#504: Housing expropriation, GDR vs housing, young drug mules, young voters
Latest pod out
Dear 20 Percent,
Today at the S-Bahn station, a nice young woman informed me that Jesus loved me and died on the cross for me and my children. I thanked her for the information.
A few weeks ago, a young man approached me in my neighbourhood with the icebreaker, “He loves you!” and handed me a flyer advertising Jeliebt.de, a modern, multilingual evangelist website.
And a few months before that I walked past a groundfloor retail space in Prenzlauer Berg where young folks with guitars were singing Christian songs. There were Jesus stickers in the windows.
I’ve also noticed a bunch of new non-traditional churches around town and loads of posters advertising them. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that a tsunami of Christian missionaries has crashed over Berlin. There’s even a church that meets in a cinema at Potsdamer Platz.
Seems like this godless city known for pleasure-seeking and every kind of experimentation under the sun also has its fair share of people ripe for the evangelical message. Who would have thought? I’ll investigate further. If you’ve experienced an uptick in missionary activity in Berlin I’d love to hear from you in the comments. It’s a fascinating development.
More news below!
Maurice
🎙️New podacast episode has dropped! 🎙️
Germany not amused by Berlin housing takeover ambition
In an interview with Tagesspiegel (paywall), Federal Housing Minister Verena Hubertz (SPD) has come out against Berlin’s yet-to-be-realised plans to nationalise large private housing companies, stating that “nationalisations don’t create new housing, investments create new housing.” A conservative Bavarian politician chimed in, saying his state would challenge Berlin in the Federal Constitutional Court if it attempted to employ such “socialist methods”. The debate is bubbling up again in the run-up to the Berlin elections in September and follows a 2021 referendum where 59% of Berlin voters supported the expropriation of housing companies like Deutsche Wohnen & Co. that own more than 3,000 apartments. The current CDU-SPD government has avoided implementing the plan. Die Linke and Die Grünen continue to support the initiative, but critics say such an intervention could undermine investor confidence in Germany.
GDR nostalgia vs housing
Staying with the housing crisis: Debate continues over whether to tear down the former SEZ leisure centre in Friedrichshain to make way for 631 new apartments that would be built by state-owned housing company WBM. Local opposition to demolition of the defunct communist-era building (which had a nice wave pool which I experienced in the early 2000s!) led an alliance to present a new proposal (paywall) which includes keeping the SEZ and building 490 new flats (as in the model above). The SEZ is the low-rise in the foreground. The department of urban planning and housing is looking into the proposal, which would be more expensive and take five more years to complete.
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Young Berliners convicted for drug trafficking
According to an investigation by public broadcaster RBB, over the past two years, three young women from Berlin, aged 17, 18 and 19, have been sentenced to prison terms in Australia and Iceland after being caught smuggling large quantities of hard drugs in their luggage. At Sydney Airport, 25kg of crystal meth (worth €13 million) were found in the 18-year-old’s suitcase. She was sentenced to 3 years and 10 months behind bars. The other two woman were caught with 20,000 illegal oxycodone pills at Keflavík Airport in Iceland and sentenced to 12 months in Icelandic prison. In both cases it is believed the women were recruited as mules by third parties who persuaded them to take the luggage.
Government open house
80,000 people visited federal government buildings in Berlin on Sunday, including Andrew, who stepped into the Finance Ministry and grabbed some free pens. Listen to his glowing report in the new episode of the 20% Berlin Podcast.
Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
🪩 UNCLOUDED: Sound Metaphors + Circadian
Thursday · 5-10 pm · Neue Nationalgalerie terrace, Potsdamer Str. 50 · free
Sound Metaphors take over the museum's terrace bar, Circadian curating rare Japanese teas. The label arc continues into Friday with Opal Sunn's A/V debut at Kantine: sunset format, crisp, focused selection and no hangover.
🎭 Qui a tué mon père (Who killed my father) directed by Thomas Ostermeier
Friday · 8 pm · Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Kurfürstendamm 153. In FR with DE and EN surtitles (also 27-28.06) · €9-48.
Using the broken body of his father as a starting point, French writer Édouard Louis undertakes a defiant rewrite of the recent political and social history of France. Édouard Louis is a performer in one of his own works.
📖 1-Hour Reading Rave Sunday 28.06 · 12-1 pm · Volkspark am Weinberg, Veteranenstraße 9 · free The Offline Club's first Berlin edition. Sixty minutes phone-free in the park with live music by Jem and Lyn.
🎷 Avant Art Festival: Alva Noto - HYBR:ID UNI PARA
Sunday 28.06 · 8 pm · ZENNER, Alt-Treptow 15 · €25
Alva Noto closes Avant Art Festival's Berlin edition paired with the first live collaboration between Jerzy Mączyński (saxophone, electronics) and J. 'MO'ONG' Santoso Pribadi (Indonesian custom-built instruments), Katarzyna Dębska on visuals. Sakamoto and Ikeda lineage on one side, homemade instrumentation on the other.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🪚Germany’s far right wants to DOGE its foreign aid agency
📈Poland’s Top Economist: Germany’s economy needs “bold revolutionary approach”
😳Interview: “Being Jewish is not going to protect me in this country”
⚽Germany defender Schlotterbeck out of World Cup
Factoid
55,000 16 and 17-year-old Berliners will be able to vote for the first time in their lives in the Berlin state parliamentary elections on September 20. EU citizens aged 16 and older can vote in the district assembley elections (Bezirksverordnetenversammlung, BVV) on the same day. In a mock election for under-18s last year, leftwing Die Linke scored the most votes, with 20.8%. More info about the elections in English at WahlHeymat.
🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗
🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify