#489: BVG is better, Wegner is worse, culture minister is worstest

Wages are supposedly up

May 01, 2026

Happy Labor Day! Photo: Christian Lendl via CC2.0

Hey 20 Percent!

Happy Day of Labor Battles! Hopefully you’re reading this while doomscrolling in a park or during a leisurely late breakfast in your pajamas.

We’re supposed to have our first summer-like temps this three-day weekend (28 degrees), so enjoy!

Andrew

Thanks to Easy Bee Berlin gardening services for sponsoring this edition!

BVG is more reliable

And you know who’s working better? BVG, apparently. The U-Bahn at the yellow public transport company boosted it reliability to 98.6% in the first quarter from 94% in 2025 because of a trainload of new trains, according to RBB24. The figure doesn’t include effects of the strikes last year and refers to the number of planned trips that actually happened. 130 of 140 new small-profile subways have been added to U-Bahn lines 1 to 4 and a handful of 170 new large-profile trains to be introduced on U-Bahn lines 5 to 9 this year are already on the tracks. The company aims for 99% reliability and trams and buses already fulfil the target — now get 99% of riders to use deodorant.

Court tells minister to shut it

A Berlin administrative court Thursday said conservative German culture minister Wolfram Weimer wasn’t doing his job well, according to T-Online. The court said he was wrong in labeling the owners of the zur schwankenden Weltkugel (the wobbling earth) bookstore as “political extremists” in a recent newspaper interview. The owners had asked Weimer to sign a statement rescinding his claim and when he refused, they sued. The court said there was no basis for the accusation. The suit is related to another legal battle between Weimer and the store as well as two other left-leaning bookstores in Göttingen and Bremen after the minister disqualified them from an annual government booksellers’ competition because of their political leanings. The German booksellers’ prize carries a purse of up to €25,000.

Mayor not polling well

Another politician not doing his job well is our mayor, Kai Wegner (CDU). Just 17% of Berliners are happy with his government (a coalition with the center-left SPD), according to a recent survey by RBB24 and radio station 88.8. If elections for a new Berlin government had been last weekend, the CDU would have remained the city-state’s favorite party and gotten 19% of the vote but that’s a steep drop from the 28% it got in the 2023 election. The environmental Grüne, leftist Linke and 💩 AfD would have all gotten 18%. The SPD 14%. The poll is important since elections are in September and it would appear that we will most likely get a three-way coaltion of the Grüne, Linke and SPD — just as before the 2023 election.

Germany won’t let us non-citizen, long-time residents share in the vote but you could share this newsletter!

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🎣 Whale being towed to the North Sea

🧴 So much for Pfand: Germany is a huge plastic waste exporter

🖼️ Artist Georg Baselitz is dead

Factoid

I wanted to use this as the cover photo but it seemed inappropriate with the holiday so I switched the pictures. This is a new Rothschild’s giraffe Berliner. He was born April 28. Photo: Tierpark Berlin

Good news for workers! Real wages rose by an average of 2.9% in Berlin last year, according to Tagesspiegel. Utility workers saw their paycheck increase 6.4% while IT and communication peoples enjoyed a 4.8% bump. Waitstaff, on the other hand, had to stomach a 0.1% decline. Sad emoji.

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