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Berlin city council elections 2011

The people of Berlin can lean back and relax – they have already voted. Now Klaus Wowereit – or actually the ruling Social Democrats Party has to decide, with whom they want to work together for the next five years.

The first option would probably to partner with the Green Party. But looking at the votes both parties received, this would be a rather risky walk on thin ice: together both parties received just enough votes needed to form a government: one seat. But would that one seat be enough, to run the city?

A coalition between the Conservative Party CDU and the Social Democrats SPD would probably be a much more stable constellation – regarding the seats – regarding the numbers. But would there be enough overlapping views on how to deal with Berlin’s problems for the next five years? Actually looking at what people would favor the numbers draw a different picture – the majority of people seems to think a Red-Green government would be better for the city instead.

Well. Currently there is a lot of debate going on. This week the Social Democrates met with both Greens and Conservatives to negotiate about the different points of view on the major topics such as the extension of the Autobahn A 100, the expansion of the new airport Berlin Brandenburg International, the future of Kindergarden fundings etc. – and next Monday the public will probably be informed about the first results of these talks. We may stay tuned.

Here’s again the results of this years Berlin elections:

Social Democrats / SPD: 28,3%
Conservative Party / CDU: 23,4%
The Greens / Grüne: 17,6%
The Lefts / Socialists / Die Linke: 11,7%
The Pirate Party / Piraten: 8,9%
The National-/Right-Wing Party / NPD: 2,1%
The Liberals / FDP: 1,8%

Kastanienallee is a treasure! Keep it as it is!

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Today is another “day of action” against the re-construction Kastanienallee in on the schedule: meet friends, see bands, drink a drink, and sign the petition against the demolition of Prenzlauer Berg’s eye candy street #1 – also known as Casting Allee..:).

Currently some 7000 people have already signe the petition – another 3000 would be great. Together that would make it a nice impressive number (10000) and ensure that the petition would find its way through the offices.

But why are people actually againt the re-consrtucion – or renovation of Kastanienalle? Wasn’t it in a bad state anyways? All these gaps and then this patch work type of a side walk?

Well – nobody is against improvements – but at the corner to Schänhauser Alle, right where the photo booths are, near Prater, you can already witness what the plan might look like: the new parking bays are located on the side walk! Or on what used to be “side walk”!!

If you’ve ever been walking down Kastanienallee on a sunny afternoon, you might have experienced how crowded the side walk already used to be – with all those cafés having their tables on the side walk, all those bikes parked, all those young moms pushing their breed from A to B – and back… Now imagine half that side walk missing!

And on the street the situation will also become worse – and way more dangerous: instead of having everybody cycle and walk and drive very carefully, we will have a fake-safe-situation – a situation, that suggests it is safe, but it’s not. The trams will go faster, the cars will go faster, and then you have all the usual party people, kids, cyclists, language school students – jumping on the street, crossing it, running to catch a tram… omFg..:/

Well – what else can I say – here’s some quotes:

“For the re-construction of Kastanienallee a lot of money is spent. And then the street will only become more dangerous.”
Wolfgang Thierse, Bundestagsvizepräsident

“I think the people are right. I like the Kastanienallee the way it is.“
Wim Wenders, film director

“Kastanienallee is a treasure. Keep it as it is!”
Peaches, Sängerin

50 years of Berlin Wall

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As you might know: today 50 years ago, on August 13th, 1961 East German soldiers and workers began to build the Berlin Wall. For the Western World this came as a complete surprise. Not only had Walter Ulbricht, head of East Germany’s government in those days, only weeks before said “Nobody would intend to build any kind of wall or whatsoever.” Additionally it was almost a miracle how such a huge project could be kept so secret – and how it could actually then also get realized without much technical difficulties.

But as a matter of fact: on the morning of August 13th 1961 Berliners woke up in a divided city. And Berlin stayed divided for over 28 years.

border patrol securing Brandenburg Gate when the Berlin Wall was built on 13 August 1961 – photo by Steffen Rehm (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

If you want to visit remains of the Berlin Wall and get to know more about the hole story, you may consider visiting the freshly expanded and re-opened Berlin Wall Memorial in Bernauer Strasse. There you’ll find not only some original Wall remains, but also an exhibition (free of admission) and a elevated platform that ofers a great view over the Berlin Wall memorial.

If the weather is fine you may also want to take a walk up the area, where the Berlin Wall used to be. Easiest would probably be to arrive at Nordbahnhof (by S-Bahn or Tram or Bus) and then walk up Bernauer Strasse towards Brunnenstrasse. On the way you’ll find many information poins, images, remains — and nowadays quite a number of other people..:)

If you have enough power left you may continue your walk all the way up to the park called Mauer Park — and if it’s Sunday, you’ll find a vast flea market area packed with all kinds of more or less typical Berlin thingies – and more or less typical Berlin people…:]

Berlin Castle domed? or doomed?

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It’s not that easy to build or re-build a castle – properly. Originally we were promised nothing less than “The Berlin Castle”. Right in the heart of Berlin Mitte, right were once The Berlin Castle and later The Palace of the Republic were located, a new building was planned – with the looks of an old building (a.k.a. The Castle). But now things seem to look a bit different – or is it just me?

At least it seems as if there’s not enough money to rebuild the castle 1:1. Even though the costs of the construction of the “Humboldtforum” (= re-construction of the castle) are currently estimated around 480.000.000 Euros, there seem to be some Millions missing needed to rebuild the facade and the dome. Of course there will be a facade an there will be a dome – but by far not looking like what once was the original facade and the original dome of the original castle.

In yesterday’s online edition of Berlin’s newspaper “Tagesspiegel” a statement of the ‘Berlin Castle Foundation’ (“Stiftung Berliner Schloss – Humboldtforum”) is quoted, which suggests that the costs for the dome alone were cut from 15 Million for the original plans, to an estimated 7 Million Euros for the ‘cheap copy’.

Humboldtforum – Berlin Castle – domed or doomed? – image © BBR / Stella

Berlins Streets and Sidewalks cleaned before Easter

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I found this news sounded quite promissing: the Berlin city cleaning service BSR is planning to clean all Berlin streets and sidewalks before Easter. But when is Easter?

This year the Easter Weekend will be on the first weekend of April. That means there is only four weeks left to clean the city – or to look at this from a different angle: up to four weeks we’ll have to cope with sidewalks full of christmas trees, new year’s rockets, empty bottles and other left overs of the past 2-3 months I don’t really want to name..

For tourists guests the shituation situation may be clean and clear a bit earlier, since the BSR is working their way from inner city areas to outskirts, BSR chief Vera Gäde-Butzlaff said in an interview with RadioEins. Various ‘Hot-Spots’ like Ku’damm, Hackescher Makt and Unter den Linden have already been cleaned, Britz, Marzan, and Köpenick will probably have to be a little patient.

Well – I suppose the idea of getting rid of all that dirt stuff is another quite good reason to look forward for Easter..:]

an here’s the dates for Easter 2010:
01.04.2010 – Holy Thursday
02.04.2010 – Good Friday
04.04.2010 – Easter Sunday
05.04.2010 – Easter Monday

..greetz, t..

Berlinale 2010 – Stars, Snow and about 400 Films

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Tomorrow the 60th Berlin International Film Festival will open its doors to the public. Film fans, movie enthusiasts and business insiders are welcomed to choose from a broad variety of films from all over the world – this year almost 400 works from 18 different countries will be presented. Also this year the areas Retrospektive and Hommage will host many classics of movie history, but of course there’ll be also quite some world premiere to watch: 17 of 20 movies running in Berlinale Competition are shown for the very first time.

I won’t go further into details – but still I’d like to point out one highlight of this year’s Berlinale: on Friday 12th Fritz Langs movie “Metropolis” will be presented to the public in a freshly restored original version, which is 30 minutes longer than the version we have seen for the past 87 years. Best part of this screening: it’s a public and free of charge screening, also known as ‘public viewing’, at Brandenburg Gate.

If you’re not in Berlin, or if the current weather conditions are not really your cup of tea, but you do have access to the french-german TV-channel ARTE, you can still witness this world premiere: ARTE will broadcast the screening of the restored original live from 20:15 on.

Please feel free to visit the ofiicial Berlinale website at www.berlinale.de. You can browse the complete Berlinale programme either directly on the Berlinale’s website, or download the programme in one handy PDF. Also handy: at www.berlinale.de you’ll also find a map of Potsdamer Platz area with all Berlinale venues, and if you want to purchase tickets in advance, you can also try your luck online – tickets for all films are available three days in advance – although it actually might be a bit difficult to find a screening that’s not sold out. But even if there’s no more tickets available online, that does not automatically mean the film is sold out – there will always be also tickets available through theticket counters at Potsdamer Platz and also from the movie theaters’ box offices…

…well – good luck!
…and have a jolly good time in Berlin anyways!

Greetz, t..

Tempodrom sold, Berlin pays extra

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In today’s online issue the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel confirms previous rumors: the Tempodrom is sold, the compulsory auction of the venue near Anhalter Bahnhof scheduled for today is canceled: “The Bremen based business group KPS has bought the venue Tempodrom in Kreuzberg.” [tagesspiegel.de]

Basically this should be good news for all parties involved – if only the city of Berlin would not lose a lot of money on this deal. What went wrong? First the construction of the Tempodrom turned out to be way more expensive, than originally calculated. With bankruptcy and insolvency around the corner Berlin guaranteed financial security of various credits, that now turned out to be bad loans. The real financial value of the building is estimated around 3 million Euros, original construction costs were about ten times higher. During the last years the city of Berlin signed financial guarantees summing up aroun ‘several million’ – the exact amount of money that Berlin now has to pay currently remains unclear.

Now let’s have a look at the possible future of the Tempodrom: as already stated the venue with the spectacular architecture is now owned by Bremen based KPS – also known as “KPS Concertbüro GmbH”. KPS is a concert organizer, who originally operated mainly in the North of Germany in the geographical area around Bremen, Hamburg and Hannover. Nowadays KPS also owns the Berliner summer venue Waldbühne and the online ticket shopping portal “eventim”. With the Tempodrom KPS now has a acquire a live venue, that would enable KPS also in winter months to host concerts in Berlin – and therefor might be seen as a bad weather pendant to Waldbühne. Congratulations!

please feel free to check the original german article over here:
–> www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/Tempodrom-Kreuzberg…

Berlin S-Bahn services not back to normal before 2013

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What is normal – and what’s not? Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel (www.tagesspiegel.de) today reports that the trains of Berlin’s popular public transport system ‘S-Bahn’ will not be back to normal operation for the next three to four years. So at least for the next three to four years the current ‘state of emergency’ will probably be ‘normal’.

What happened? After a series of breakdowns S-Bahn owner “Deutsche Bahn” had to call most of the trains in for reparation. Listing the problematic parts feels stupid since almost all parts seems to be affected in one way or the other: after some breakdowns first the trains’ wheels had to be checked. Later it became clear that also the breaks, the electrical systems and even the doors were not maintained properly for quite a while. Additionally some of the precious train cars broke down due to problems with the wintery temperatures Berlin faced early December.

The reasons for the neglectings seem to lie in the privatisation ambitions of S-Bahn owner Deutsche Bahn: the company recently wanted to go public – and it seems as if therefore money was sucked from Berlin S-Bahn – by not properly maintaining the trains, rails and cars. Not the city – or actually the people pay the price for this money Deutsche Bahn saved over the past years.

As a consequence some people demand that the Berlin S-Bahn should be owned and operated by the city of Berlin – and actually the city of Berlin now even seems to consider buying the S-Bahn from its current owner Deutsche Bahn. But if Deutsche Bahn actually also considers selling might be quite a different question.