Radio Spaetkauf Berlin

For our second summer special, we’ve taken our own advice and journeyed out to the lakes and woods of South East Brandenburg. But before that, we start off in Berlin, where we talk about a new threat to affordable rent, another endangered East German building, why wearing a bike helmet can save you money, and how former Stasi informants make new careers under capitalism. Then we head out to Klingemühle, a former GDR holiday camp in the Naturpark Schlaubetal in Brandenburg. We meet its inhabitants, Buenaventura e.V, who tell us about the camp’s history, what they’re doing there and making the transition from Berlin to the countryside. Plus a child of the GDR talks to us about holidaying in the East and we have a chat with the organisers of Camp Tipsy, the DIY festival in a forest. Campfire songs come from Nadia Buyse and Dirty Beaches.

Radio Spaetkauf is the Berlin podcast, a half-hour discussion of local news, politics, urban development, culture and music, presented by international residents Maisie, Joel and Andrew. This episode is a summer special, with some tips about getting out of the city and visiting the lakes of Brandenburg. We talk about the threat faced by some of the beloved garden allotments on the city's fringes due to housing pressure. In urban development news we discuss the Stadtschloss, a monumental building project that threatens to become a monumental disaster. Despite the enormous cost to the city, the city castle is going ahead. Even revelations that Berlin will have to pay €470M back to the federal government due to a population miscount hasn't deterred the castle's supporters. We interview the initiator of Spree Bluete, a local Berlin currency in development. And there's a special guest monologue by Joshua James Alas of Mobile Kino about the death of 35mm film projection in Berlin cinemas.

Radio Spaetkauf is the Berlin podcast. On this episode we tell you how to get a reduction in your rent if your building is in bad condition: if you've got an illegal brothel operating in your building, you can claim a 30% rent reduction. What's going on at Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station? We'll talk about the new station being constructed, and how the designers forgot to include parking for bicycles. Tiergarten may be blocked off with a permanent fence, if the CDU gets its way. They say a full security fence is needed around the park to protect large events held there against terrorists. We're not convinced a fence would do anything, and surely not holding events there is preferable to closing off the park? Plus our interview with a British woman who ran an association to connect with people in the GDR; possibly the only Englishwoman ever to exchange political jokes with East German party officials.

Have you ever paid attention to the lettering on the station signs on the U-Bahn? We interview typographer Anton Koovit, who has created a font called U8 based on the U-Bahn station signage. As Anton discovered, the original font was created in the 1920s but was promptly forgotten, and the existing signs are rotting away without proper restoration. He spent months creating a digital version of the U8 font to ensure it does not disappear entirely. During out extended interview, Anton shares some other interesting discoveries about the Berlin underground transport system. You can see his font in action at www.korkork.com.

Alexanderplatz is set for a facelift; several new tall buildings are set for development, one measuring 150 meters. Surveys show that a lot of Berliner’s don’t like the architecture at Alex, but they also don’t approve of the plans for new buildings. Maisie presents her interview with the band Jeans Team about the district of Wedding and the monstrous Gesundbrunnen Center, about which they have written a song. Joel discusses the freelancers’ rights movement, a push to improve the conditions of freelancers everywhere. He will be presenting on the same topic at this week’s Re:publica conference in Berlin.

Berlin's abandoned theme park, Spreepark at Plänterwald, is to be auctioned off, with a starting price of €1.62 million. The new owners will get all the rides, but will be obliged to keep operating it as an amusement park. For more about the history of Spreepark, listen to Joel's audio report from 2009 here: https://soundcloud.com/joelalas/berlins-abandoned-theme-park Obama is visiting Berlin in June for the 50th anniversary of the famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. What witty one-liner will he come up with to outdo JFK?Send us your ideas for the president via Twitter. How much do you pay for your room in a shared flat? The average prices have been released: €292 in Berlin, compared to €493 in Munich. For a cheaper option, an entrepreneur plans to build a village of shipping container apartments near Treptow. A bed in a cargo crate will cost you €220 a month. International language teachers in Berlin are demanding better conditions. They are leading a series of strikes to draw attention to the big differen

Berlin's housing crisis took a tragic turn this week when an elderly old woman died on the streets two days after being evicted from her apartment. Several hundred people marched through Kreuzberg on Sunday to protest the incident, and to voice their anger at the role of the police in enforcing evictions across the city. An increasing number of evictions are taking place across Berlin as landlords seek to take advantage of soaring rental prices. Evictions are routinely undertaken by large numbers of police, who have increased their enforcement measures in response to the growing crowds of blockading protesters. During Sunday's demonstration, marchers shouted angry slogans at the police, blaming them for "murdering" Rosemarie Fliess, an elderly woman who was forced out of her home in the district of Reinickendorf.

Have you ever taken the U-Bahn to the end of the line? If not, you're missing out on some great architecture, according to photographer Kate Seabrook. On this short episode of Radio Spätkauf, Maisie interviews Kate about her project Endbahnhof (http://endbahnhof.tumblr.com/), which involved photographing the interiors of every one of Berlin's U-Bahn stations.

On this construction-themed episode, Joel, Maisie and Andrew discuss Berlin buildings of all kinds, from the much maligned GDR variety to the much-loathed Stadtschloss (City Palace). Most people oppose the new Stadschloss, so why is it being built? Andrew talks to a man who is preserving East German architecture by creating miniature cardboard cut-outs of plattenbau and iconic DDR buildings. Plus random anti-smoking legislation, Knut lives on in the courts, the joys of Tegel airport and why development on Tempelhof Field might not be such a bad thing. Music from Kool Thing and legendary GDR composer Reinhard Lakomy. Tune in to Reboot.fm 88.4 Berlin from 11pm to hear the show, or download the podcast.

Radio Spätkauf is the Berlin podcast, a half-hour discussion about news, politics and culture from the perspective of the city's international residents. Tonight hosts Maisie and Joel talk about the main topic of the past two weeks; the re-fall of the Berlin wall. Who requested the building of a footbridge, which was the ostensible reason for the wall's partial removal? We play interviews from the main events as they unfolded. Berlin's troubled airport has been lit up like a Christmas tree for months now; the reason? They can't work out how to turn off the lights. U-Bahn tickets are going up again to €2.60 this summer; compare that to the Pirate party's plan for free public transport, which would require €800M funding, or €131 from every Berliner per year. Maisie presents her interview with Victor Grossman, an American soldier who defected to the DDR because he agreed with their political views. Now retired and living on Karl Marx Allee, he told Maisie he didn't regret his decision to move east. The Berlin go

Should Berlin's international residents feel responsible for the eviction of a Turkish family in Kreuzberg? We talk about what the city's foreign residents should be doing to mitigate the impact of their presence. Our new reporter Andrew visited a demonstration against the eviction and collected interviews from people on the street. We also talk about a petition to prevent development on Tempelhof airfield, which is being eyed off as prize real estate. Then there's the sad story of a bottle collector who jumped onto the S-Bahn tracks to collect a flasche - he should have used the Pfandgeben website instead: www.pfandgeben.de. There's music tonight from Joel's band Skiing: www.skiing.bandcamp.com. Radio Spaetkauf is the Berlin podcast, a fortnightly conversation about local politics, architecture, public transport and culture. More info at www.radiospaetkauf.com.

Berlin's transport company, the BVG, doesn't like graffiti, so when two filmmakers decided to make a film about trainwriting (graffiti on trains) in Berlin, the BVG managed to get it banned. After two years, the ban has been lifted and the film is now set for general release. We talk to the the men behind 'Unlike U: Trainwriting in Berlin' about their fight to get the film shown. Also on the show: After another PhD plagiarism scandal hits German politics, we discuss whether the country's obsession with academic qualifications is causing politicians to cut corners. And we talk about how the legendary Tacheles has reopened - but not to the public - as well as toxic graffiti, the Berlin robber tunnellers using Facebook to fool the police, and how Berlin's housing crisis may save the much maligned GDR 'Plattenbau.' This episode aired on Sunday February 10 on Berlin's Reboot.fm. This is the MUSIC FREE version. To hear the FULL VERSION, go to http://www.radiospaetkauf.com

Maisie and Joel discuss the debate over what Berliners call their bread rolls - wecken or schrippen. Joel interviews Tim Edler of Flussbad Berlin, the group who wants to turn a stretch of the river Spree into a public swimming pool. Maisie plays a song from a forgotten East German band that sounds uncannily like the Blade Runner theme. And the pair talk about a ban on new restaurants in trendy streets in Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg.

The BVG declares that "foreigners can count on goodwill" if caught with the wrong ticket on the U-Bahn. Someone is dropping razorblade-laced meatballs on Berlin footpaths. The airport is out of money and delayed again, and the Staatsoper too; so why does Berlin bother trying to build monumental structures? What changes can you expect in Germany on January 1? A new compulsory TV tax, for starters. Join Maisie and Joel for our end-of-year special.

Have you witnessed a police raid in Görlitzer Park that only targets black people? Would you be prepared to tell the police to stop racial profiling? One anti-racism group is asking you to do just that. We talk to a Berliner who accidentally took a flight direct from Schönefeld to Tegel, and Joel explains why he's now a fan of the new airport. Two brown bears living in an odd little enclosure near Märkisches Museum may soon be moved to roomier pastures - but with a 480-sq/m central pad, what are they complaining about? The man trying to shut down Berlin's spätkaufs might not have any friends, but he claims he's doing it to restore neighborly interaction. We talk about the motivations of the spätkauf hater from Prenzlauer Berg.

Bike riders beware! The city is going to double fines for dangerous riding. We list out the new fines - some scary, and some pretty weak actually. What's all the fuss about GEMA? We interview a group trying to set up an alternative music rights collection society in Germany to break GEMA's monopoly. The Prinzenssinnengarten is the latest beloved local cultural institution to face closure. We interview one of the urban garden's founders about why he thinks the city shouldn't sell the land off to developers. And the bubble tea craze is starting to break! We announce the first closure of a bubble tea shop in Neukölln. This is the MUSIC FREE version. To hear full versions, go to: http://www.radiospaetkauf.com

Negative slurs against tourists and internationals are becoming more common in Berlin. One group is standing up for us new arrivals, and interestingly they come from the German anti-fascist movement. We interview the Hipster-Antifa about why old revolutionaries in Kreuzberg have become so "spiezig" about party tourists. Their theory: a mixture of boredom, jealousy and misdirected anger. Also, we talk about the Berlin mayor's plan to bid for the 2024 Olympic games, and why it is such a terrible idea. This is the MUSIC FREE version of Radio Spaetkauf. To hear the full episode with songs, go to www.radiospaetkauf.com

Do you dodge the German TV license fee? Soon you won't be able to - a compulsory flat fee will be issued against every resident. Our pub quiz asks Berliners how they handle the GEZ fee. Ever been tempted to swim in the river Spree? Here's one good reason not to - like one recent swimmer, you might end up in hospital with rat plague. And we give an update on the threat to close spätkaufs on Sundays.