Berlin but other cities have what’s called Sperrmülltag, where residents are allowed to put non-traditional, bulky trash (Sperrmüll) on the curb for collection once a month (or whatever).

We have a huge Sperrmüll problem in Berlin and I used to dutifully report every errant piece of Sperrmüll on the Ordnungsamt app. But I quit several months ago because it’s so common I decided we should all just stew in the Sperrmüll.

And the problem isn’t necessarily the illegal dumpers — we live in a city. A lot of us don’t have cars. We’re busy. And requiring us to schlepp over-sized trash to the nearest recycling yard for gruff treatment by the gruff employees seems … unfair. Especially when Germany has a solution: Sperrmülltag.

We should be allowed to legally discard matresses on the sidewalk once a month, much in the way we’re allowed to legally discard an abused pine tree on the sidewalk once a year. It would be much more efficient than the piecemeal Sperrmüll collection currently — the problem isn’t otherwise going to disappear.

It would solve an obvious problem.

Have a good weekend!

Andrew

PS: For those of you that came to my German solo show last night: Thanks heaps. Between us, it was my funnest solo ever. More English shows soon.

Fireworks zones again but with less enforcement

Obvious problems? Berlin will put 3,200 extra police officers — in addition to the 1,000 already pulling a shift — on duty on New Years because banning fireworks is apparently imppossible, according to RBB24. Interior affairs senator Iris Pranger (CDU) seems to feel it’s instead easier to pay cops to police super-drunk (and probably otherwise affected) people who set off millions of tiny-but-dangerous explosions. The city is also planning to both officially expand but also weaken the handful of fireworks-free zones — unlike in past years, they will be larger but no longer be fenced. They will instead be policed by gaggles of officers who will supposedly intervene when someone lights a fuse. Laws are really just suggestions in Berlin. Though not yet announced, the fireworks-free zones are likely to be the Steinmetz neighborhood in Schöneberg, Alexanderplatz, a piece of Sonnenallee in Neukölln and the Admiralsbrücke in Kreuzberg.

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They stole what?

And now to the obvious problem that is Görlitzer Park. You have to give it to the vandal activists: They have a good sense of humor. A revolving gate installed as part of the fencification of Görlitzer Park was stolen a week ago just days after it was installed. Yes, an entire two-meter steel revolving gate. “That’s lying on the bottom of the Landwehrkanal next to three Tier scooters,” I thought. Yup. A city employee discovered the contraband Monday and it was quickly fished out and returned to the construction company, according to taz. Gaps in the fence in Görlitzer park are being closed and 16 gates as well as 8 revolving gates are being installed to close the criminally steeped park at night beginning next year (to hopefully reduce crime). Neighbors are annoyed because they fear it’ll push the crime into their criminally steeped neighborhood.

The buildings that will be Molkenmarkt

If you ever have to drive through central Berlin, the never-ending construction around the Rotes Rathaus is a double-obvious problem. What are they doing? Creating four new city blocks known as the Molkenmarkt to heal post-war wounds. The winners of a design competition for the new buidings within the blocks were announced and they’re unimaginative and derivative, like modern Germany. At least some of it’s residential, according to Tagesspiegel. That link includes pictures of the winners. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

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Factoid

Probably failing. Photo: Bernd Hutschenreuther via CC2.0

Berlin will get €5.2 billion over the next 12 years from a €100 billion federal fund to fill a hole in infrastructure spending left by cheap previous governments, according to RBB24. What will they spend it on?