Kategorie: Berlin

Reportedly, there have been cases, where English-speaking expats living in Berlin for years, got dissed for not speaking German.

Underlying to this sort of diss, seems to be the notion, that one should learn the language of the country one resides in.

Personally, I lived and worked in three countries, with three different languages, I all learned to speak. But I generally wouldn’t expect it of every foreigner in Berlin. In example, tourists. I worked in hotels (in three different countries), and from my experience, a hotel e.g. in Spain employing staff speaking also German, and restaurants offering a menu also in German, they may likely have more revenue from tourists than a hotel, where the management is like: “No room for everyone, who can not recite Romance sonámbulo (surrealistic poem by Federico García Lorca) in Spanish.”

And then there is perhaps a 80-year old granny from Ukraine in Berlin. At that age, some persons are still fit enough to learn a new language. But to generally expect it, would be weird. Which then opens a bit different topic, in particular how to ensure that the granny can receive proper medical attention (beyond emergency per se), when she speaks only Ukrainian and just about every (licensed to practice) doctor in the city doesn’t. But there are options, such as having translator service, where staff translates remotely – that is, the granny doesn’t have to bring her own translator, but doctor uses PC or simply phone with loudspeaker to have a translator join the meeting.

Then there may be war orphans, who have arrived as minors on their own at the border. In such a case, it sure is nice if they get kind of adopted, as e.g. Germany does, by saying who their legal guardian is, and taking them to school etc. But, I am not sure if it is ok in such a case, to straight away basically “germanize” the minor, as in teaching it German, with no single lesson with their mother tongue. And that also isn’t a case, where I could plausibly agree with a general notion of “They have to learn German!”. Depending on the circumstances, if it is e.g. a Polish-speaking minor, contacting the Polish authorities about it, would seem a way more appropriate thing to do, than to “ethnically reeducate” the minor. And if the minor happens to be indeed a war orphan, well, to me it seems plausible for the child to have a teacher speaking their mother tongue, such as in form of a boarding school. At such school, the child may then also learn a new language, such as the local one. But to me that isn’t a primary concern.

Like, when a 16-year old arrives, who once had dreams about studying before their country was torn apart by war, there is no reason why the 16-year old couldn’t finish their highschool classes in their mother tongue – and if there is a prospect for them to then study in perhaps yet another country, or in a field that heavily relies on English anyhow, well, then English lessons would sound primarily important for the 16-year old, to boost the study path, and then also job opportunities.

That also brings me to international students in general. Like, when someone arrives in Berlin to study for 5 years, not necessarily in German, but i.e. computer science in English. Sure nice if they learn at least a few phrases in German. But generally, they are likely busy with their study. As is everyone in Berlin for a work-stay.

And as far as I see it, there is no problem at large, when not everyone in the city speaks the same language with each other. There are cases, where it sure is even practical to speak one common language. I.e. when a family is in Berlin with child in school, it sure is nice when also parent and teacher can understand each other. But generally, when e.g. David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Nick Cave lived in Berlin, it wasn’t like the world would have necessarily gained much, if they would have happened to start singing German Schlager-music, in the name of integration into the one German society.

“King Frederick William I of Prussia welcomes the Salzburg Protestants, 30th April 1732”
– Painting by Konstantin Johann Franz Cretius

White rural America is very afraid, of being replaced by something else. At least a prominent Republican implied so, all while the same side associates crimes with immigrants to such an extent, that mass-deportations are supposed to solve it all. And what would the folks living their entire lives in villages and small towns know about it, when they are told by supposedly informed authorities, that foreigners are coming to get the girls – with cases, such as that Virginia Giuffre did indeed end up marrying a foreigner, after old-ish white Americans had their fun with her.

Personally, I do see things way more differentiated. In example, over here in Europe, there are sometimes violent confrontations between hooligan-fans of soccer-teams. So, when there is a soccer match, and hooligans from one town commit criminal acts in another town, i.e. 50 miles away, that could also be considered a sort of migrant criminality. Yet, to erect a wall between the two towns, that doesn’t really help about there being on both sides males, who want to be violent.

And historically, here in Berlin, there hasn’t been any problem with immigrants at large, until Nazis arrived and claimed that there is a problem. Berlin grew to a city with millions of inhabitants, by 1920 one of the largest world-wide, due to immigration from near and far. And quite a number of these were refugees.

In particular, in the year 1685, there was the Edict of Potsdam, after which approximately 20,000 Huguenot refugees settled in Prussia. Huguenots had been persecuted in France.

By 1731, many of the 20,000 Salzburg Protestants, settled in Prussia, after having been expelled due to the Counter-Reformation. Similarly, also Protestants from other places arrived, and refugees from Russia, and also folks e.g. from Turkey – in particular serving in the Prussian Army, see “Bosniak Corps” from the mid-18th century, and also i.e. diplomats, like Ali Aziz Efendi, who died in 1798 and had funeral according to Islamic rite in Berlin – and by mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire had a plot of land in Berlin, that is since used as cemetery (now by Turkey).

And quite a number of other stories. I.e. in this picture here, Gustav Sabac el Cher in 1908, born 1868 in Berlin. He served as bandmaster in the Prussian Army.

So, to say, as some do, such as among AfD, or similarly the White House, that immigration is generally a bad thing, such notion seems quite absurd to me.

And, especially when there is humanitarian catastrophe, these days mostly man-made, it isn’t the refugees that are to blame. In example, Syria – permanent UN Security Council members seem to have fought a proxy-war over there, with also fanatics from Iraq involved – and then someone born in 2005 turned up at the border from Syria, and gets blamed for everything bad? That seems quite a ridiculous notion.

And as far as criminality by foreigners is concerned, there is also a lot to differentiate. Like, the homeless person from Poland, who somehow ended up in Berlin, and got caught stealing food or something to drink from a shop, such “simple theft” represents about 20% of all crime in Germany – and then it even differentiates further, in regard to that about a quarter of shop thefts are attributed to persons working there, and another quarter to gang criminality as such. And the homeless from abroad, when someone actually takes a look, they can see that these persons sit like in a ditch between the national Social security systems of EU member states. Like, no income whatsoever, and no local health insurance – pretty much existential poverty.

In this case, these persons may perhaps once have had a slim chance of not becoming homeless. But a wall on the border to Poland doesn’t help these people, who would likely just end up sitting in a homeless camp elsewhere, when politics in several countries are just like: “It’s everyone for themselves! Hundreds of billions in monthly profits of U.S. companies, and no dime even for our own homeless.”.

And stuff like that, where at least some humanism would be nice instead.

Today, Tuesday, in Berlin, part of the city experienced a power outage, affecting about 50,000 households. Power won’t be restored for many of them, until Wednesday or even Thursday.

This was due to a fire damaging a power line, at 3:30 AM. Police suspect “politically motivated arson”.

“politically motivated” – this term may not be familiar to many. E.g. in the UK, they went to talking about terrorism already after some group painted an airplane, after they easily got into an supposedly secure area this plane was at.

So, please allow me to try to explain, what this term means.

In example, let’s take my political stance about road safety. I am a fan of individual mobility, but also a fan of people making it back to their loved ones, after venturing outside. In Berlin in 2024, this wasn’t the case for 55 persons, who died due to traffic accidents, with about half of them having been on foot.

I may even have got as far, as writing elaborate essays, such as about improved design of road intersections, and as far as speeches, such as:

“Why, people, why? Real life isn’t supposed to be like Hunger Games etcetera. Let’s stop this sort of social-darwinist lottery of death, in which every week someone gets killed (on average). And let’s instead improve public matters for everyone!”

But, to no avail for real improvement. CDU and SPD even announced another cut to the budget for pedestrian safety, bringing it to about 3 million Euro, which is apparently the entire budget per year, for improving e.g. pedestrian crossings, from a city budget of about 40 billion Euro.

And now to the hypothetical, let’s say I am all mad about it, that people are just a statistic to them people in charge, who drive around in their limousines. And with such rage about these things, I go out at night and slash the tires of cars, perhaps in some misguided notion of that such action will wake the people up, and perhaps even make them stand against this system, that cares so little about fundamental rights of humans, such as the right to life, to begin with.

But, once caught, I would get charged, for what is considered a crime. And, it wouldn’t be nice to the people affected, some of who may be working for little money i.e. as nurse, confronted in the morning with not being able to get to work by car, and having quite some hassle to get it fixed. And it would produce a lot of unnecessary waste.

And in such context, what local police would talk about, is a crime, that was politically motivated.

Not sure, where exactly such case would show up in the police statistics of “politically motivated crime”, where the categories are “right extremism, left extremism, and Islamist extremism”. But generally speaking, it seems a more reasonable approach to talk about these matters, than to consider a trespass already a terroristic act, due to which an entire group was proscribed as terrorist by the House of Commons on 2 July 2025.

The particularities of whether the term “malicious intent” exists in some form in a number of law systems around the globe, and if so, what does it entail, for something to be considered malicious intent, and how it is applied and weighted, that does vary among jurisdictions and courts of law. The context also matters. For example, in a criminal court case, a judge, jury and/or tribunal, may care little to not at all, about whether a person accused of severe rape, had intent or not, to do harm, as the harm has been proven to have been done. So, please be aware, that I may not be talking about the exact kind of “malicious intent”, as someone elsewhere may be talking about.

What I want to talk about here, is an example, of what I would consider to be malicious intent, in the context of social media and similar settings:

The photo with the blog post, is from Berlin in the year 1945, after side of the Allies won World War II in the European theatre.

Previously, I mentioned census data for Berlin, where it is listed, that at the end of 1944, the population was about 4.2 million, and at the end of 1945 about 3 million. And for 15th August 1945, it says about 2.8 million.

Now, if I would harbor ill will, and at that be running i.e. a video show on TV or wherever, these numbers might seem like a nice opportunity to create specific content with – of a type, that also is on the airwaves in different instances and context. As in:

“These are the official numbers! One point four million less of the population, after the Allies approached and entered Berlin. It must have been a slaughter! Just see the pictures – ruins everywhere and no flowers at all. Weren’t Nazis already defeated before 1945, with it taking Allies that long to reach Berlin, only because they were keeping playing golf along the way, and filling their trunks with whatever they got their hands on? Ladies and gentlemen, this is a scandal!”

In such a wording, there may be little to no complaint from the public. And after all: “I am merely a video content creator, looking for some clicks, and going with the flow of similar shows, where they keep going on and on, and don’t even have the faintest idea, of what they are talking about.”

But, what I did there, was at the very least, dishonest to truth. As in, using these numbers, to go to spin a story with just like that. It is dishonest, because like that, it is pretty much a fictional story, which uses a commonly known motive, even if the show and talk may have some resemblance to being like political etc.

In contrast to this example, stands academics. That is in such case, taking the time, to look at a number of things, starting in example wondering about how the census was counted. And there we may perhaps learn, that it was by a so-called “Meldeadresse”. Now we may wonder, whether that means, that it could be a possibility, that there actually weren’t 4.2 million people in the city already at the end of 1944? Perhaps many of the persons with a “Meldeadresse” in Berlin, happened to be Wehrmacht soldiers at some frontline somewhere, where Nazis once wanted to build their haciendas – and these soldiers, didn’t return to the city, such as due to being one of millions of fallen Wehrmacht soldiers, or after the hostilities ended, did become “internally displaced”? Are there some numbers about that? And perhaps, part of the city did flee, before or after the Allies entered the city? Hmm… so much to look at.

And actually taking the time, to look at this things, which may even involve going into non-virtual archives, that is generally called: research.

This research, I understand that it may not fit in, in today’s world of ever-accelarating news and media shows, with fierce competition, and “time is money”, and all that. I just think, that when it comes to professional topics, that it should be professional, and not pretending to be like some expert on whatever, while they are at best running a variety show of sorts, and at worst like Goebbels. And as far as my jurisprudence goes, at that worst, I consider it, where a type of malicious intent sits at, moreorless in cases. Meaning, that I do not consider it content appropriate to be broadcast by radio stations, TV stations, news outlets, and similar – pretty much just like there are restrictions i.e. in the United States, about vulgarities/curse-words not allowed to be broadcast.