🔫🏢#493: Easy Bürgeramt appts., gun raid, no cash-only
We really do throw away a lot
Dear 20 Percent,
I bumped into a report about how real estate developers have become so annoyed with the glacial pace of Berlin bureaucrats that they’ve just started doing work, deciding to worry about permits when bureaucrats get around to it.
The report included a construction site on the westside that blocked off traffic lanes, set up scaffolding and even brought in one of those towering construction cranes — all without permission and without officials even being aware of it.
Fake it till you make it or set up for the permit you want, not the one you don’t have, or something.
This is really the spirit that created modern Berlin — do whatever you want. Nobody is watching — even the agencies who are supposed to be. I just can’t believe it’s still around.
Have a good, supervision-free weekend! Weather is looking good!
Andrew
PS. Thanks to this edition’s sponsors Löwenmarsch and Inner Circle!
Two-week limit three years too late
Everyone who needed an appointment with Bürgerämter in March was able to get one within two weeks, according to RBB24, finally meeting a goal Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) had promised for 2023. Many were even able to get same- or next-day appointments. Appointments had been so hard to come by early in this decade that unethical entrepreneurs had begun using bots to snap up and sell them. But officials have worked to move a few procedures online and hire 100 new bureaucrats to process the often-repetitive and too-often unnecessary paperwork. Now make the Ausländerbehörde more accessible (and friendly).
Pols hate cash-only too
Berlin politicians are tired of cash-only businesses and want the federal government to force retailers to accept at least one form of digitial payment, according to RBB24. A parliamentary committee Wednesday agreed to pressure the Bundesrat, one of Germany’s two parliaments, in-line with recent noise made by federal politicians in an attempt to dampen tax avoidance and make life easier for us consumers. Germany loses out on an estimated €2 billion in annual sales tax revenue while I am often forced to opt for major retailers and fast-food joints because of the short-sighted practice of accepting only cash by local merchants. Only the local 💩AfD opposed the measure.
20percent.berlin events!
💡Maurice will be hosting the fínal 20% Berlin News Quiz before a summer break on Wednesday, May 20. A fun night of pub quiz style news, trivia and history questions. At the awesome Electric Social, close to Alexanderplatz. We’d love to see you there. Get your tickets! 💡
🎂 We’re celebrating our 495th edition with y’all on May 22 with a live podcast taping followed by drinks, networking and general Berlin-ness. It’s free but space is limited. RSVP here. 🎂
😂 100% Funny, the 20percent.berlin comedy night, is back June 18 at Berlin’s best standup club: Downstairs Comedy Club. Berlin’s funniest comedians from both the German and English scenes will bring their best jokes in Berlin’s lingua franca — English. Vincent Pfäfflin, Žana Fejzić, Dan Stern, Dinara Kerey and Masud Akbarzadeh hosted by 20percent.berlin’s own Andrew Bulkeley. TICKETS HERE.
Gun crime raids
Berlin and federal cops Wednesday raided 28 addresses looking for weapons used in recent crimes, according to Tagesspiegel. 570 officers — including the elite GSG9 federal SWAT team — arrested nine suspects and confiscated drugs, cash, two cars and a single weapon. 570 officers. 1 gun. 🤔 Police and prosecutors have had little luck in controlling an explosion in gun-related crime, which leapt 68% last year. The near-daily shootings rarely result in serious injury and are often attributed to Turkish and Kurdish gangs attempting to establish dominance while blackmailing businesses into protection payments.
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Tschüss Eta!
The first-ever female head coach of a Bundesliga mens soccer team will coach her last match Saturday, according to RBB24. Marie-Louise Eta will then become head of 1. FC Union Berlin’s womens team after making history April 3 by being appointed to the leadership position. She was not only the first female coach of a Bundesliga mens team but also the first woman to coach a men’s football team in the the top-five European leagues. Union, Berlin’s eastside club, failed to blossom under her leadership. However, she was able to save it from relegation to a lower league. Union has yet to announce a replacement.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🩺 Brandenburg pediatrician charged with 130 cases of sexual assault
🐳 Is this dead whale Germany’s Timmy?
💚 The first Turkish-German state premier
Factoid
Berliner’s throw away more per-person than the average German or an average 231.6 kgs per Berliner per year compared with just 186.7 kgs per Kraut nationwide, according to the Berlin-Brandenburg statistics office. The figures are for 2024, the first year that people threw away more than the previous year since 2020. The figure includes both ordinary household trash and Sperrmüll, or bulky items like that refrigerator or mattress abandoned on your street corner.
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On June 6-7, 2026, join us for the Löwenmarsch Berlin 2026, a 24-hour social impact hike across Berlin-Brandenburg, from Eberswalde to Wannsee.
YOU choose YOUR distance: from a chilled 15 km hike to the 100 km challenge!
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As far as I can tell, the politics of payment method are spread around the political spectrum. (That is you'll find pro-cash people in all the parties.)
However the far-right have suffered the most de-banking perhaps that's on their mind.
But I think the main reason why the AfD opposes requiring retailers to take card is because the banks and tech industry don't contribute to them, so why support what they want?
(Which is to say that if they start winning more elections, eventually those industries will contribute.)
In order to prevent tax evasion there is an EU requirement that transactions above 10,000€ have to go through electronic/bank payment. Some countries lower it, Italy it's 5000€ and Greece is the lowest I know, it's 500€.
Which is still a lot of money and it's that way because there really isn't notable tax evasion going on with transactions much under 500€.
What I think is happening here is the tech companies keep looking at Berlin and are like "they keep lagging on the percentage of electronic payment transaction someone should fix that."
Having lots of places in Berlin which are cash only have a couple of advantages. One is lots of cash is in circulation for when digital payment systems go down. (There is no place more prepared in this world for an internet outage than Berlin.)
But also the idea that you have a society where few people have cash and therefore all transactions have to be done via bank transfer, paypal, MC/Visa and/or Google/Apple is just a fundamentally poorer society.