#365: Layoffs, selloffs and another BVG strike!
Plus Mayor Wegner is only sort of getting rid of bureaucracy
Dear 20 Percent,
The important thing as we go into this weekend is to remember that I have a language test on Tuesday. I can’t oversleep again.
Then I just need a financial audit from my accountant to complete my citizenship application. Then the clock will start ticking on getting my citizenship and I will hopefully no longer be part of the 24% of Berlin that doesn’t have a brown passport.
I’ve already sent several reminders.
I’m currently in Bavaria doing comedy and filling up on good pretzels and beer. It’s amazing how devoid of grafitti and clean subways can be. Weird.
Have a good weekend, y’all!
Andrew
PS: A former colleague sent in some American Academy events to help you deal with the bad news from the other side of the Atlantic (see below)
Will trainmaker close a plant in Pankow?
One thing I notice when travelling around southern Germany is how little industrial production is in — and around — the Hauptstadt. And it may become even less. Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) is working to prevent the partial closure of the Stadler railcar factory in Pankow (yes, Pankow!) after the company said it needs to cut costs, according to Tagesspiegel. Stadler employs 1,700 at the factory, which was expanded in 2023 for €95 million and produces BVG subway cars. But inflation and corona are hammering its bottom line even though its factories are at near-capacity. 1,200 employees protested at the plant Thursday after the company announced the potential closure as well as a need for lay-offs and/or pay cuts.
Medical technology in … Neukölln?
But Berliners aren’t just making subway cars. In Neukölln (yes, Neukölln!) they’re apparently making medical technology — Neukölln-based Biotronik agreed to sell its vascular intervention business (equipment they use to clear your veins if you had a heart attack) to US rival Teleflex for €760 million. Biotronik will instead focus on making pacemakers and defibrillators — not the only thing sold in Neukölln to boost your bloodflow. Biotronik too suffered under corona as hospitals put off surgeries and decided to sell the business to recover. Ironically, if they ever have to use a Biotronik stent to clear out my arteries a good proportion of the clogs will have entered my bloodstream in Neukölln — at Döner stands.
More speed cameras, fewer accidents
Ok, so businesses aren’t the only thing making money in Berlin — the city-state last year reeled in €112 million in fines from speed cameras, and interior affairs senator Iris Spranger (SPD) wants to buy more mobile cameras (cost: €200,000) to reduce accidents, according to taz. But: Only about 50% of all speeders captured by the cameras got a ticket in 2023 because Berlin lacks personnel (the classic complaint). Spranger said 32 new jobs have been created in the fines division to deal with the onslaught of rule breakers. Spranger was talking during the annual release of traffic accident statistics — Berlin had slightly fewer accidents last year than in 2023 but deaths jumped 40% to 55. Be careful out there y’all!
US-level lawsuit
But not everybody is working — disgraced Green politician Stefan Gelbhaar from Pankow is suing broadcaster RBB for €1.7 million because he claims their shoddy reporting on alleged unwanted sexual advances from him to co-workers led him to essentially quit his job in the Bundestag, according to the broadcaster itself. RBB says he had decided to quit before they did a bad job at being journalists. He’s still under investigation by his own party and RBB hired independent investigators to look into the bad reporting (all the articles on Gelbhaar have been removed from their site).
Alle guten Dinger sind drei! (good things come in threes)
And BVG workers themselves probably won’t be working a day or two soon (or maybe even more). Employees are unhappy with the BVG’s latest offer after three rounds of labor negotiations and are likely Monday to vote for yet another strike, according to taz. It would be the third this year but unclear for how long.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🇨🇳 Germany popular destination for Chinese refugees
🤡 Carnival kicks-off in Rhineland with heightened security
Factoid
Berlin politicians still have no idea who is responsible for 800 of 4,000 tasks carried out by either Berlin’s 12 districts or the city-state itself, according to the Morgenpost. Mayor Wegner’s trademark project is a reform that will end the bureaucratic stalemate created by unclear responsibilities between the two level of governance — sometimes districts are responsible and sometimes Berlin. Wegner wanted to include the responsibilities in the city-state’s constitution but he now wants them to be set by — wait for it — executive order to make Berlin more nimble. Maybe they should decide who’s responsible first. A law is in the making anyway.
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📯📯Postkutsche 📯 📯
A former colleague wrote to recommend two American Academy events that may help digest fears of what’s happening in a certain red, white and blue country:
Tuesday, March 4 at the Deutsches Theater
Art, AI, and the Stories We Tell: A Conversation with Ayad Akhtar & Daniel Kehlmann
What is the role of art in an age of rapid technological change? How does artificial intelligence challenge the way we create and understand stories? Join Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar and acclaimed German author Daniel Kehlmann for an expansive discussion on the intersection of art, technology, and the human experience. This talk is will be moderated by Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic. In cooperation with the American Academy in Berlin.
Tickets here.
Thursday, March 6 at Haus der Berliner Festspiele: Opening Panel of a 3-day program “On the Future of Debate Culture”
Donald Trump, a Polarised Public and the End of Democracy?
To open this 3-day focus and in response to the re-election of Donald Trump, the Berliner Festspiele have invited Jeffrey Goldberg, the distinguished American journalist and editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. In his lecture, he will shed light on the changes in political discourse and the media during the last decade. Author and journalist Alice Hasters, who has written books on racism and identity crisis and hosts the podcast “Feuer & Brot” together with Maxi Häcke, will respond to his talk by putting forward her own proposals for a liberal debate culture. After this, both speakers will talk to Saba-Nur Cheema and Meron Mendel about ways in which public discourse can be freed from its current stasis.
Tickets here.
Good luck with the language test, Andrew
Ha ha I'm doing this in reverse of you, I've been focusing on passing B1! But I hadn't heard about the audit. Is there a checklist somewhere?