Author: radiospaetkauf

RS Xmas Market Special at Gendarmenmarkt


Maisie, Dan and Joel meet at Gendarmenmarkt Christmas market to catch up on the news.

Berlin’s advertising boards are full of complaints by companies against the city government. Airbnb is demanding that bureaucracy more efficiently approve its hosts’ applications. Do they expect citizens to care?

The revolutionary rent freeze law has been passed, meaning our rents can’t be increased for the next five years. Investors continue to buy up property. The SPD’s new leftish national leadership wants to copy Berlin’s law in other German cities.

Pedestrian deaths are up a lot this year: 23 people have died so far after being hit by cars – a 60% increase. The local Green party has made it one of its policies to phase cars out of the inner city. Friedrichstrasse will go car-free for three months next summer.

Berlin is finally starting to control the fireworks madness on New Year’s Eve. Want some peace and quiet this Silvester? Go to Alexanderplatz, which is one of only two places where fireworks have been officially banned.

Want a Christmas tree but don’t want to kill a living entity? You can rent a living tree for €20, and get €10 back if you return it in good condition.

See you next year for our live recording on January 26 at the Comedy Cafe Berlin!

 

RS Live: Shared Spaces

On this month’s Radio Spätkauf: Segregation in Berlin’s public schools, an artist and curator reinvents the Berlin‘s S-Bahn‘s disused spaces. And what is the Night of Solidarity & why should we take part in it?

Courtney O’Connell has been working with children, youth, and their families in emergency shelters and temporary accommodations for people seeking asylum in Berlin since 2015. She talks to us about how Berlin‘s public school’s two-tier eduction system is proving a big stumbling block to integration.

In September, the Berlin Senate launched new guidelines for tackling the city’s increasing homelessness problem, which included plans to hold a census of the city‘s destitute. „Die Nacht der Solidarität“ will take place on 29th January 2020. Sophia Berndt, a student at Alice Salomon university and volunteer working with the homeless, told us more about it.

If you want to volunteer, register here: https://www.berlin.de/nacht-der-solidaritaet/

As Berlin’s urban fabric changes and affordable spaces for making and showing art in become ever rarer, artists are coming up with inventive solutions to the problem. One such artist (and curator) is Natalia Irina Roman, who has repurposed the buildings and spaces along Berlin’s S-Bahn lines for her project ‚Along the Lines.‘

You can find out more about Natalia‘s projects here https://m.facebook.com/SiteSpecificIdeas/

This episode was presented by Daniel Stern, Trevor Silverstein and Maisie Hitchcock.

Want a Radio Spaetkauf mug? Become a subscriber! We’ll be giving them to listeners who donate monthly. Go here: steadyhq.com/de/radiospaetkauf

RS Live: Benches, Bees & Berlin Pinball

Have you ever wished you could rest your rear on a comfy spot, but there isn’t a seat anywhere in sight? Or do you sometimes want to perch on a bench in a picturesque location, but the overflowing dustbin next to it is a bit off putting? Well now help is at hand. We speak to two creatives who are behind a pretty unusual Guerilla urbanism project: Benching Berlin. The two anonymous founders build public benches out of waste wood, then place them around town (chained up, so the authorities don’t take them away). https://www.instagram.com/benchingberlin/?hl=en

On our last episode we gave you an update on the proposed rent freeze – the idea of a five year rent cap in Berlin, that was first floated in June this year. Now finally the coalition parties of Berlin’s government have come to an agreement! We tell you what they’ve decided.

Bees are an essential part of our ecosystem. And they’re threatened by extinction. We speak to Christian Vogel of the Neukölln Beekeeper Association to help us help the bees and to give everyone a head start for the next bee season. http://www.berliner-imkerverein-neukoelln.de

What do you know about pinball? Not a lot? We don’t either. But it turns out there’s a scene for it in Berlin – and a big rivalry too! Ryan Rosell is telling us about it.

This episode was presented by Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik, Joel Dullroy and Daniel Stern.

Want a Radio Spaetkauf mug? Become a subscriber! We’ll be giving them to listeners who donate monthly. Go here: steadyhq.com/de/radiospaetkauf

RS Live: Two Wheels Good, One Wheel Bad

Bicycle riders working for Deliveroo have gone from being precariously employed to unemployed. We meet some former Deliveroo riders who have started their own food delivery company. Christoph and Stefano founded Kolyma2, and are ready to take your order: www.kolyma2.de

The rent freeze is coming. More details keep leaking out from the city government office that is preparing this radical policy. Rents are to be capped at prices ranging from around €4m2 to €9m2, depending on the building age. New rental contracts can’t be above those rates, and some tenants can apply to have their rent lowered. Read more about this revolutionary concept at http://lolamag.de/feature/current-affairs/berlins-five-year-rent-freeze-explained/

Some Berlin bicycle riders behave as if the road rules don’t apply to them. Others don’t know the road rules at all. For our new Berlin Basics segment, we talk to Nikolas Linck from the Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad Club, the German Bicycle Club. Your flashing bike light is both illegal and dangerous, he tells Joel. Join up to the ADFC here (you also get free insurance): https://www.adfc.de/

Berlin was flooded by over 9000 stand-up electric scooters this summer as the German government legalized their use. But there are other types of small mobility devices that remain banned, such as electric skateboards and monowheels, both which don’t have a handle. We meet Lars and Frank, founders of the Electric Empire Association for Small Electric Vehicles. They’re planning a demo for the forgotten non-scooter-scooter riders on September 21. Are you one of them? Head along here:https://electricempire.de/elektrokleinstfahrzeug-demo-am-21-09-2019-trailer/

This episode was presented by Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik, Joel Dullroy and Daniel Stern.

Want a Radio Spaetkauf mug? Become a subscriber! We’ll be giving them to listeners who donate monthly. Go here: steadyhq.com/de/radiospaetkauf

Article: Berlin’s Five-Year Rent Freeze Explained

RentFreeze Illustration by John Rooney

“It’s an exciting time to be a Berliner, with the city about to embark on the most radical experiment in housing policy in the world. Residential rent prices are to be frozen at their current level for five years, and may even be reduced. Landlords could face fines of up to €500,000 if they are caught overcharging. The free market for rented property could be over. The revolution has arrived in Berlin, at least temporarily. Here’s what you need to know about Berlin’s five-year rent freeze, and some predictions about how it could play out….”

Radio Spaetkauf’s Joel Dullroy turned his monologue from a recent episode into an article for Berlin’s Lola Magazine. Read it in full here.