🦛🚴♀️#451: Weed at BER, tickets at Brandenburg Gate and fewer bike paths
We should probably all visit the Spandau Christmas market
Moin 20 Percent!
Six days until American Christmas and five until German (I have no idea when everyone else celebrates and I still don’t know what Boxing Day is) and I’m only missing one present — DHL forgot to tell me that it was at a Späti and so the dudes sent it back.
I’m at that age where the biggest present is my kids coming home from university (I sleep better when they’re in their childhood beds, even though I know their heads are now full of adult problems).
I’ve also had a lot more Glühwein than I planned but no candied almonds as yet. Maybe I can rectify that at the Leipzig Christmas market, where I’ll be this evening.
Hope your holiday season is going well too.
Andrew
Oh boy! 2026!
Tickets for the new New Years party at Brandenburger Tor will be available today here. They’re free but you have to stomach the cringe “Yeah 2026!” title Germany’s capital gave to the party. “Yeah 2026!”? Next time let the intern name the thing, Kai. The party will include as-yet unnamed DJs and professional fireworks as well as the usual sausage and beer stands of any German festival. A group protesting against Berlin slashing funds for cultural projects wants to hold a counter party at the Siegessäule at the same time — they’re promising 100 as-yet unnamed DJs and also fireworks but they have yet to get approval, according to Tagesspiegel. Quick reminder: Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) cut funding to the traditional New Years party, effectively killing it. He said Berlin doesn’t need to sponsor such a thing, but now it’s paying €600,000 to throw this new party.
Ascending at BER (getting high, get it?)
Forget Görlitzer Park — the place to buy weed is apparently at BER, and from Americans. Cops at the airport Tuesday arrested a 33-year-old woman who arrived with 28.7 kilos in her luggage from NYC, according to RBB24. Another traveller from NYC was arrested in October with 16kg in their bags, which — tbf — pales in comparison to the approx. 150kgs they found in the baggage of three different travellers who arrived in the spring from Bangkok after connecting through Doha.
More, but fewer, bike paths
Berlin’s current government once claimed that although they’re more pro-car than our previous left-leaning government, they would build more bike paths than their predecessor. They lied. Again (see New Years party item above). Berlin last year built just 20.5km of new bike paths, mostly in Mitte, according to Tagesspiegel. The previous government built 26.5km of new paths in 2022, its final year. Berlin pols should be forced to take every available form of transportation to work once a month. We’d have much better sidewalks, bike paths and subways.
Renate not going anywhere
Nightclub Renate, near the Spree in Friedrichshain, will re-open next year after winning a lease extension and despite doxing its landlord, who was apparently always interested in extending the lease, according to Tagesspiegel. They apologize to the guy in their statement.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
📽️ Rosa von Praunheim, gay movie pioneer, has died
🙍♀️ Commercial bankruptcies at 10-year high
🥔 The Krauts’ top 12 New Years’ resolutions
Factoid
Berlin’s biggest Weihnachtsmarkt is in the Altstadt in Spandau and the earliest to open is the Winterwelt at Potsdamer Platz, with its sad plastic tube slide (it used to be ice), which opens on Halloween. The supposedly most-popular Christmas market is at Charlottenburg Palace but my fave will always be St. Lucia at Kulturbrauerei.
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