Economist.com Cities Guide: Berlin Briefing - August 2006

News this month

Gift of the gab

To improve the job prospects of the city's many young migrants, Berlin's government plans to offer German language lessons from the end of August. The project, called “1,000 migrants”, will see two groups of 1,500 students—all under 25—receive 16 hours of lessons a week for two years. The courses will concentrate on language proficiency and prepare students to train in areas such as IT, catering and care-work. This should help improve the labour statistics for young migrants, who make up 15% of Berlin's jobless youths. The European Union is paying for half of the programme, which costs around €2m ($2.5m).

But not everyone is delighted. The centre-right Christian Democratic Party has accused Berlin's ruling left-wing coalition government of “electioneering on the backs of migrants”, and argued that the scheme is not enough to change the scale of migrant unemployment. Harold Wolf, the senator who will unveil the project in August, has countered that the language lessons are only a first step, to be followed by other measures.

Welcome guests

Berlin's government has halted the deportation of refugee families who have been refused asylum. The new ruling applies to asylum-seekers with at least one underage child, who have been refused residency but arrived before June 1st 2000. It was introduced by Ehrhart Körting, the city-state's Social Democratic senator for domestic affairs. Around 14,000 refugees without official residence status live in Berlin, including many who fled the conflict in former Yugoslavia.

While the more lenient ruling has been welcomed by refugee organisations, the local Green Party remains unimpressed, arguing that the decision discriminates against unmarried or childless asylum-seekers. Critics say that stopping the deportations is not enough: refugees must also be given permission to work. Politicians from the centre-right Christian Democratic Party were also disappointed with this decision, saying it rewards refugees who refused to leave when told to do so.

A mysterious affair

There was a tragic coda to the football World Cup in Berlin on July 10th, when the city's most important tournament official shot himself the morning after the final match, in which Italy defeated France. The reason for the suicide of Jürgen Kiessling, 65, who died in hospital three days later, remains a mystery. Speculation in the local press that he was motivated by financial worries has been dismissed by police, and the contents of two suicide notes have not been made public.

Dubbed “Mr World Cup”, Kiessling was in charge of organising the games in the capital. He won particular praise for the success of the “Fan Mile” in the centre of Berlin, where matches were broadcast live on giant screens, sometimes attracting almost 1m viewers per game. He was expected to follow this success with organising the athletics World Cup, which Berlin is hosting in 2009.

Heading south

A German firm of architects is using experience gained during the World Cup to good effect—it has won a contract to build three of the five stadiums for the next tournament, to be held in South Africa in 2010. Gerkan, Marg und Partner (gmp), based in Hamburg but with an office in Berlin, renovated three stadiums in Germany for this year's finals, including the iconic, Nazi-era Olympic Stadium in Berlin. Later this year gmp is due to start work on arenas in Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

The firm faces challenges in South Africa. Architects will have to work on tight budgets: €170m for Durban and €60m for Port Elizabeth, compared with the €250m spent in Berlin. The firm will also have to design stadiums suitable to South Africa's climate—Hubert Nienhoff, the head of gmp's Berlin office, reckons that the most difficult task will be to build a stadium to withstand the high winds. Provided these problems are overcome, the first of the three stadiums should be finished by 2009.

Rightful owners

One of the most famous paintings by a member of “Die Brücke” (“The Bridge”), a group of German expressionists founded in 1905, has been returned to the descendants of its original owners. “Berlin Street Scene” (pictured), painted by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 1913 and worth an estimated €10m-15m, originally belonged to Alfred and Thekla Hess, a Jewish couple from Erfurt. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, the painting was sent to Switzerland for safe-keeping. Three years later the owners sent the painting to Cologne, where it was purchased by a German art-collector. Whether the proceeds ever reached the Hesses remains unclear.

In 1980 Berlin’s state-owned Brücke Museum bought the painting without any knowledge of its history, according to the museum's administrators. Negotiations for its return have been under way since 2004. In July the saga came to an end when it was taken down from the museum's walls and returned to private ownership. On August 2nd Christie's, an auction house, announced that the painting would go on sale in New York in November.

Catch if you can

August 2006

Afrika! Afrika!

Until September 2nd 2006

Africa comes to Berlin with this magical circus, presented by André Heller, an Austrian multimedia artist. Mr Heller and his team travelled for almost two years on the African continent in search of the most talented and fascinating artists. Often they found them in remote villages, in countries ranging from Mali to Morocco, Egypt to South Africa. The result is a joyous spectacle—110 dancers, singers, jugglers and acrobats exude vitality and charisma. The fairyland of fantasy and imagination begins as soon as you enter the main 26-metre-high circus tent, set up near Berlin's shiny new main railway station, where eight smaller Bedouin-like tents house an African café, restaurant, art exhibition and bazaar.

Zeltpaläste, next to the new Hauptbahnhof. Tel: +49 (0)1805 725 299. Performances: Tues-Sun. See website. Tickets are €25-69 (€1 from each ticket goes to UNESCO for art schools in Africa).

More from the Berlin cultural calendar