Radio Spaetkauf Berlin

Recorded Live at the Babylon Berlin Cinema in Mitte on Sunday, January 22, 2023.  A brand new year brings Berlin fresh cringe from mayor Franziska Giffey and a reignition of the annual fireworks debate. We look at how racism and feminism might play a role in that conversation. Berlin vs. Hamburg? 25 percent of Germans found Hamburg the “most likable” German city, but which city-state do Radio Spaetkauf hosts prefer? The answer may shock you! (It probably won’t).  This episode was sponsored by Athletic Greens. Visit http://www.athleticgreens.com/spaetkauf and get a free year’s supply of Vitamin D3+K2 for immune support, 5 convenient Travel Packs and a starter kit with your first AG1 order! Fresh scandals and new posters leading up to the election redo, who stands to gain and do any deserve us? We chat with Nathaniel Flakin, author of “Revolutionary Berlin” about the election and some of the Berlin actors in the recent coup attempt. His book is published by Pluto Books and his tours can be found at https://revo

In our second installment of the Brews and News winter tour we recorded at the Vagabund Brewery in Wedding from Kesselhaus. 1,500 fish died after the giant fish tank in the Radisson Blu exploded out into the street next to Alexanderplatz. We talk through an interesting transport proposal from Green Senator Bettina Jarasch to let bicycles park in car spaces, and another by the Berlin government to ease up immigration laws that could have huge consequences for listeners wanting to become Germans. And we share our best Christmas tips and tricks for those spending the holidays in Berlin. Happy first day of Hanukkah one and all.  We check in with pal of the show Ryan Plocher, active with the GEW union, who came on to let us know about the most recent teacher’s strike in Berlin.Twitter: @gew_bund  And Yvonne von Langsdorff came on to tell us about how she (and her neighbors) hatched a plan to snatch back the sale of her house from an investor - by buying it but not owning it themselves. InstagramWebsite Community r

Its official! Berliners will have to return to the voting booths. Berlin’s constitutional court ruled on Wednesday, that the Senate and Bezirks elections will have to be redone completely. Parties now have 2 months to get their ducks in a row and mount a sort of Sprint-Campaign before the re-election on February 12. Here to tell us all about the ramifications of this decision is friend of the show, frequent Radio Spaetkauf guest and co-host of the wonderful podcast Megan’s Megacan, Konrad Werner.   https://twitter.com/megansmegacan https://anchor.fm/megans-megacan   Climate activists are keeping busy in Berlin and celebrated a big success this week. Letzte Generation have joined forces with Ende Gelände and Extinction Rebellion to block off traffic to BER and the Klimaneustart 2030 initiative managed to collect around 262,000 signatures—way more than the 170,000 required to get a referendum going! Will we get to vote for decisive climate action on February 12 as well?    https://klimaneustart.berlin/ https://

One year ago Berliners voted overwhelmingly in support of the Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen referendum to buy back corporate-owned apartments and communalize them. What's happened since? Friend of the show and host of the DW Enteignen podcast “Von Menschen und Mieten”  Wouter Bernhardt gives us an update with some exciting news. More here: https://www.darumenteignen.de/en/ Temperatures are falling and fears about heating are on the rise. What if Berliners took control of their district heating system? Michael Efler from BürgerBegehren Klimaschutz e.V. tells us about plans to communalize Berlin’s energy network. They’ve got 14,148 signatures so far. Sign the petition here: https://weact.campact.de/petitions/fernwarme-zuruck-in-berliner-hand-fur-eine-klimafreundliche-und-soziale-warmeversorgung Lucy Alice Thomas tells us about Loom’s Turnt Up Musik Kamp for FLINTA youth aged 16-27 taking place October 24-29. Learn about Turnt Up here: http://atemberlin.com/ Check out the great work Loom is doing here: h

Maisie Hitchcock returns as special co-host for an outdoor episode recorded at Floating Berlin. The €9 public transport ticket is dead, but what if Berliners make their own cheap ticket scheme? We meet Mario from 9EuroFonds, a collective ticket insurance system. So far they've raised over €10,000 to pay members' transport fines. More at https://9eurofonds.de Some Berliners are freaking out about the low-heat winter ahead, due to the gas supply crisis. But what should the city really be doing to phase out fossil fuel use entirely? Klimaneustart wants Berlin to become climate neutral by 2030. That's 15 years earlier than the city's current plan. Organizer Jess tells us about the challenges of trying to trigger a referendum. Sign up at https://klimaneustart.berlin Hosts: Maisie Hitchcock, Joel Dullroy, Matilde Keizer, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern. Producer: Sebastian Filip.   If you like what we do and want us to keep making the show, please support us by subscribing or donating: https://www.radiospaetkauf.com/

Synopsis: A weekend of escapism turns into a confrontation with reality for a group of Berliners, who leave the city to find the countryside is a scary place. Location: A camp ground in the forest next to a lake. Cast: 500 film fans plus Joel, Dan and Michele Guido: https://www.training.comedycafeberlin.com/instructors/michele-guido/ Special Guest: Director Alexandra Semkina. Insta:  https://www.instagram.com/sashkasemkina/ / FB: https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.semkina.3 / Film school: https://www.metfilmschool.de

It’s pride month in Berlin but a virus outbreak is highlighting how policy makers keep failing the LGBTQi community and shows we learnt nothing from the last pandemic. People are being stigmatized and shamed, the vaccine program is slow - sound familiar? This time it’s monkeypox. We talked to queer activist Pansy about how it is affecting the gay community.  Pansy is hosting an actual DRAG RACE on Tuesday, July 26th in Hasenheide. Find more infos via Pansy’s instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pansypresents/ Meanwhile a new database has been launched to make it easier for all queer people to find the sexual health services right for them. Our new editor Anne-Marie Harrison went out to interview founder Anna Wim about her platform Fluide BLN http://fluidebln.de/ Correction: In the recording, Anna Wim is incorrectly referred to as “she.” Anna identifies as nonbinary and uses “they/them” pronouns. We apologize for the error, and many thanks to Anna for speaking to us about their important work. Also: You might

Jöran has just started looking for a therapist and can’t believe how impossible it seems. Matilde is in therapy and still gets anxiety recalling her search. On this episode they swap stories and explain the basics about Germany’s mental health system. They talk to several people who’ve done it all before. And they explain the first steps to take. Want to share your story? Write to us here at hallo@radiospaetkauf.com or leave a voice message here. Show Notes: Georg switched health insurers to get timely access to care (he’s now with BKK-VBU). He also frequently called the Berliner Krisendienst: http://www.berliner-krisendienst.de Jöran tried Berlin Institute for Psychotehrapy and Psychoanalyse (BIPP): https://bipp-berlin.de/ Others went straight to a Hausarzt (a general doctor). But you can get an initial assessment appointment by calling: 116 117. Credits: Get Help Berlin is created, written, produced and presented by Matilde Keizer and Jöran Mandik. Additional production and writing by Joel Dullroy and Anne-

This episode was recorded in the dying summer light of the floating university in Berlin; a location that is neither a university nor floating. Luckily, we had Jöran on site to explain the history of this fascinating location.  As everything gets more expensive, could Berlin make life more affordable by offering a basic income of over €1000 a month? This episode features the organisers of an attempt to start an experiment to do just that. Also, you’ve heard of community gardens. What about a community food forest? We meet a group trying to plant an edible biosphere on Tempelhofer Feld. Energy prices are starting to bite and inflation is starting to eat into everyone’s weekly budgets. To combat this the federal government brought in the 9 euro monthly public transport ticket at the beginning of the month. It will run till the end of August. Who’s against it and who’s for it? And why should we all be getting on regional trains to an island in the north of Germany called Sylt. Also on the topic of shortages and

What’s left of revolutionary Berlin? On our outdoor May Day special, we ask author Nathaniel Flakin whether there's still enough activists to keep Berlin interesting. On a weekend when Berlin's mayor Franziska Giffey gott egged, activists squatted an empty hostel and thousands of people joined big marches, Nathaniel says May Day isn't dead yet. Ask your bookshop to stock his new book Revolutionary Berlin - A Walking Guide. As Russia's war rages in Ukraine, Berlin's Green Party wants the city to prepare our U-Bahn stations to use as bomb shelters. But some tunnel experts say the stations aren't deep enough, while old WWII bunkers are now art galleries.   Get ready for a summer of train travel with the €9 nationwide Monatskarte, valid on all local and regional trains. Izzy says the three summer months are usually known as 'car season'. She hopes the experimental period will deliver data to convince politicians to permanently reduce public transport ticket prices. This episode was recorded outdoors in the Tempel

Berlin has welcomed 30,000 new residents as Ukrainian refugees fill the city. We meet Mimi, a volunteer from Wir Packens An. They send boxes to refugees - not just from Ukraine, but those forgotten in other parts of Europe too. You can help by volunteering to fill boxes for a day: www.wir-packens-an.info How is the war affecting Berlin, a city that runs mostly on Russian fossil fuels? Our energy bills are going up, we're getting cheaper public transport, and may soon live under an iron dome missile shield. As coronavirus rules disappear, are Berliners ready to give up their masks? So far many are opting to keep covered up in shops. Right to the City for All, the English speaking arm of the DW Enteignen campaign for an update on what has happened since the referendum. www.dwenteignen.de Email: right2thecity@dwenteignen.de We meet Paul Hanford, who has written a book on the clubbing culture in Berlin since the 90s. We ask what it means when one of the world's richest men is now hanging out in Berlin's b

The BVG has reinvented the concept of time. Ticket checkers emerge from undercover. Tempelhof art show boycott explained. A huge art exhibition inside Tempelhof airport has gained millions in public funding. But Berlin artists say it’s suspicious. The so-called Kunsthalle Berlin is sponsored by big property investors, won public money without an open process, and doesn’t include Berlin artists. We talk to Zoe Claire Miller about the controversy behind the exhibition. Dog owners in Berlin are terrified of a possible poisoner after at least one dog died in suspicious circumstances. Jöran is among the worried. There’s not one but two apps for people to report possible poisonings - Dogorama and GiftkoderRadar. A climate change protest group called Letzte Generation has been causing traffic chaos in recent weeks by occupying autobahns. Some glued their hands to the asphalt. Angry drivers and BSR rubbish collectors attacked the protesters, then police arrived and charged them with crimes. They’re campaigning for fo

Would premium class service encourage more rich people to take public transport? Housing activists score a temporary victory trying to squat an empty building. Why do the moving sidewalks at BER airport not move? New Year’s Eve is effectively cancelled with limits of 200 people for indoor events and a ban on dancing in clubs. Much like last year, fireworks have been restricted but not banned outright. Sales are highly restricted and around 50 areas have been declared fireworks free. Jöran would prefer an outright ban as he now has a dog who will be terrified by the noise. Berlin’s new double-decker buses have gone into service. They have wifi and USB ports, which the BVG says helps reduce vandalism because "The youth are so busy with their phones, that they hardly get any other ideas." Unfortunately the new buses are diesel powered, an anachronistic choice. A recent study published by the World Economic Forum, the Boston Consulting Group and Switzerland’s University of St Gallen suggests the implementation of

Confusion in the club queues as new 2G+ rules start. Does the plus mean mask, test or both? The short answer is always check ahead. We're back to the bad old days of finding vaccine appointments by word of mouth. The website wirhelfenberlin.de can help you find an available vaccination center. Christmas markets are open for now. Izzy recommends the Nollendorfplatz Christmas Avenue LGBTIQ* Weihnachtsmarkt, with performances at 19:30 each night. We meet Berlin's most prolific Twitter curator, James Jackson. He explains his annoyance at Germany's obsession with homeopathy and plant-based medicine. Follow him here: https://twitter.com/derJamesJackson How do you steal an entire apartment block in Berlin? You can fake paperwork, like a group of fraudsters did, or you can use the courts to kill off the government’s Vorkaufsrecht, or right of first purchase, as some greedy investors have just done. Both cases show how Germany's property market is thoroughly corrupted. Berlin's new Red-Green-Red coalition has presente

BER turned to chaos over the October holidays, with huge queues and many missed flights. Airlines advised travellers to come four hours early. The airport is only handling half the pre-pandemic passenger numbers. Who saw this coming? Should we use Gorillas or boycott? We meet three members of the Gorillas Riders Collective, who are suing the 10-minute-delivery company, and being sued, as they fight for on-time pay, non-faulty bikes, lighter loads and real contracts. They say users should think before ordering butter in bad weather, and at least give a tip. Gorillas is supposedly worth almost €3 billion, but they aren’t spending that money on maintaining bikes. Swapping is the new shopping. Hundreds of Berliners have joined a movement to trade their clothes instead of buying unsustainably produced fashion. They get together for meet-ups to exchange their items. Founder of Berlin Clothing swap Jenna Stein joins us. How does it feel to win the battle, but maybe lose the war? Wouter from Deutsche Wohnen und Co En

Berliner voters want more left-green politics and a radical state take-over of property - but the new mayor may ignore those demands. At Sunday's city-state elections, a majority (54.3%) voted for the R2G parties, showing the citizens want the current coalition to continue. Another majority (56.7%) voted 'yes' in the Deutsche Wohnung & Co. Enteignen referendum, instructing the city to forcibly buy houses from big corporate property investors. However it will be up to the SPD to decide if those things happen. The SPD won the most votes (21.4%) and can pick who to team up with - and they don't like Die Linke, and have clashed with the Greens. The referendum result is non-binding, and the SPD's lead candidate (and likely mayor) Franziska Giffey is opposed to it (although many members support it). Will Giffey's SPD really ignore the wishes of a majority of Berliners? Join us for this quick take on Berlin's 2021 election results. With Izzy Choksey, Joel Dullroy, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern.

The Berlin election results could deliver a shock result: instead of the current green-left coalition, we could end up with conservatives who want to build on Tempelhof, expand highways and stop rental reforms. We’ll terrify you with the worst-case scenario. Instead of finishing the A100 autobahn, let's turn it into a giant urban farm. That's the latest mad idea from Paper Planes e.V., the dream team behind the Radbahn project. We talk to Perttu Ratilainen about how we could grow veggies on the highway. More at: https://www.morgenfarm.berlin Not vaccinated yet? Now you can't eat at many restaurants or go to events. The 3G rule has been tightened to 2G - only immunized people can enter many places. Tests are fast becoming obsolete. The Humboldt Forum is about to open a new exhibition of artefacts stolen by German explorers and colonialists. We meet Virgil Taylor from the Coalition of Cultural Workers Against the Humboldt Forum (CCWAH). He explains what's wrong with the reconstructed city palace, outside and in

Berlin is weeks away from its state election and a referendum on housing. We analyse the campaign posters with Konrad Werner, columnist for Exberliner, and host of the weekly German news show Megan’s Megacan: https://anchor.fm/megans-megacan The AFD has moved from anti-migrant to anti-Green issues, declaring "Your car would vote for us". The CDU are trying to convince Berliners they'd do a better job than the R2G coalition. The SPD is sticking with mayoral candidate Franziska Giffey, despite more plagiarism problems. She's also effectively ruled out a new coalition with Die Linke and possibly the Greens, meaning a return to a conservative coalition in Berlin. And there's lots of small parties with interesting ideas and terrible graphic design. Izzy's volunteering to campaign for Klimaliste, who have a detailed plan on how to mitigate climate change, and say the Greens aren't doing enough. What happens if you paint the city streets with DIY safety markings and bike lanes? We meet a group who are being prosecut

What does Deutschrap have to do with the boom in bling-decorated iced tea? Maisie Hitchcock delves into her considerable knowledge of the genre to explain. Want a hot investment tip? Get into chili farming. Berlin's chili expert Neil Numb tells us how the city's hot sauce boom needs more suppliers. Start growing on your balcony. Visit this weekend's Berlin Chilli Fest at the new Reviere Südost: http://www.berlinchilifest.com Gorillas riders are holding rolling strikes at depots around the city. They're protesting the summary firing of a worker who came late to a shift. Riders have formed a workers' council, but say management are pressuring staff not to join. The billion-euro startup boss says "Gorillas are about cycling, not politics." Seems he's wrong about that. Should you shop from them? Dan says riders are just the most visible part of exploitation in your supply chain. Tiny igloo-shaped cars are the latest shared mobility object to appear in Berlin. The Swiss company Enuu says their electric cars

Everything is reopening. We’re shooting up on vaccines, and shoving sticks up our noses in strange places - and loving it. And best of all - Maisie is back! Coronavirus testing centers are popping up faster than bubble tea shops. There are more than 1000 stations in the strangest locations - converted restaurants, bikes, basements. Is this creative capitalism, or a state-funded stimulus? The government is paying €12 per test. Some of that money is going amiss. Joel witnessed some test centers sending results without actually performing the tests, and others using incorrect personal data. Our guest Nik Kaestner, a spokesman for Volksentscheid Berlin Autofrei presents their goal of removing cars from within Berlin’s S-bahn Ring. This would create the world’s largest car-free zone. The idea has gained a great deal of support from cyclists and pedestrians. Nik says even the 1.3 million car owners will be happy when they see the improvement. The initiative’s website’s English language version is here: http://volks