The Berlin Mietendeckel experiment is finished. The city’s revolutionary attempt to freeze rental prices for five years, and reduce overpriced leases, has been killed off by Germany’s highest court. The decision has unleashed a political storm. Everyone is angry - but who will voters punish? The R2G parties who tried to regulate rents? Or their opponents, the CDU and FDP who successfully derailed the project? We make the case for why each side is to blame. There’s a big bill to pay, as...

Berlin finally has an overnight curfew - but not really: we can go out alone from 9pm to 5am. We need a negative test to go shopping - but not really: grocery and household shopping is exempt. We ask - what's the point of making rules with so many holes? Matilde says Germany's leaders are like bad parents scared of disciplining their children. Berlin vaccine centers are throwing away unused doses. People are being turned away due to paperwork. Hotlines are failing. Staff can be fired for...

Who stole the snow from a Berlin park? A local newspaper has been investigating one of the winter's cruelest possible crimes. Parents at Parkaue think a disgruntled local might have cleared a popular toboggan hill of snow. We read the Berliner Zeitung's in-depth investigation. Should we have gone walking on the ice? After ten days of minus temperatures, half of the city went out onto the canals. But no Berlin authority is willing to say if the ice is safe. The police spent days flying...

Jöran sits down with Eli Wenzel-Fisher, a caretaker at a Berlin retirement home to talk about vaccinations arriving at the residence and getting vaccinated himself. Getting vaxxed - how does it work? What is it like? And what is the atmosphere like at the home? We get Eli’s detailed report.

With the new medical mask rule in force, will the Querdenkers now start wearing banned fabric masks? What about people who can't afford the expensive masks? Should prices be regulated to stop profiteering? Already some bars, cafes, restaurants and other cultural spaces have closed down during the pandemic. Our friends at Lola Mag are starting to document these closed culture spaces. Know of a shuttered spot? Send details to [email protected] BER workers are suffering from electric shocks from...

Jöran ushered in the new year with jelly donuts, Joel an ice cold swim and Dan watched the ZDF livestream. All were pleased with their experiences. Hospital on the water Urban Krankenhaus gets positive reviews from the team, though recent expansions ignore the buildings aesthetic and surroundings. How was Berlin's NYE with fireworks sales banned? : 862 fire crew call-outs, 43 in 'verbotszonen', and 211 fires; 10 victims in ER, 2 hands partially amputated, one Brandenburg man killed by...

Why can't Germany finally ban fireworks? The failure to prohibit the use of rockets on NYE shows the pandemic response still isn't being led by science, we say. Many shops are closed, and alcohol outdoors is banned. Berlin is preparing for vaccinations, but unless you're over 80 you probably won't get one for quite a while. We're joined by guest co-host Gilda Sahebi, a journalist and doctor. Gilda is part of Neue Deutsche Medienmacher, a network that promotes greater diversity in Germany's...

We’re joined by guest co-host Carmen Chraim! Listen to her podcast People of Carmen. Joel shares his experience of having coronavirus: it’s hard to get tested, and contact tracing is no forensic investigation. Luckily more private testing clinics have opened, including at BER and Kitkat Club. With Christmas markets cancelled, the whole city has become a distributed glühwein markt. Joel and Jöran went on a tour of Neukölln’s weihnachts windows. Can we expand the variety of hot drinks on offer...

This month residents of Berlin should experience the biggest collective rent reduction in history. About 340,000 residents - one in six - may be eligible for a rent cut under the Mietendeckel, Berlin’s radical new housing policy. But landlords are doing their best to stop it. On November 23 landlords must reduce rents to regulation levels or face fines of €500,000. Tenants can check if they're paying too much at this website: http://www.mietendeckel.berlin.de And they can report cheating...

First some difficult news: Maisie is in hospital being treated for a rare type of cancer. She is trying to stay positive and says: “Hello to everyone. I’m working on coming back ASAP!” You can send her a personal message via: [email protected]. We’re back in partial lockdown, with all hospitality and cultural venues closed. More than 70 such businesses are trying to sue to stay open, with little hope. They can apply for 75% of their usual monthly income. Will they be scared to ask for...

Every Berliner knows the new airport is about to open. But few know about the disasters that could happen next. We’re here to explain. Masie, Joel and Jöran take part in a test of the new terminal and find it functional, if a bit dull. We meet the only hero in the BER saga – Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, the airport’s fourth CEO, and the one who finally finished the job. He’s a bureaucratic nerd who visited the building site on weekends to check on progress. And he has a penchant for prose when...

Almost everything is open again, but the crisis isn't over. 30% of Berlin workers are now jobless or on Kurzarbeit suspension. Many cafes, shops and big businesses have closed. Maisie tells us about job hunting following her return to Berlin. Corona rule confusion continues. Masks must be worn in supermarkets but not gyms. Customers mask up in shops but not staff, but in restaurants it's the other way around. And now a court has invalidated some of the fines handed out for non-distancing. The...

Berlin starts counting the cost of the shutdown. Business tax revenues have plummeted by 90%. Who’s going to pay the bill? Are we going back to the dark days of “saving till it squeals”? This week’ status: Mask compliance is at about 90%. Public transport use is at 50%. Restaurants are open, but only until 10pm: they’re demanding an extra hour of trading. 400 people are in hospital with the virus. After Berlin's successful project of converting roads to temporary Spielstraßen, play streets,...

Put that picnic blanket away, and don’t dare drink a beer in the park. Berlin's signature freedoms are being restricted. How far is too far? Should you cancel your gym membership, or keep paying to help businesses survive? And Tegel Airport may soon fall victim to the virus crisis. Berlin police are busy patrolling parks and shutting down candlelit dinners in 'spreadeasies.' We debate the morality of flouting the rules for a bit of fun. Are you tech-savvy and want to help build community...

"The time for partying is over," Berlin's health senator Dilek Kalayci said, announcing the shut down of the city. Berlin's government has enacted the widest restriction of liberties since the war as it struggles to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. Hosts Daniel Stern, Joel Dullroy and Jöran Mandik record an unscheduled episode in an empty room. Our correspondent in Maisie Hitchcock joins us via Skype to tell us about pre-lockdown England. Noah Telson from the Comedy Cafe Berlin tells us about...

Berlin’s rent freeze has begun, but nobody seems to know what’s going on. Landlords and tenants alike are confused about what to do next. Rents are now capped at the rate paid in June 2019 – all increases since then are invalid. New contracts can’t exceed about €9.80 a square meter – half as much as many advertised prices. And landlords face fines of half a million euros for cheating. On this episode we go inside Berlin’s parliament to hear the moment the rent freeze law was passed....

What happens when an entire city of 3.5 million residents stops paying rent increases for the next five years? Welcome to Rent Freeze, a podcast about Berlin’s rental revolution. Berlin is about to introduce the Mietendeckel, a law that will freeze rents for five years, cap new rental contracts at a maximum price, and allow some tenants to claim a rent reduction. Supporters say it will be the best thing to happen to the city since the fall of the Wall. But investors and landlords are...

Berlin police have registered 74 accidents involving e-scooters since June. Almost all of the riders were drunk. There are now 9000 e-scooters in the city. Berlin has installed its 100th free public drinking fountain. Another 100 will be added over the next year - for 3.7 million residents. Crossing the road will become more leisurely as the city plans to increase the 'green light' phase by up to 50%. But it will take 10 years to adjust all the traffic signals. Another big Berlin building...

Berlin now has 750 millionaire residents - twice as many as in 2016, according to the Finanzamt. The majority live in the city's west. More live in Kreuzberg than Prenzlauer Berg. Strangely, the Finanzamt defines a millionaire as someone with over €500,000 in income and assets - a hang-over from the Deutschmark days, as DMs are worth half as much as Euros. The former German royal family wants its castles back. The remaining Hohenzollerns are relatives of the Nazi-supporting Kaiser Wilhelm...

Berlin now has two top level football teams after FC Union jumped up to the Bundesliga by winning a play-off match. FC Union started back in the DDR. Their die-hard fans actually helped rebuild the stadium in Köpenick with their own hands. Maybe they could help finish BER? Enjoying the heat? Spare a thought for horses pulling tourist carriages in the city center. New rules now apply - carriage operators have to stop if air temperature in the shade reaches 30 degrees Celsius. There’s been...

New f#€k ups have been discovered at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Builders used plastic Dübel, or wall anchors, to screw the fire safety system in place. Plastic anchors can melt and shouldn't have been used. The planned opening date of October 2020 is again in doubt. Hear more about BER on our spin-off series: www.radiospaetkauf.com/ber. The campaign to trigger a referendum on property ownership in Berlin only began a few weeks ago. Organizers say they have already collected almost enough...

Berlin is a noisy city, and it's getting louder. Stats show police cars activated their lights and sirens 158,000 times last year - or more than 400 times a day. That's a 5% increase on the previous year. The famous open-air karaoke sessions in Mauerpark can go ahead again after the Pankow authorities reversed their plan to close the event down. Authorities were refusing to issue the regular permits due to nearby construction work. After a public outcry, the authorities backed down....

The Ausländerbehörde will soon no longer exist - in name only. The much feared foreigner's office will be rebranded as the Landesamt für Einwanderung (Regional Department for Immigration). Snappy, right? More than 13.5 million tourists visited Berlin last year, a new record The city is this year trying to discourage visitors from coming to party in Kreuzberg on May 1. The formerly revolutionary event is going to be scaled down. Residents want the event to continue, but more quietly please....

Berlin police are deploying decoy bicycles with GPS trackers to catch bike thieves. It's already worked several times. Soon you'll be able to register your own bike GPS details. It might help reduce the 30,000 bike thefts reported annually. In more bike news, little green arrows will be installed on several Berlin traffic signals. They permit right-turning bicycles to go through a red light. Starting this month, dogs have to be on a leash in public. But there's a huge list of exceptions - if...