#257: Zelensky is here, Cleaning up the U8, Rape suspects freed
Mitte is the most popular filming location
Hey 20 Percent!
The start of the Berlinale Thursday reminded me of an argument I once had with a film producer. Filming often seems to get in my way on the way to work and shopping. Couldn’t they, I asked her, just film in the suburbs where fewer people were trying to get less done? The buildings are all the same, I argued.
She said something about authenticity and commute times for workers but ignored my follow-up about how authenticity couldn’t be that important considering various far-flung neighborhoods are often connected in movies. Why not annoy the residents of Bernau and Oranienburg on occasion?
We wandered away from each other, equally convinced that the other was more irritating. However, the Tagespiegel today underlines my point — Mitte is the most common site for film shoots, with 660 permits issued last year. Meanwhile, Reinickendorf and Marzahn-Hellersdorf issed none, which seems surprising. Don’t dystopian directors need backdrops too?
Have a good weekend — here’s to hoping you weren’t kept from getting Berlinale tix by a film set.
Andrew
PS: You can support us by upping your subscription to paid or checking out this issue’s sponsor below: Comedian Nir Gottleid, who’s got a solo TOMORROW (Saturday, Feb. 17).
Official visits make your official commute difficult
Morning commute a nightmare? Blame the presidents of Ukraine and Israel, Volodymyr Zelensky and Isaac Herzog, respectively, who are in town for visits with German mucky-mucks. S-Bahns are running less frequently and buses have been re-routed to account for heightened security — about 2,000 extra cops are on-duty, according to Tagesspiegel. But that’s not all! Items in the railbed between Ostbahnhof and Alexanderplatz also halted rail (S-Bahn and Deutsche Bahn) traffic between the stations for about two hours during Friday’s commute. Zelensky will meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) at some unannounced time while Herzog met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) at 11 Friday.
A cleaner, safer U8
Public transport authority BVG is spending €700,000 over the next three months to make the U8 between the Jannowitzbrücke and Hermannstraße stops safer and cleaner, according to RBB24. The bar for “safer” and “cleaner” is admittedly very low. Two cleaners and up to three security guards will patrol no more than three stations each around the clock during what the BVG is calling a pilot project — no idea if it will be continued or expanded after the three months expire. The police are participating in some undefined capacity — Berlin veterans will remember when the cops used to travel with the ticket checkers. BVG swears it’s not just a publicity stunt but it is the first high-profile move by new BVG CEO Henrik Falk, who took the post Jan. 1.
Rape trial on hold
The three suspects in a June rape in Görlitzer Park have been freed after the victim failed to show for a Thursday court date — she said she would feel more comfortable being questioned via video in the German embassy in her native Georgia, according to Tagesspiegel. The case may resume in as early as six months following the questioning. Two of the three suspects now face deportation because their asylum applications had been rejected — the third may remain though he was also denied asylum. The suspects are known to be dealers in Görli and are originally from Somalia and Guinea. The Berlin government is now working to institute opening hours at the park, which will also be surrounded by a new fence, following the high-profile attack.
Factoid
A rare one for car owners: Those annoying little flyers people place on your window or under your wipers offering to buy your car are actually illegal. They usually end up as unrecyclable litter. Mitte is pledging to crack down on the practice and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf last year issued 49 tickets (up from 40 in 2022), leading to 11 total fines (20 in 2022) with more expected, according to BZ. The highest fine last year for placing the flyers was €3,000 (!).
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