This Gives “Building Boom” A Whole New Meaning

June 4, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Berlin, Bombs, Building Boom, German, Germans, Germany, WWII Leave a comment

In a Building Boom, German Cities Face Renewed Threats From WWII Bombs – More than 70 years after the war ended, unexploded bombs are being unearthed with remarkable regularity.

Bombs are being found with “remarkable regularity” now? It’s never been any different here.

German Oddity 15. Germany is a place where huge underground bombs are routinely unearthed all around the country and this barely even makes second page news. In fact, most Germans directly affected are more annoyed about it than anything else. They grudgingly leave their homes until the bomb crews have disarmed or detonated the damned things. Over 5,000 bombs are found in Germany every year.

Berlin Isn’t An Anti-Semitic City

June 2, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hate, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Al-Quds March, Anti-Americanism, Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitism, Berlin, Demonstrations, German, Germans, Germany, Iran, Palestinians Leave a comment

It’s just a city that openly supports groups that openly call for the destruction of Israel.

Berlin’s city government (the ususal suspects – SPD, Greens, Left Party) has imposed upon the populace yet again another grade A anti-Israel agitation celebration organized and financed by the mullah regime in Iran.

Germany’s anti-Semitism debate raises its head at pro-Palestinian march in Berlin – Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators peacefully marched in Berlin amid a struggle to define the line between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism.

Wieder einmal muss die Hauptstadt die vom Iran organisierte Hetze gegen Israel während der Kuds-Demo ertragen.

We Are The 92%!

May 28, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Activists, Anarchists, Berlin, Demonstrators, German, Germans, Germany, Leftists, Protesters, Radicals 2 Comments

Of leftist radicals still living at home.

What’s for dinner, Ma? Burning down banks and and other forms of capitalist exploitation can really work up a fella’s appetite.

92% of left-wing activists live with their parents and one in three is unemployed, study of Berlin protesters finds – The vast majority of left-wing protesters arrested on suspicion of politically-fuelled offences in Berlin are young men who live with their parents, a new report found.

The figures, which were published in daily newspaper Bild revealed that 873 suspects were investigated by authorities between 2003 and 2013.

Of these 84 per cent were men, and 72 per cent were aged between 18 and 29.

92 Prozent der Linksradikalen wohnen noch bei Mutti.

German Of The Day: Rosinenbomber

May 13, 2019 By Hermann Observer in High Art, History, Home Cooking Tags: Berlin, Berlin Airlift, Cold War, German, Germans, Germany, History Leave a comment

That means raisin bomber. Or candy bomber, if you prefer.

Dignitaries from around the world have gathered in Berlin to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Berlin airlift.

The Soviet Union entirely blockaded the western parts of the German capital in June 1948, when the country and the city were divided into US, UK, French and Soviet occupation sectors after World War Two.

“I did not ask permission.” – Gen. Lucius D. Clay, the U.S. commander in Berlin who started the airlift without clearance from Washington.

Productivity?

May 12, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Berlin, Cities, Economy, Employment, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Productivity, Service Sector Leave a comment

What’s that? I live in Berlin.

Asked which region in Europe has been the absolute worst at realizing its economic potential, most people probably wouldn’t name Berlin. The German capital isn’t just nice to live in, it’s throbbing with excitement; a startup is reportedly created here every 20 minutes, and if you leave for a night out, you risk not coming back for a week. But according to a study of the economic performance of European regions, Berlin is indeed the worst.

What is more important: productivity or a city’s peculiar, esoteric feel? Berlin is one of the places where this question is especially poignant.

Well, It’s Not Like They Could Be Arrested

May 9, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Berlin, Crime, Dealers, Drug Dealers, Drugs, Görlitzer Park, German, Germans, Germany, Law, Safe Spaces Leave a comment

Drug dealers need a safe space, too. At least in Berlin they do.

Drug dealers in Berlin are to be given designated spaces in a city centre park to carry out transactions, leading to criticism that authorities have capitulated to criminal gangs.

For years there has been a heated debate about Görlitzer Park, a popular meeting point in the trendy southern Berlin district of Kreuzberg, which has been attracting an ever increasing number of drug dealers. Local people said they were reluctant to let children and pets roam free there.

After repeated attempts by police to clear the dealers failed, the park manager declared areas where they should be allowed to operate, identified by spray-painted pink boxes.

“This method has purely practical reasoning behind it. It’s not that we’re legalising the selling of drugs.”

“Why The Name Mohammed Is So Popular”

May 8, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, Islam, Migrants, Muslims, Names Leave a comment

In Germany. In Berlin, in particular. That’s the title of this article down here.

I didn’t bother to read it. I’m pretty sure I know why that is and I don’t need a journalist explain to me why I’m wrong.

Mohammed is the most popular name for baby boys in Berlin… Bild, a German newspaper, reported data from the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS), or German Language Society.

Mohammed in all its variants was the most popular name in Berlin, and the second most popular in Bremen, ahead of Ben but behind Elias.

Dass Mohammed in Berlin erstmals auf Platz eins der Vornamen-Hitliste steht, sorgt für Aufregung. Aber warum eigentlich?

Marginal Art Marginalized In Berlin

April 28, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, High Art, Hostility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Art, Art Galleries, Artists, Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, Kunst, Marginalization, Protests, Whiteness Leave a comment

Marginal art made by marginal artists, that is. Actually, the story’s about the marginal artists who are upset about being marginalized, for being marginal.

There is a difference here, of course, albeit a marginal one. I have an idea. Perhaps, just maybe I’m thinking, if they made their art better and not so marginally successful they could stop being so marginal and protest about something else a little less marginally interesting.

Earlier this week, stickers and posters started circulating in and around the city of Berlin that point to a disparaging fact: according to a group of arts activists, 75% of the artists being platformed at Berlin Gallery Weekend are white and male.

The stickers protesting the lack of diversity within the Berlin art scene feature a white sausage — known in German as Weisswurst — against the blue background of Berlin Gallery Weekend’s main logo and branding typography.

German Of The Day: Bildungsurlaub

April 17, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Health, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humor Tags: Berlin, Court Rulings, Courts, Education, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Profession, Training, Vocational Training, Work, Yoga Leave a comment

That means educational or vocational training leave. You know, like that yoga course you took for your job?

What? Your boss freaked out at the suggestion? Well, everybody does it here in Berlin. Yoga to go with the times, people.

A yoga course can be considered vocational training, a Berlin court has ruled, paving the way to doing the “Downward-facing Dog” or “Greet the Sun” on company time in Germany’s capital.

The state labour court for Berlin-Brandenburg has ruled a worker has the right to paid leave so they can attend a five-day adult education course entitled “Yoga I – successful and relaxed at work with yoga and meditation”.

The judge ruled that under Berlin’s Educational Leave Act, even a yoga course fulfills the far-reaching criteria of “professional development” which would promote an individual’s “adaptability and self-assertion”.

“Yoga I – erfolgreich und entspannt im Beruf mit Yoga und Meditation.”

German Of The Day: Enteignung

April 7, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Apartments, Berlin, Building, Construction, Gentrification, German, Germans, Germany, Greens, Language, Political Parties, Property, Property Rights, Rents, SPD Leave a comment

That means confiscation or dispossession. You know, like confiscating private property?

And the German Greens hold this to be denkbar – another cool German word meaning conceivable or possible.

After all, the world must be fair and if rising property rents in cities like Berlin – caused by city governments like Berlin (Social Democrats and Greens for decades) – are creating hardship for the 85 percent (!) of Berliners who don’t own property – the government does everything it can to discourage owning property here – then the government that created this mess will simply confiscate the private property of those currently developing new housing and… And what? Give it to the poor? Been there, done that. We all know how that turns out. And who foots the bill. Robin Hoodlums never learn. They have no intention of learning.

Thousands took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday in protest against rising property rents and called for properties of large-scale landlords with more than 3,000 houses to be taken over by the government.

“Das Grundgesetz sieht Enteignungen zum Allgemeinwohl ausdrücklich vor.”

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Berlin