#258: Space for housing, strikes, stressed teachers, Peter Thiel
#258: Space for housing, strikes, stressed teachers, Peter Thiel
The North-South S-Bahn tunnel is open again
Dear 20 Percent,
A little tale from Berlin’s struggle with “digitalisation”. A few weeks ago I moved into a new apartment. A few days ago, the internet stopped working. We had signed up to O2 Homespot, where a router grabs internet directly from nearby cell towers. It was cheap and DSL would have taken three weeks to get up and running.
Now the Homespot had crashed, as had internet, texting and calling on my phone. I visited the O2 shop, where a gruff but affable dude with opinions aplenty (“Just because you hate this government doesn’t mean you should vote for the fascists”) told me a building in my neighbourhood with a cellular base station on its roof had been sold and its new owner had had it removed. This was causing problems for the whole area. What to do?
He advised me to ask the neighbours for some WiFi access. Or I should take my router — hooked up to a power-bank — and walk around the neighbourhood until it connected to a functioning base station. When I got home, it would remain connected to the good cell tower. Problem solved. Thanks for the hack, I said. Maybe I’ll try that. Or not.
The German capital 2024: Where you search for internet like water diviners during a drought. If the internet was optional, it might be almost quaint.
More news from tech-hub Berlin below!
Maurice
Loads of space
The city has enough free land to build 249,000 apartments, according to a government housing report leaked to Berliner Zeitung. Sites where entirely new residential neighbourhoods could sprout include former Tegel Airport, a former railyard in Pankow and Siemensstadt in Spandau. The above number does not even take into account the potential of developing the edges of Tempelhof field. In short: Berlin can build all 222,000 units the government estimates are needed by 2040 without touching the beloved park. Developing the edges of Tempelhof is, however, a central aim of the current government, which wants to hold a new referendum on the matter.
Teachers suffer from “digital stress”
I’m not the only one with tech problems. Although electronic whiteboards and learning platforms are supposed to make Berlin’s teachers’ work easier, three quarters of those surveyed in a study by University of Göttingen feel that digitalisation is an additional burden, writes taz. According to the paper, the problems lie above all in the schools’ equipment and poor organisation. “Only a third of teachers regularly use digital devices issued by the Senat at least once a week,” said Frank Mußmann, who coordinated the study. “This is partly because they cannot be connected to digital whiteboards in the school or a printer.” Some teachers reportedly use their own devices, even though this is not permitted.
Strikes
Lufthansa ground staff began another strike at 4am Tuesday morning that will last through 7:10am Wednesday, reports RBB. All 50 Lufthansa flights at BER in that time period have been cancelled. Labour union Verdi called for the strike after negotiations with the airline failed a third time. Verdi negotiator Marvin Reschinsky said: “While the group is giving its pilots high double-digit pay rises with basic annual salaries of up to €270,000, ground staff with starting hourly wages of €13 in some cases are not even being compensated for the price increases of recent years. That is blatantly anti-social.” And since strikes are a thing again: On Friday 1,000 workers at supermarket chain Edeka struck in Berlin. And employees at Postbank, which belongs to Deutsche Bank, held a mini-strike on Monday, with nine branches in Berlin shuttered for the day.
Thiel invests in Berlin
Tech.eu writes that a venture capital fund belonging to German-American tech billionaire and right-wing weirdo Peter Thiel has invested $6m in Berlin fintech Monite, which automates and streamlines B2B payments. Interestingly, the start-up, which already serves customers in Europe, has its sights on the US market, where it wants battle the antiquated but still popular practice of writing paper cheques. Berlin pushing online banking on America! Who would have thought?
Check out these upcoming events curated by our partners at The Next Day Berlin:
Music: Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic: "Bird Lives" – Tribute to Charlie Parker
Thursday, 22.02, 8 pm. Philharmonie Berlin, Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1. Tickets: €22.
Saxophonist Charlie Parker, a jazz legend, revolutionized music with his improvisation and innovative techniques. Though he died at 34, his music lives on through SWR Bigband's Grammy-winning project "Bird Lives," offering fresh interpretations of his genius.
Music: Sun Ark
Friday, 23.02, 7:30 pm. Donau115, Donaustrasse 115, Neukölln. Donation based.
Sun Ark's blend of genres combines electronic, hip-hop, Brazilian, and jazz influences into a lush, colourful sound. Founder Johannes Mann describes their new album 🎧 Sun Ark as a sonic landscape, shifting from sunny to experimental.
Exhibition: Die Sauna. Echt heiß. Echt Finnisch
Until 14.04. Nordic Embassies - Felleshus, Rauchstrasse 1, Tiergarten. Free admission.
Where there are Finns, there’s also a sauna. This unusual expo dives deep into sauna culture with photos, videos, and installations from both past and present. Plus, join discussions, catch film screenings, and best of all, experience a real Finnish sauna yourself!
Factoid
The North-South S-Bahn tunnel opened again Friday following six weeks of maintenance. Construction began on the line in 1934 as one of the Nazi regime’s public works projects. Many of the stations still have a 1930s feel to them. The first underground section, between Stettiner Bahnhof (now Nordbahnhof) and Unter den Linden (now Brandenburger Tor), opened May 28, 1936, in time for the Berlin Olympics. During the division of Berlin, S-Bahns would travel on the line from Anhalter Bahnhof to Humboldthain without stopping in Eastern stations, with the exception of Friedrichstraße, where Westeners could get off to visit East Berlin.
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You + Tech Jobs = The Perfect Match
Looking to break into tech? Based in Berlin? Want to try out a free tech workshop?!
Ironhack is a global tech school. We are going to be hosting an evening of interactive, hands-on workshops in Berlin. You can choose from three workshops which will cover the following:
UX/UI Design - the basics of FIGMA
Data Analytics - an introduction to Python
Web Development - an introduction to HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Not only that, we’ll be providing pizza and drinks and the chance to network with other like-minded people. Don’t miss this event! Places are limited, book now