#512: CDU poll bump, temporary pool, asbestos, U-Bahn surveillance, AfD at Stauffenberg event
RBB discovers...you
Dear 20 Percent,
This kind of thing is what I simultaneously love and hate about Berlin: The Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is setting up a 25-metre swimming pool on its doorstep from August 7 to October 1. Enty will be free. You’ll just have to book a time slot. FAQS in English here.
You might be asking yourself: Why is a state-funded theatre setting up a pool that surely costs millions of euros in a time when the state is cutting culture? Isn’t theatre money supposed to go to, you know, theatre? Actors, directors, set and costume designers and so on?
The Volksbühne’s website explains:
“In a city where infrastructure has been systematically cut back over the past few decades and public spaces are more and more commercialised and monitored, the VOLKSBAD is the first urban initiative under the new management of the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, and a summer invitation to the people in the capital.”
I prefer this explanation: “The Volksbühne considers even two people splashing water on each other to be a theatrical event,” said Matthias Lilienthal, the edgy theatre’s new artistic director.
It’s also just a marketing stunt to get young folks interested in the institution of theatre at all. There’ll be loads of Tik Toks of dive-bombing teenagers but will they stay for the experimental, multi-hour stage productions?
News below.
Maurice
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RBB discovers international Berlin
Hats off to public broadcaster RBB (which we’re paying for with our monthly fee). They did some revolutionary and published an article in English, an explainer on the upcoming election. Who can vote and who can’t; what will be on the ballot and what won’t. 👏
AfD wreath dispute
On Monday, during the official commemoration of the 82nd anniversary of the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, Tobias Korenke, the great-nephew of anti-Nazi resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer, attempted to remove the AfD’s wreath from the memorial site. Security intervened and put the wreath back. Korenke told news agency dpa that many descendants of resistance fighters felt “great anger” at the AfD’s participation at such events. At a recent AfD rally, a comedian said on stage: “When I see Friedrich Merz, where is Stauffenberg when we really need him?” referring to Claus von Stauffenberg who led the assassination plot against Hitler. And an AfD politician once said Stauffenberg would have voted for the party if he were alive today. Stauffenberg’s grandson Karl Schenk Graf Stauffenberg said in an interview that the way the AfD “used his grandfather for their purposes was absolutely horrible and utterly disgusting”.
AI surveillance at U-Bahn stations but not of passengers
BVG is expanding its AI-powered video surveillance system, and plans to install “detection cameras” at 23 U-Bahn stations by the end of 2026. Currently, there are 80 such cameras in 16 stations. The system uses AI to detect unauthorized individuals in tunnels and on tracks. It has already triggered 44 alarms for track intrusions and 6 for unauthorized access in two months. The system alerts security staff, who can then call the cops or halt trains if safety is compromised. And yes, critics have expressed concerns about data privacy though this seems like a reasonable use of AI to me.
Thousands of homes contaminated with asbestos
Tens of thousands of apartments owned by Berlin's municipal housing companies are suspected of containing asbestos, particularly in Reinickendorf, Neukölln, and Tempelhof-Schöneberg. A total of 58,847 units built before the 1993 asbestos ban could contain the toxic substance, according to data released by Berlin’s housing ministry in response to an enquiry in the city parliament. Asbestos becomes dangerous when fibres are released and inhaled during renovation or demolition work. The federal environment agency says residents should not panic if asbestos is properly contained, but says renovations require special safety measures.
Baldhead bash
Hundreds of bald-headed Berliners gathered in Görlitzer Park for the annual “Glatzkopf-Treffen” on Saturday. The organiser was shooting for the world record for the number of hair-free people in one location but failed, yet maybe this was finally some positive PR for Kreuzberg’s sketchiest green space.
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Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
🕺Berlin Beats: MARRØN Thursday · 7 pm · Hamburger Bahnhof · Invalidenstr. 50-51 · free Eerste Communie co-founder from Amsterdam. Hypnotic percussion evolving from afro deep into his own techno. Ben Klock plays on 30.07; and Nene H on 06.08.
🪧 CSD Berlin 2026
Friday rally at Brandenburg Gate from 6 pm · Saturday parade from noon, Leipziger Str. to Straße des 17. Juni · free
First two-day edition ever. Drag March from Nollendorfplatz on Friday at 5 pm, then Demokratieabend at Brandenburg Gate until 11 pm. On Saturday, the parade starts at noon from Spittelmarkt, through Potsdamer Platz and Nollendorfplatz, ending at the Siegessäule under the motto: Haltung ist hot (attitude is hot). Half a million people are expected, dozens of trucks, and the whole city shifts. For a good spot to watch it go by, the Neue Nationalgalerie terrace hosts a free warm-up on Saturday with Roi Perez from noon, before the parade reaches it at 1pm.
🎶 Gaswerk Music Days 2026
Friday to Sunday · Gaswerksiedlung, Köpenicker Chaussee 24-39 · €34 per day
Fourth edition across two stages. Friday MODULA: live modular with NSI. (Tobias Freund & Max Loderbauer), OORA, Sarah Wreath. Saturday MOTHER DRUM: Nyege Nyege ecosystem, Jay Mitta on Singeli, Kampire, Ancestral Futures. Sunday ROOTSONIC: MC Yallah & Scotch Rolex, desert blues from Tissilawen, Ecko Bazz. A festival by musicians for curious ears.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🚼 CDU politician resigns over surrogacy child controversy
😥 Germany’s 5,000 heat deaths: What the numbers reveal
⚛️ Germany and France initiate nuclear cooperation
🌿 East-West border death zone now Germany’s biodiversity oasis
The conservative CDU enjoyed a little bump in the polls this weekend, thanks to the announcement that Berlin’s finance minister Stefan Evers would be leading the party into the September 20 elections instead of disgraced mayor Kai Wegner. Evers is considered more conservative than Wegner, loves fiscal discipline, wants to force welfare recipients to take on cleaning jobs and is 100% pro-building-on-Tempelhof. If that’s not your cup of tea, don’t worry. All signs point to a left-green-SPD coalition taking over Berlin this autumn.
🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗
🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify
Glad to see proper use of AI over data privacy obsession halting progress
About data – in theory, you don't need much information at all to make out of there's a biped in a tunnel. The problem is the slippery slope one – once there's a camera there, how do you ensure it's not being used for face recognition? And then if it is being used for face recognition within the terms of the AI Act (that is, only looking for specific, judge-approved faces of terrorists or kidnapping victims) again, how do you make sure no one is doing Chinese/DDR-style noting down of every face going by while they're at it? The only answer is that we have to stay engaged in politics and surveil the (potential) surveillers -- keep auditing the systems our governments use.