Economist.com Cities Guide: Berlin Briefing - April 2006

News this month

The gas man cometh

Germany’s former chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, has left Berlin’s corridors of power, but he reappeared in the city's headlines in early April. He was caught defending his new post as the chairman of a Russian-led consortium to build a gas pipeline that runs from Russia to Germany. German opposition politicians complain of a conflict of interest, as Mr Schröder not only helped to launch the consortium—the North European Gas Pipeline—last September while he was still in office, but also his government approved a €1 billion ($1.2 billion) loan guarantee for the project. Many also worry about Germany growing too dependant on Russian oil.

The former chancellor insists that talks for him to take over the consortium took place after he left office, and that he did not know of this guarantee (a claim his critics said is “hardly believable”). He has won a court order to prevent criticism of his new job, but politicians are still calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the matter. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, worked with Mr Schröder to create the consortium, which is fronted by Gazprom, Russia’s gas giant, together with E.ON, a German energy firm, and BASF, a German chemical company. Work has already begun on the pipeline.

A new airport

Plans for a new international airport in Berlin have been up in the air for a decade and a half. Finally, after a court ruling in March, it looks like the airport will get built. In what has been perhaps its largest ever legal battle, Germany’s federal administrative court decided that the Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI) airport could be built as long as night flights were restricted. Local politicians welcomed the decision, saying that the airport should create 40,000 new jobs and provide the whole region with a much-needed economic boost. But the local residents are huffy, and 4,000 of them brought their complaints to court.

According to a survey of 1,000 Berlin residents in late March by the Berliner Zeitung, a local daily, only 55% of respondents welcomed the court’s decision. Indeed, the ruling has few fans on either side: the airlines have expressed disappointment about the flight restrictions, while some industry analysts said that the decision comes too late for Berlin to compete effectively as a major regional hub. BBI should be ready by 2011 and will cost more than €2 billion to build. It will replace the city’s three existing smaller airports and have capacity for 22m passengers. In future, capacity could be expanded to 40m.

Protest over prayers

Plans to build an Ahmadi mosque in the Berlin area of Heinersdorf has sparked protests from local residents. By the end of March some 1,500 people attended a meeting in opposition, even though the Ahmadis are members of a peace-loving, mystical sect of Islam. Critics say the mosque could generate friction in an area unaccustomed to cultural diversity. Testing the point, about 200 members of the National Demokratische Partei Deutchlands (NPD), an extreme right-wing party, staged a march against the mosque on April 1st. Local Christian and anti-fascist groups staged a counter-march, drawing around 250 people, and police had to keep the competing demonstrations apart.

If built, the mosque would be the first in eastern Berlin, by tradition an ethnically and culturally homogeneous area. The imam behind the project defends the building by saying it would be “an architectural jewel for the area and a symbol for peace.”

Tough lessons

Violence in Berlin’s inner-city high schools became big news in March, after a newspaper published a letter of complaint from teachers worried for their safety. Teachers of the Rütli school, in the Berlin district of Neukölln, wrote to the city’s government asking for help, explaining that students were often out of control and sometimes violent. Some teachers admitted to keeping a mobile phone handy in classrooms in case they needed to call for assistance. The letter, subsequently published in the Berlin-based paper Der Tagesspiegel, has sparked national debate about the unruly conduct of German high-school students.

The Rütli school is in a culturally mixed neighbourhood with high unemployment; 83% of students have immigrant backgrounds, mainly Turkish. This has led some conservative politicians to call for more classes that teach German culture and language for immigrant children. Leftist politicians have also called for changes to the exam-based school system. Regardless, the letter has provoked all sorts of demands for educational reform.

Bird Flu

After a series of tests in early April, scientists have confirmed the first outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus in domestic birds in Germany. Earlier incidents of the H5N1 virus in the country were only in wild birds—including a dead bird in Berlin on March 18th. But the discovery of the flu in domesticated poultry stocks in Saxony, an eastern German state, has forced local officials to cull thousands of birds. Though containing the virus has proved challenging, thanks to organisational mishaps, the country's poultry industry association has tried to keep a brave face, urging Germans not to panic. But newspapers are questioning how isolated turkeys could get the flu, and have suggested that industry methods may be to blame.

In Berlin, following the discovery of the dead bird, the whole city was declared a zone of observation until April 27th. Although cats and dogs in the immediate area are now allowed out, domestic birds must be kept indoors. The authorities are saying the case does not pose a risk for humans, but Berliners are being asked to avoid dead birds. The ministry of health will soon outline what measures will be taken if the virus makes the transition to humans.

Catch if you can

April 2006

The Third Reich and Music

Until June 25th 2006

This fascinating exhibition of 200 paintings, photographs, posters and documents captures the importance of music to the Nazi regime. Hitler and his cronies used the works of classical composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner and especially Wagner for their propaganda, while the more modern sounds of Kurt Weill, Hans Eisler and Paul Hindemith were pilloried as “cultural Bolshevism”. American jazz and swing was banned from public radio as “negro music”, and Jewish composers and musicians were deported to concentration camps or forced into exile. This exhibition offers an impressively wide range of visual and audio material.

The display's venue has historical resonance—Schloss Neuhardenberg, an hour's drive east of Berlin, was once the home of Carl-Hans von Hardenberg, an aristocrat who was imprisoned after being implicated in the assassination plot against Hitler in 1944. Today the castle is run by a foundation that promotes cultural links between eastern and western Europe, and houses a hotel, a fine restaurant, café and exhibition space.

Schloss Neuhardenberg, Kavaliershaus, Schinkelplatz, 15320 Neuhardenberg. Tel: +49 (0)33476 600 751. For more information, see Neuhardenberg's website.

More from the Berlin cultural calendar