#470: BVG strike Fri & Sat, AfD shares Nazi reel, too many racoons

3% of Germans never online

Feb 24, 2026

In our newest podcast episode, Andrew and I discuss AfD Nazis and broken escalators. Lo and behold, this morning at my local S-Bahn station.

Dear 20 Percent,

Spiegel reports today that three percent of Germans aged 16-74 (about 2.1 million people) have never used the internet, down from six percent in 2021. The largest share of “offliners” can be found in the 65-74 cohort, in which one in ten never uses the internet.

We love to make fun of Germans’ reluctance to adopt digital technologies but a part of me feels envious of these boomers raw-dogging their way through life with paperbacks and crossword puzzles, fax machines and old-fashioned TV. Let’s face it, they’re probably less anxious, untriggered by click bait as they go through their day without the mobile dopamine hits everyone else is hooked on.

They’re also probably retired. And they probably spend a lot of time waiting in line at the Sparkasse.

It’s also a very privileged position to be in because it’s impossible to apply for a job without the internet let alone work anywhere without some interaction with electronic devices.

But rather than mocking the offliners we should draw inspiration from them: Such a life requires no digital detox. So after you finish this newsletter, maybe put that phone away for a while…

Maurice

🏆On March 3, it’s time for the next 20% Berlin News Quiz — this time at charming Neukölln nightspot 🍸Geist im Glas. Tickets.

🎙️Episode #28 of the 20% Berlin Podcast has dropped

BVG strike on Friday

You know the drill. Union verdi has announced a 48-hour public transport strike nationwide, including in Berlin and Brandenburg. No trams, no U-Bahns, almost no buses from early Friday till late Saturday. Some bus lines are operated by private companies and will be running. Ugh. The S-Bahn and regional train lines not affected. Verdi is unhappy with negotiations between public transport companies over pay and conditions. But BVG called the decision to strike, a “completely disproportionate escalation”, since generous pay increases were agreed just last year. The next round of labour talks starts March 4.

Medical war game at BER

In March, 1,000 German soldiers and 250 civilian first responders will take part in a simulated evacuation from the “front line” in Lithuania to hospitals in Germany via BER airport. The exercise is supposed to simulate a NATO article 5 incident i.e. a Russian attack on a Baltic country in which German armed forces could become involved. In order to generate media interest and public awareness, the Bundeswehr, as the German army is known, has been conducting military exercises in public places, such as an urban warfare drill in Jungfernheide U-Bahn station in November.

Yes, they’re Nazis

Brandenburg’s commissioner for antisemitism, Andreas Büttner, has filed criminal charges against an AfD politician from Schwedt in Brandenburg. Büttner accuses Peggy Lindemann of sharing a reel featuring the following text: “A painter from Austrian claims in his ‘propaganda’ that elite🧃drink the blood of our children. Do you still believe that he was the evil one?” Below that was an antisemitic comic from Der Stürmer, a Nazi newspaper from the Third Reich. A fellow AfD politician came to her defence and said Lindemann was busy re-posting content related to Jeffrey Epstein and that reel just slipped through. My take away: While AfD boss Alice Weidel wants you to think her party is “Germany, but normal”, the base is teeming with actual Nazis.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🇨🇳 Merz heads to Beijing

✊ Standing up to US thuggery is giving Germany a new purpose

🚫 Will Germany ban social media for kids?

👨‍🏭 Skilled worker shortage eases slightly

🏰 Fairy tale route turns 50

Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin

Maison Sot x Arkaoda
🎷Thursday, 26.02, 6 pm – midnight. Arkaoda, Neukölln. €7
A night that arrives from Cairo with low lights and slow intentions. Live concert by Cavid Dhen on saxophone, flutes and handmade clay instruments; DJ sets by Slimgirl Fat and Acidfinky moving through soul, R&B and experimental pop.

🖼️ Giulia Andreani. Sabotage
Opening: Thursday, 25.02, 7 pm. Hamburger Bahnhof, Invalidenstraße 50. Free admission.
French-Italian painter Andreani opens the HBF 30th anniversary programme. Monochromatic paintings sourced from family albums and archives — forgotten women, authoritarian erasure, Payne’s gray. Shown alongside works from the Antikensammlung and Kupferstichkabinett.

🎭 Spirit and the Dust – Premiere
Fri 27.02, 7:30 pm. Directed by Anna Bergmann. In DE with EN surtitles. Deutsches Theater, €8-59.
A moving ensemble drama about loss and connection: after a tragic accident, a real estate agent forms fragile bonds with strangers equally marked by grief. A play about friendship, late love, survival—and whether healing is still possible after life breaks apart.

🎶 Mariana García Mejía — Consuelo y Marea
Opening: Sunday, 01.03, 4 - 7 pm. Hošek Contemporary (Motor Ship HEIMATLAND), Märkisches Ufer 26, Mitte.
Sound installations built from an open archive of lullabies collected since 2024. Arrullos as living sonic archive — memory, oppression, resistance. Opening followed by Berlin Improvisers Orchestra live set on board at 7 pm.

Factoid

"Waschbären" by conticium is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Could it be that the Volcano Group that caused the blackout in January was a racoon? The creatures are inflicting more and more damage on buildings and infrastructure in Berlin, including hospitals, swimming pools, power plants, waterworks and barracks. According to data released by the city following an enquriyy by the Green Party, 83 racoons were legally killed over the past five years, often in order to protect infrastructure. Racoons are not native to Germany. According to one story, which may or may not be fake news, top Nazi Hermann Goering released racoons in the wild in Kassel in the 1930s to spice up Germany’s fauna — and they’ve been thriving ever since. More likely: Racoons were brought to fur farms around Kassel in the 1920s and 1930s and some escaped.