Economist.com Cities Guide: Berlin Briefing - February 2006

News this month

Kick-start

As the June finals of the football World Cup in Germany draw near, local security and emergency forces have been engaged in a flurry of preparations. These include equipping Berlin's 38 hospitals to deal with an atomic, biological or chemical incident. By May they should have collectively 160 special suits to protect staff from the effects of a dirty bomb, and six decontamination tents to prevent the spread of infection.

Authorities are also bracing themselves for more traditional dangers, with football hooliganism a top concern. For months now, German police forces have been pooling data on potentially violent fans: so far, around 9,500 Germans have been classed as dangerous. There are also concerns about louts from abroad, especially from England, Poland and the Netherlands. Last November, fighting broke out between Polish and German fans near the town of Frankfurt an der Oder, on the border between Poland and Germany—a so-called pre-World Cup tussle that left 40 people injured.

Past mastered

After more than a decade of ferocious debate over the fate of Berlin’s Palast der Republik, work on demolishing the former parliament of communist East Germany finally began on February 6th. But unlike the Prussian Imperial Palace, which stood on the same spot before it was blown up by the East German communist government in 1950, the 1970s steel-and-concrete building will be slowly dismantled over a year. The first cranes have already started removing the glass plates that form the Palast’s characteristic gold-brown mirrored façade. The building has achieved a sort of cult status in Berlin, and many are sorry to see it go. Some will be further disappointed to learn that souvenirs will not be available, as the building's materials will be either sold or recycled.

The Palast should be gone by Easter 2007. In its stead, the German government has provisionally agreed to rebuild the former Prussian Palace, although how this will be funded is not yet clear. Until that question is resolved, the site will be grassed over.

Bumpy ride

The future of Berlin's troubled international airport project remains uncertain. The German Federal Administrative Court is discussing the plan to build Berlin-Brandenburg International (BBI) east of the city, on the site of Schönefeld airport. BBI, intended to replace Schönefeld, Tegel and Tempelhof airports and give Berlin a facility worthy of its capital-city status, is supposed to be complete by 2011. However, work has been slowed in the last decade by objections from local residents. The case before the court is the result of legal action by over 3,300 people, who have complained of potential noise pollution, environmental damage and the destruction of local businesses.

The court is due to decide by March. Besides being a critical transport link—BBI would handle 22m passengers a year at first, while Schönefeld can only hold 5m—BBI is the largest new infrastructure project in former communist East Germany. It is expected to give an economic boost to the region, which suffers from high unemployment. It is hoped that as many as 40,000 jobs could be created.

Honouring her memory

A year after the “honour killing” of a 23-year-old German woman of Turkish origin, an exhibition in her memory has opened in Berlin. Hatun Sürücü was shot dead last February by her youngest brother while she waited for a bus in Tempelhof, a Berlin suburb. Shortly before being killed, she had obtained a divorce from an arranged marriage, stopped wearing a headscarf, and started to train as an electrician.

The exhibition, which opened its doors on February 7th at a restaurant in Kreuzberg, a predominantly Turkish neighbourhood, includes photos of Sürücü, and is meant to be both a memorial and a statement against the oppression of women. According to Terre des Femmes, a campaigning organisation, Sürücü’s case has “led to a change of thinking in society” and brought the issues of forced marriages and honour killings to light. No official statistics exist, but several other similar deaths have been reported in Berlin.

The exhibition in memory of Hatun Sürücü is at Muskat, Muskauer Strasse 33, 10997 Berlin-Kreuzberg (Tel: +49 (0)30 612 891 38).

Out of line

Jewish groups in Germany are outraged that eBay, an auction website, is being used by neo-Nazis to distribute right-wing extremist material. Despite the fact that texts promoting Nazism are classified as anti-constitutional in Germany, neo-Nazi bands are managing to sell illegal songs on the site. In February local authorities also noticed that more copies of “Mein Kampf”, Hitler's Nazi manifesto, which cannot legally be sold in Germany in its original form, were being auctioned on the website.

EBay, which has its German headquarters just outside Berlin, reacted by saying its company policy strictly forbids users from auctioning articles which idealise Nazism or play down the harm it causes. The company has strengthened its filters, but also declared it would be difficult to stop such products being sold in Germany completely. Many of the items come from countries where it is legal to sell such material.

Catch if you can

February 2006

“Cabaret”

Booking until April 2006

Thanks to Bob Fosse's 1972 film version, starring Liza Minnelli, Berlin is forever linked in the minds of many with this powerful musical, based on stories by Christopher Isherwood. This staging, which has won accolades since opening last year, brings the show back to the city for the first time in years. Bar jeder Vernunft, an atmospheric venue, does a fabulous job of standing in for the Kit Kat Klub. The decadence of the last days of Weimar-era Berlin (both horrifying and irresistible to Isherwood), juxtaposed with the Nazis' rise to power, is beautifully captured by an enthusiastic and talented cast.

Bar jeder Vernunft, Scharperstrasse 24, Berlin-Wilmersdorf. Tel: +49 (0)30 883 1582. See the venue's website.

More from the Berlin cultural calendar