Economist.com Cities Guide: Berlin Briefing - May 2006

News this month

Assault on tolerance

A brutal attack on a German man of Ethiopian origin has triggered a nationwide debate about right-wing extremism. Late on April 16th, on his way home from a nightclub in the town of Potsdam, just outside Berlin, Ermyas Mulugeta was beaten up so badly that his skull was fractured and he lay in a coma for weeks. Just before the attack the 37-year-old engineer made a call to his wife and left a message in which the beginnings of an argument and the insult “nigger” could be heard. Four days later two men, one of whom is suspected of having links to right-wing extremist groups, were arrested.

Although there is still confusion about what happened—Mr Mulugeta himself is not yet well enough to make a statement, and both suspects deny being at the scene of the crime—the attack appears to have been racially motivated. Local politicians have been quick to condemn it. They say that while the region has seen fewer neo-Nazi attacks since 2004, in Potsdam the situation seems to have worsened. The head of Berlin’s tourism board, Peter Nerger, has expressed concern that the crime will damage the city’s reputation as a tolerant, welcoming city.

“Honour killer” jailed

The “honour killing” in 2005 of a German-Turkish woman, Hatun Sürücü, was back in the news in mid-April, when her youngest brother, Ayhan Sürücü, was sentenced to nine years and three months for the crime. Two older brothers, who were also implicated, were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The case continues to stir controversy, as Hatun’s sister has now applied for custody of the murdered woman’s six-year-old son. Politicians from across the board are indignant at the proposal. “The idea that the child grow up among those people who possibly carried a share of the responsibility for his mother’s death is intolerable,” Cem Özdemir, a Green Party politician of Turkish origin, told Die Welt, a conservative daily.

The 23-year-old Hatun was shot in February 2005 while waiting for a bus in the western Berlin suburb of Tempelhof. During the trial Ayhan said that he shot his sister, a divorcee who was training to be an electrical engineering technician, because he did not approve of her western lifestyle.

Bumpy take-off

The highly publicised stockmarket flotation of Germany’s second-biggest airline, Air Berlin, was delayed a day before trading was due to start on May 5th. The stock's price range of €15-17.50 was judged too high, thanks to worries about the profitability of the airline, which has been in the red for the past two years. Analysts also expressed concerns about rising fuel costs and intense competition from other budget carriers, in particular EasyJet and Ryanair, which have aggressively expanded into the German market in recent years. The IPO was pushed back to May 10th at a new offer price of €12. The company estimates gross proceeds of about €234.8m from the sale of new shares, and hopes the flotation will raise enough money to pay off some of the company’s debt. It also intends to buy more planes and increase the number of destinations it serves.

Thinking big

As part of a campaign to commemorate German inventions in time for Germany’s hosting of the football World Cup this summer, six giant fibreglass sculptures are being erected in Berlin’s city centre. Combining to form the “walk of ideas”, each piece is up to 12 metres high, weighs up to 20 tons and costs between €300,000 and €350,000. The first sculpture, a pair of football boots, was unveiled in March in front of the new main train station. The others are a car in front of the Brandenburg Gate, a pill by the Reichstag to commemorate German medicinal achievements, a stack of books to represent the Gutenberg printing press and the country’s literature, and giant music notes in front of the opera house. On May 19th a sculpture commemorating Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity will be set up in front of the cathedral, although what form this might take is anyone's guess. The “walk of ideas” is part of a government- and industry-sponsored plan to improve Germany’s image.

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome!

Also in time for this summer’s World Cup, tourist guides can now be found on the western Berlin shopping boulevard, Kurfürstendamm. The so-called “City Info-Teams” have been trained to deal with tourists and answer questions about the area. Operating in pairs, they will distribute free maps of local stores, restaurants and bars, and will call an information centre if they cannot answer questions.

The team members are unemployed and are paid €1.50 an hour, over and above their benefits. They have been selected for their language abilities, with each speaking between two and six languages; badges on their uniforms indicate which. The project, launched at the end of April, is an initiative by local businesses, hotels and restaurants, in co-operation with the local government and the city’s unemployment office.

Catch if you can

May 2006

Prime Time Theater: “Gutes Wedding, schlechtes Wedding”

May 19th-June 8th 2006

Wedding, the borough of Berlin with the highest proportion of immigrant (mainly Turkish) inhabitants, is the setting for “Gutes Wedding, schlechtes Wedding” (“Good Wedding, Bad Wedding”). This live staging of a television-style sitcom has gained a cult following well beyond the borders of its neighbourhood. The production explores the tensions between the down-to-earth inhabitants of Wedding and the pseudo-intellectuals in neighbouring Prenzlauer Berg.

Each “episode” runs for three weeks (the dates above relate to episode 41: “The Tiger from Wedding”) in Prime Time's intimate 130-seat space. For newcomers, and to refresh the memory of regulars, an array of expository clips from earlier episodes opens each performance. And the four-person company is impressive, inhabiting over 40 different characters between them. Constanze Behrends is the inevitable star, not only playing six characters of different ages and backgrounds but also writing all the scripts. As each episode ends with a cliff-hanger, visits to “Wedding” can be addictive.

Prime Time Theater, Müllerstrasse 163b, Berlin–Wedding. Tel: +49 (0)30 4990 7958. Admission: €8 (€5 concessions). See website.

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