Economist.com Cities Guide: Berlin Briefing - June 2006

News this month

On track

After almost a decade of planning and construction, Berlin's new main railway station opened in late May, just in time for the football World Cup. The two-day opening celebrations, which included a speech from Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, were marred when a drunk teenager went on a stabbing spree just before midnight, injuring more than two dozen people. Six of his victims were seriously hurt, one needed a life-saving operation, and some are now worried about contracting HIV, as one of the first to be attacked was infected with the virus. Police have arrested a 17-year-old in connection with the crime.

The Berlin Hauptbahnhof, nicknamed the Glass Cathedral, can handle around 1,100 local and regional trains each day and houses more than 80 shops and restaurants. In the historic centre of the city, desolate for years as the site of the Berlin Wall, the new station cost some €700m ($906m) to build. Officials at Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway, hailed the Hauptbahnhof as a symbolic central point of Europe, with trains running between Rome and Copenhagen, and Moscow and Paris. But it did not open without controversy. Deutsche Bahn officials bickered with the station’s architect, Meinhard von Gerkan, over design changes to meet the World Cup deadline. Businesses around Bahnhof Zoo station, where inter-city trains will no longer stop, warily anticipate a sharp decline in passenger traffic. Others quip that the government has failed to provide proper bus and transport links to the Hauptbahnhof. Planned in the euphoria of post-reunification Berlin, when the city's population was predicted to grow to around 5m, compared with today's 3.4m, some wonder whether the station's massive 300,000-passenger capacity will ever be fully used.

No-go zone?

The World Cup, which Germany is hosting for a month until July 9th, provides the perfect opportunity for the country to sell its many assets to the rest of the world. But efforts at self-promotion have been tarnished by a nagging question: are Berlin and its surroundings safe for non-white football fans? The debate started in May when Uwe-Karsten Heye, a former German government spokesman, declared in a radio interview that “there are small and medium-sized towns in Brandenburg [the state surrounding Berlin], as well as elsewhere, which I would advise a visitor of another skin colour to avoid going to. It is possible he wouldn't get out alive.”

Brandenburg's politicians condemned Mr Heye for stigmatising the region. Others declared that Mr Heye, who leads Show Your Colour, an anti-racism group, merely played into the hands of right-wing extremists by making them feel they have staked out “foreigner-free zones”. But a government report published in late May supported Mr Heye—it found that the number of racially motivated attacks in Germany rose to 958 in 2005, 23% more than in 2004—and that the risk of falling victim to a far-right attack was ten times higher in Brandenburg than in the western state of Hessen.

School for thought

The debate over violence in the capital's schools began in March, when teachers at the Rütli high school in Berlin's suburbs publicised a letter addressed to city-state authorities asking for help. May saw yet more reports of violence. In one incident, a 62-year-old female teacher tried to break up a fight, only to be punched in the face by a 12-year-old boy. Elsewhere, a 15-year-old girl injured a fellow pupil with a knife she was carrying in her school bag. The previous week, an 18-year-old girl who had threatened to kill her teacher was arrested at school for carrying a firearm.

In response, politicians and schools are calling for smaller classes in poor areas and greater co-operation between schools and the police. Klaus Böger, Berlin's state senator for education wants parents to take greater responsibility for their children by becoming more involved in school activities. But according to police statistics, neither the frequency of attacks nor the level of violence has increased in schools over the last few years. What has changed, police say, is that school incidents are getting more press coverage, with violent tussles getting splashed across newspaper front pages.

Rowdy fans, beware

Authorities in Berlin, like those throughout Germany, have beefed up security for the World Cup. Berlin’s 2.5km-long “fan mile”, which runs through the centre of the city from the Brandenburg Gate to the Tiergarten, has been surrounded by a two-metre-high fence. The hundreds of thousands of fans expected to come to the area each day to watch matches on giant screens will have to pass through security points, where guards will search them.

Alcohol has been of particular concern. Local government officials have ruled out banning alcohol at stadiums and screening areas, but are taking precautions nonetheless. At games where the risk of violence is particularly high, such as the Germany-Poland match in Dortmund on June 14th, only low-alcohol beer will be sold, and the taps will be turned off at the first sign of trouble.

Free riders

Berlin's transport authorities have promised to be lenient when dealing with World Cup fans. Representatives of the BVG, which runs the city’s public transport network, have promised that fans without valid tickets will not be fined. Instead they will be politely asked to buy a ticket or validate one that hasn't been stamped. Berliners, on the other hand, will not be shown such forgiveness. If found travelling without a valid ticket, they will be fined on the spot as usual.

For foreign visitors, German transport can be confusing, as there are no barriers, so it is possible to get on a train without paying. Tickets are generally bought from machines and must be validated with a stamp before the journey. To help tourists navigate the transport system, extra employees will be on hand to give information and ticket machines will feature a special World Cup button, explaining the fares in different languages.

Catch if you can

June 2006

Peléstation: The Legend in Action

Until July 9th 2006

Throughout the month-long World Cup finals, this wonderful exhibition—in a new, as-yet unused underground train station at Potsdamer Platz—celebrates a living legend: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé. The show, which will tour internationally, captures the Brazilian star's extraordinary skills with a comprehensive display of film, photographs, art (including a portrait by Andy Warhol) and personal affects. Intriguingly, children are invited to play football in a darkened tunnel, simulating a Brazilian trend in which young players meet in poorly lit parking garages and similar locations to avoid police harassment.

U3 underground station at Potsdamer Platz (entrance next to Sony Centre), 10785 Berlin-Mitte. Open: daily 10am-9pm. Admission: €5 (free entry 5-6pm). See the exhibition's website.

More from the Berlin cultural calendar