💣🌮 #523: We lead in Döner, hacker ransom, WWII bombs still a problem

Berlin needs more organ donors

A 2007 Moderat concert I went to at Podewil. Photo: Me

Hey 20 Percent,

I half-joked to my wife that I was thinking of becoming a part-time BVG tram driver. Yes, it’s a thing.

The next day a book by a woman who became a BVG bus driver appeared on my nightstand thanks to my wife. And it’s a surprisingly great read (apologies — it’s in German but maybe a chance to practice your language skills?).

I had no idea how much training they have to go through. They have to know lots of technical stuff about the various buses as well as the various tickets and then spend their own free time learning the various routes. New bus drivers have to pass two theoretical and one practical test.

It’s also shocking how conservative, sexist and, well, Berlin the BVG bus people are. Or maybe it’s not if you’ve ever taken a bus.

The book is a reminder about the rest of Berlin outside of our international bubbles — the Berlin that keeps Berlin moving. And Berlin Berlin.

Have a good weekend!

Andrew

PS: The 20 Percent English comedy night is back at Berlin’s best comedy club September 20. The lineup isn’t yet set but it will be very, very good — and MCed by me. Come on out! Tix.

Yes, another WWII Bomb

You know who also keeps Berlin moving? The dudes who disarm unexploded WWII munitions, like the bomb discovered in the Neukölln Schifffahrtskanal canal Wednesday — it was disarmed late that night and residents of the 5,600 nearby households could return to their abodes shortly before midnight, according to RBB24. The good news: Brandenburg has more unexploded WWII munition than Berlin. The bad news: Berlin still has an estimated 4,600 Blindgänger (duds, or unexploded WWII bombs) waiting to be discovered.

Döner, Döner and more Döner

And we all know Berlin is fueled by Döner so it’s little surprise our city has more of the snack bar/restaurants (218) than any other German city but we don’t have the highest density, according to Listflix. Mannheim leads with 13.2 Dönerbuden per 100,000 residents followed by Duisburg with 13.1 and inexplicably Bavarian Augsburg with 11.3. The cities have 42, 66, and 34 of the places, respectively. Do we have the best? There’s no really great Döner, just your Döner (mine’s Seitan with plant-based sauces).

Murdered woman found near planetarium

And there are stark reminders that we live in a big city: Park visitors Monday found a female corpse on the edge of Ernst-Thälmann-Park between the planetarium and the S-Bahn that had gone undiscovered, possibly for weeks, according to Tagesspiegel. The woman was murdered and was part of vagrant groups around Helmholtzplatz even though she lived in a nearby apartment. Visitors were alerted to her body by the smell of decay but the discovery is especially surprising as thousands had lined up just a few meters away to get free solar eclipse glasses at the planetarium Aug. 12. In a similar case in 2017, passersby discovered the body of art historian Susanne Fontaine in bushes along a popular Tiergarten path adjacent to the S-Bahn about a week after she had been murdered. The murder was given a life sentence in 2019 — police are still looking for a suspect in the planetarium case.

Hacker attack still a problem

Someone’s always going to try to get the city to stop moving and city officials have now received a ransom note following a hacker attack on the transport and urban development offices earlier this month, according to RBB24. Law enforcement and intelligence officials are meeting Friday to discuss the note though it’s unclear if it’s from the same hacker. The note comes a day after officials admitted the hackers gained access to Berlin government servers far earlier than thought — they apparently broke in Aug. 7, a week before specialists discovered the breech and took several departments offline.

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🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

💩 AfD hoping Ostalgie will get them votes

✈️ Another drone, explosives found near Leipzig

🦟 Two Frankfurt airport employees die of Malaria

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Factoid

Berlin rule: Regardless of what you’re looking for, a Berlin graf artist has spraypainted it on a wall somewhere. Photo: Mai Le via CC2.0.

83 people died waiting for an organ transplant last year and just 33 Berliners donated an organ posthumously, a fifth less than in 2024, according to RBB24. 414 Berliners are awaiting an organ transplant, including 355 hoping for a kidney. Still, Berlin doctors transplanted 234 organs last year — 109 kidneys, 51 livers and 38 hearts. If you wish to donate organs, you can add yourself to the national organ donation list, get an organ donation card to carry with you (the most common method of organ donation) or you can add a note to your will. More English info here (if you missed that earlier link). I carry the card as a final joke — transplant doctors would take one look at me, laugh and say, “No one wants THIS.”

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