Category: Podcasts

Sick of cars parking in bike lanes? Write own parking tickets during Falschparker Aktionswoche, which starts on May 28. Illegal parkers are fined just €20 in Berlin if caught, while the EU average is €100. You can use an app called Wegeheld to report drivers to the authorities, if you don’t mind being called a Spießer.

Trees in Berlin parks are being wrapped in white webs by an invasion of oak processionary moth caterpillars. Watch out for their bristles – they contain a toxin which irritates the skin and causes respiratory problems. The trees should recover in a few weeks, though.

Karneval der Kulturen is on again this weekend all around Kreuzberg 61, but it might be the last year it’s held there due to rising security costs. If you don’t like crowds, try the Berlin Mural Festival, found on walls across the city.

Our next live show is on 6pm, Sunday May 27. We’re back at the Comedy Cafe Berlin.

This episode was presented by Joel Dullroy and Daniel Stern, and brought to you by RadioEins.

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Chris Dercon has resigned from the Volksbuehne Theater, just six months into the job, and following a lot of fuss over his appointment. It seems he had failed to secure enough sponsorship money to pay the bills. Joel says he wasn’t given a fair chance. Konrad says he was always wrong for the job.

The AFD tried to shut down Berghain, complaining about the strange hours, sex and drugs, bad music and exclusive door policy. The AFD representative Sybille Schmidt used to run a punk club. The party later backed down from the proposal.

The U-Bahn network has a special alarm system in the case of a flash flood in the tunnels. It could have to be activated if a skyscraper being built on Alexanderplatz breaks the water table and floods 17 stations on the U2, U5 and U8 lines. Züruck schwimmen, bitte!

It’s garden season, but if you want a kleingarten plot on the edge of town you’ll have to wait three years. There are already 12,000 people on a waiting list for one of 70,000 gardens.

Come to our live recording of the next episode of How To F#€k Up an Airport. It’s on Sunday April 29, 6pm, at Prachtwerk in Neukölln.

This episode was presented by Joel Dullroy and Konrad Werner, and brought to you by RadioEins.

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Two men who killed a goat in the Hasenheide petting zoo have been sentenced to 10 months in jail. Their lawyer said they were hungry, and argued for leniency as they only took one leg. Also, all meat eaters are animal killers, he said.

Another Berlin ban has been overturned by a court. Horses and carriages will be allowed back in front of the Brandenburger Tor, despite the city government’s attempt to forbid them. The city’s prohibitions on AirBnB, Uber and beer bikes have all been watered down through legal action.

Spreepark at Plänterwald is now open for tours. But high levels of arsenic contamination have been found at the formerly abandoned theme park. Still want to jump the fence?

As Berlin’s unemployment rate falls to half of its 2005 level, Mayor Michael Müller has proposed introducing a “solidarity basic income.” Unlike a real basic income, it would oblige recipients to do municipal or social work. Would creative projects like podcasts count?

If you want to protest against rising rents, join the Mietenwahnsinn (Rental Madness) demo on April 14 at 2pm, starting at Potsdamer Platz.

This episode was presented by Maisie Hitchcock and Joel Dullroy, and brought to you by RadioEins.

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How much do Berlin’s bottle collectors earn? Our guest Wouter Bernhardt has done the math – it’s a measly €150 a month. He thinks it amounts to a form of socially accepted poverty. Wouter is host of the Berlinology podcast. Listen to the full episode of ‘The Bottle Collector’ here: http://viertausendhertz.de/bln02/

The Berlin Senate has changed the AirBnB law to allow people to rent out their flats as holiday apartments for up to 60 days per year. Starting on May 1, you can obtain a registration number from the Bürgeramt, which must be displayed online. But you still risk getting evicted by your landlord for using your flat for commercial purposes.

We talk to Jana Burbach and Niko Schulz-Dornburg, the writers of a new TV series about flat sharing in Berlin. The show is called Just Push Abuba, and it’s the first English-language show produced by ZDF. Watch it online at: https://www.zdf.de/serien/just-push-abuba

In February, Berlin passed a milestone: the Berlin wall has now been down for longer than it was up (28 years). At the same time, an opinion poll found that Die Linke became the most popular party in Berlin for the first time since 1990. The city’s R2G coalition parties (Die Linke, SPD and Die Grünen) would get 57% of the vote. Are they doing a good job? Joel thinks so. Our guest Konrad Werner thinks they could do better.

Some Berliners want to dramatically reduce advertising in the city. Berlin Werbefrei is an initiative collecting signatures to trigger a referendum. They propose eliminating ads on public buildings. It would reduce the Berlin’s revenue by €31 million annually, or 0.1% of the state budget. Find out more at https://berlin-werbefrei.de

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