đđČ #461: Russian spy, Nextbike not gone, ban co-living in tiny rooms?
Have you tried Berliner Weisse?
Hey 20 Percent!
People often ask me if I miss the old Berlin (the â90s and â00s) and while I say, âyesâ, I donât get too vitriolic about it because A) Iâm part of the cause for the change B) not all the changes are bad and C) part of what I miss is my youth.
But I was talking to an old East Berlin baker the other day who said he prefers to keep his bakery âlike it was back then.â I get what he means â that homey, warm feeling of how you remember the past. But also, come on, itâs 2026. Accept credit cards. Maybe make an organic Brötchen or two. Hummus and an espresso machine wouldnât hurt either.
And yesterday I read about how Oderquelle on Oderberger StraĂe (paywall) in Prenzlauer Berg is closing because it just isnât getting enough customers. I cannot impress upon the younger people in Berlin how few restaurants there were in Berlin back in the day. Your choice was a pork Schnitzel (breaded cutlet) or Döner.
Oderquelle was one of the places you could get that Schnitzel, but also a decent salad, a rotating selection of soups and a friendly staff, either after or before stopping off at Mauerpark. It was an institution. And it was like that for not just years but decades.
Which was also its undoing. The owners say in the Tagesspiegel article that they didnât want to kowtow to tourists or trends, because they are fleeting. But trying a few new things, maybe updating what was clearly an outdated recipe book, might have helped.
Itâs not 2003 any more, and even though I loved that period, I also appreciate many of the things modern Berlin has to offer. I wish more of the institutions from back then would adjust too. I know itâs a tough line to navigate â and running a small business has its own pitfalls.
RIP Oderquelle. Youâll be missed.
Andrew
PS: Shout out to Blackman for mentioning this this a.m.
Nextbike on its next iteration
Itâs not just restaurateurs who are unwilling to face the future â stationless bike rental company Nextbike will be staying in Berlin, albeit with a fleet of 5,500 bikes rather than 6,500, after its subsidized contract with the city expired in July, according to RBB24. Nextbike needs a special permit to offer the service outside of its old contract but had inexplicably sued to keep its bikes on the street rather than applying for the permit. It lost and the court (as well as Berlin) ordered Nextbike to remove its bikes. Nextbike said it wonât â itâll just get a permit. Berlin media made a big hullabaloo about the court loss and potential loss of Nextbike but really itâs just Nextbike adjusting to life without state backing.
People still spy for Putin?
56-year-old Ilona W. apparently wants a completely different kind of future for us all. She was arrested Wednesday in Berlin and remains in jail accused of spying for Russia, according to the Morgenpost. The German-Ukrainian supposedly passed on the locations of defense contractors, drone tests and drone deliveries to the Russian embassy â her suspected caseworker at the hulking embassy on Unter den Linden was also expelled from the country. The case is especially galling because Ilona apparently had links with the Bundeswehr (Germanyâs army) and even attended the annual swearing-in of new soldiers in 2022. Officials searched the homes of two former soldiers who had contact with the suspect â itâs unclear if they knew what she was up to.
Co-living in tiny rooms illegal?
And at least some city officials are trying to make a more livable future here: Neukölln has forbidden a landlord from divvying up rooms in their flats in a building on HermannstraĂe into â what do you call them? â mini rooms and renting them for up to âŹ800 per month, according to RBB24. The landlord said it will appeal the decision and while Neukölln is hoping the lawsuit will set a precedent against the practice itâs also a bit niche â the borough is relying on a law around Milieuschutz neighborhoods, or neighborhoods where buildings canât be changed in order to prevent gentrification and maintain the social fabric of a neighborhood. Dividing up apartments to boost occupancy is likely an illegal alteration, though only within the special Milieuschutz neighborhoods.
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Factoid
Everybody knows about the Currywurst and the Döner kebab but Berlin also has its own kind of beer and, like Berlin, itâs a little special. Berliner WeiĂe is a super-sour wheat beer that may have been invented by a local 16th century brewer, the protestant Huguenot refugees from France or some combination of the above. In any case, it only has 3.5% alcohol and is so sour itâs usually served as a cocktail with a super-sweet raspberry or waldruff syrup, which means you wonât get drunk, youâll just get diabetes. My brother and I once tried a craft version once. It didnât go well.
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Oh, the expression on your faces after taking that first sip đđ
Itâs funny how a beer with âBerlinerâ in its name is a novelty in Berlin itself. Itâs a pretty common kind of craft beer. If counted together with gose(a true beergerk would say thatâs not the same, but come on, itâs just that they call savoury flavors like pizza gose and sweet like raspberry berliner) it will be a top contender for the spot behind ipa and imperial stout. Of course craft beer basically doesnât exist in Germany because âwtf we already have great beer for 1 euro why pay 5 for weird shitâ. But at least itâs not as bad as coffee in Italy where they have the same attitude but the coffee is horrible, unlike German bee which is OK.