#360: Public sector strike, no Arabic at demo, knife rules
The Berlinale starts Thursday!
Dear 20 Percent,
It’s arse-cold, as the Germans say. Seems like everyone’s sick. Myself included. A high dose of over-priced Aspirin Complex, the closest thing to over-the-counter flu medicine available in Germany that’s not made of leaves or something is helping me get through the day.
Snow is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday followed by nighttime temps of -8°C at the weekend. Winter in Northern Europe is not for the meek.
For me, February is the worst of the winter months. December comes with the dopamine hit of holiday mania; in January you can pretend to be a new person with New Year’s self-improvement projects. For me, that wears off by February. It’s just cold.
Thank god, therefore, for the Berlinale, an injection of great films and a little glamour from the outside world into the Berlin gloom. The festival kicks off Thursday and ticket sales began Monday! Usually I just pick a random movie in the programme and let myself be pleasantly surprised. If that’s not for you, our partner newsletter The Next Day Berlin has put together a nice selection of films to check out.
More news below.
Maurice
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After the strike is before the strike
On Monday I waited for a bus for 10 minutes before remembering we’d mentioned the 24-hour BVG strike in this very newsletter. The next big public sector strike is planned for Thursday and Friday, but won’t involve public transport, thank god. The trade union ver.di has announced that workers at the public waste company BSR, public swimming pools, the publicly-owned Charité hospital and Vivantes clinics and government office workers will be participating in the two-day industrial action.
Pro-Palestinian demo shut down
The police shut down a demonstration registered under the slogan “Stop aggression in the West Bank! No weapons deliveries to Israel” at Wittenbergplatz in Schöneberg on Saturday because protesters carried banners with Arabic writing on them. Police say banners must be in German or English so they can be checked for antisemitic content. The cops imposed other rather absurd rules such as allowing only one drum per one hundred demonstrators. Germany is one of the most important suppliers of arms to Israel, although exports slowed somewhat last year.
Knife-free zones
What do Görlitzer Park, Kottbusser Tor and Leopoldplatz have in common? In an attempt to reduce knife-related violence, it will be verboten to carry a knife and certain other types of weapons in the three “crime hot spots” from Saturday. Police will be permitted to perform random checks in these zones. Knives must be “accessible” to be illegal. This includes a folded-up Swiss Army knife in your pocket but not one in your backpack. A kitchen knife still in its package is fine. The police union GdP complained that the rules are too unclear and demand a city-wide ban.
Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
🎭 Replay by Yael Ronen
Thursday, 13.02, 8 pm. In DE with EN surtitles. Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Kurfürstendamm 153, 10709 Berlin. Tickets: €9-€60.
In the bitter family constellation ‘Replay’, Yael Ronen explores recurring patterns, repetition loops and echoes that an event can have in the past. Can we free ourselves from the roots of the past, or are we doomed to be trapped in endless loops of repetition?
🎺 XJAZZ! presents: Masaa
Friday, 14.02, 7 pm. Emmauskirche, Lausitzer Platz 8 A, 10997 Berlin. Ticket: €29,85.
Masaa mixes Eastern and Western sounds in an intimate, expressive set. Their latest album 🎧 Beit explores the idea of home through poetic vocals, lyrical trumpet, dynamic drumming, and rich guitar textures.
🎨 Kandinsky’s Universe – Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century
Saturday, 15.02, 7 pm. Museum Barberini, Humboldtstraße 5–6, 14467 Potsdam. Ticket: €10-€18.
The Museum Barberini opens its latest exhibition exploring Wassily Kandinsky’s influence on geometric abstraction. From the Bauhaus to postwar art, the show traces how his bold forms and colors shaped modern visual language.
🪩 Hoe__mies
Saturday, 15.02, 11 pm - late. OXI, Wiesenweg 1-4, 10365 Berlin. Ticket: €21.
Hoe__mies starts 2025 at OXI with a lineup packed with Arabic and Brazilian funk, club edits, and hard-hitting beats. 🎧 Nooriyah leads the night alongside JADA, Meg10, Nasra, and more. Just FLINTA* behind the decks.
🪩 DAYDANCING with ISLAND UNIVERSE
Sunday, 16.02, 3 - 10 pm. KINK, Schönhauser Allee 176. Ticket: €8.
A Sunday dancefloor without a rush in the spirit of Mancuso’s Loft—slow and mid-tempo grooves with 🎧 Femdelic, Magic Jams, Niklas Wandt, and more.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🫣 Why more young men in Germany are turning to the far right
📈 Left party: surge in new memberships
✈️ Russian drones over German air force base?
🤖 OpenAI to open an office in Munich
📯 Postkutsche 📯
Reader Ivy wrote to us in response to my intro in issue #358:
“I'm a big fan of 20% Berlin, and read it every week.
I just really want to say that I DEEPLY disagree with your take that those who think that (in your words) ‘we're five minutes away from Reich 4.0’ are being too alarmist.
At a very minimum, by condoning and endorsing the AFD's view of migrants and other minorities, the CDU are opening the door to escalating levels of xenophobia and violence against everyone in society who appears different.
I don't know much about you personally, but from your picture you certainly present as a white cis-man. That leads me to believe that you personally are going to be less affected by the inevitable right-wing attacks that are going to arise from this legitimisation of the AFD and their wretched positions. Anyone who is actually affected by police violence, racist, homophobic and transphobic slurs on the street on a daily basis, and systemic exclusion from German systems because of their visible difference, has already been affected, and this is only going to make it worse.
Beyond that, we've seen what minimising the threat of fascist ideology and the centrist slide to the right has enabled in places like Hungary, Italy, and more currently the USA.
It's incredibly rich to read from you that people like me - a cis-woman queer immigrant who runs a safer-space for FLINTA* folks - are being alarmist at the threat posed by the CDU adopting positions on migration from an AFD polling at around 20%.
I'm scared for my friends who experience greater levels of risk on the street than I do - because I have basic human empathy and an understanding that I am not the person at greatest risk. Please remember that as a white man your experiences may be mainstream, but that you are in an incredibly privileged position not occupied by a huge portion of immigrants in Berlin.”
Factoid
Berlin companies shipped €1.53 billion worth of goods to the United States in 2023, according to RBB, making the US the largest export market for the city-state. If Donald Trump imposes tariffs on all goods from the EU, it could have a significant impact. Manja Schreiner, president of the local chamber of commerce, said: “Tariffs of 10 to 15 percent could result in a loss in exports of around €105-158 million per year for Berlin.”
The Berlin police don't have a single Arabic speaker/reader on their books?!
Kafkaesqe...not Kafkaesque enough?
No...Monty Pythonesque is more like it.
Talking of Berlin's finest, any idea what the cost is of providing the round-the-clock presence of police officers outside Jewish premises, businesses, synagogues, etc, and the personal police escorts of Jewish indivinduals when they're out and about on the street? No axe grinding behind this question, just curious. I often chat to the officers stationed outside Feinberg's restaurant in Schoneberg while out walking the dog, and they strike me as being resigned to their 'duties', but not entirely convinced it's as absolutely necessary as the city authorities no doubt insist it is. But it must be a hefty portion of the city's policing bill.
And Ivy's got a point, Andrew.
I totally agree with Ivy's comments. We American expats should be especially aware of what a political slide to the right can do to a country. Unfortunately, white men are often the last to acknowledge a societal problem when it arises because they are the last to be affected by it.