🐄🥓 #515: One street-rave gone, Tech hiring and firing, Attacker's conviction
Berlin's getting fatter around the middle
Hey 20 Percent!
I’ve been wondering a lot lately if I would have been happier had I accidentally migrated to a different European (or maybe non-European) city.
This Berlin thing was an accident — I took German on a whim in seventh grade and then decided to become an exchange student in eleventh grade because we had moved to Texas and, well, Texas.
I came to Germany as an adult to change up my life and get some experience as a financial journalist to make it easier to get my dream job writing for entertainment rag Variety in Los Angeles.
Then I discovered Berlin on a business trip and could never stop thinking about it until I moved here two years later.
And now I’m even German. Would I be happier if I were, say, Italian now? Finnish? Japanese? Or even working for Variety in LA (I actually wrote some for them in the 00s).
No idea. I just keep thinking about it.
Have a good weekend!
Andrew
Tesla hiring, Zalando firing
The good capitalist lord giveth and taketh away: Tesla in Grünheide southeast of Berlin has hired 1,000 new employees as it ramps up weekly production of its Musk-mobiles to 6,200 from 5,000, according to Tagesspiegel. At the same time, fast-fashion platform Zalando has begun eliminating up to 200 at its Berlin HQ — ironically more than 200 employees volunteered for redundancy because morale is apparently great, according to Handelsblatt. Zalando just happens to also be opening a new office in Romania. 🤔
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CSD attack impact on events
The Zug der Liebe planned for Aug. 29 on Straße der 17. Juni will move from a street party to a smaller protest rave at Ritter Butzke in Kreuzberg while the Rave the Planet party will go on as planned on Aug. 15, according to RBB24. Zug der Liebe said increased security costs as well as the cancellation of 70% of the trucks needed for the event have made it impossible — it also has yet to win regulary approval. Meanwhile, Rave the Planet said it met with Berlin officials to review its security plans for its ersatz Love Parade. Both cited the CSD attack as factors for their security reviews but came to different conclusions.
The attacker’s priors
CSD attacker Abdul B. had only a single conviction and had been charged as a minor, Berlin prosecutors clarified Wednesday, according to RBB24. Specialists determined Abdul was emotionally stunted and was therefore tried as a minor despite being 20 for his attempt to join the Islamic State terrorist organization in Syria in 2025. He was then sentenced to 22 months. His sentence was reduced to probation because he spent nearly six months in a German jail as well as three months behind bars in Lebanon in connection with the crime. The sentence would have automatically been reduced to probation after six months had he attended counseling and behaved in jail. He had two other run-ins with officials for assault and robbery but they didn’t result in convictions.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
💀 Super-creepy plastinator Gunter von Hagens dead
🚂 Troubled Deutsche Bahn halts losses
Factoid
Berlin has created a second Speckgürtel as residents flee deeper into surrounding Brandenburg to escape the rising cost of residential real estate, according to the Berlin-Brandenburg stats nerds. Speckgürtel is the cute German word for spare tire — that extra bit of flab many people acquire around their mid-sections. The first Speckgürtel in Brandenburg around Berlin has about 50 villages and is home to 1 million. The second also has 50 villages but just 240,000 people. The rest of Brandenburg has 1.3 million residents — and some really, really great lakes. Population in the first has risen 14% since 2011 and the second 9.4% while the rest of Brandenburg expanded just 3.4%.
🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗
🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify
After 4 years living in Berlin, I am moving to Brandenburg too. At first, I was looking for a house here... 2 months later and I realized that is just impossible to find anything like that at an affordable price...
A few days later, I shifted my focus to areas surrounding Berlin, and found a lovely house (with a private garden and garage, loads of space, etc) for a fraction of what it would cost in Berlin.
The city is way cleaner and more chill than Berlin... plus, I won't be dealing anymore with annoying neighbors.. 😆
I regularly ask myself the same question about should I have come here. But after 20 years it’s hard to want to uproot. And now, being German, I might as well just complain like everyone else and additionally try to shed my foreigner’s hopes that complaining should actually result in change.