Compiled by Ana Ferreira

BERLIN

Director of Volksbühne resigns after accusations of sexist harassment

On Saturday, the taz published a detailed article about the Volksbühne, in which female theatre employees accused artistic director Klaus Dörr of repeated assaultive behaviour. On Monday afternoon he resigned, with immediate effect and in agreement with cultural senator Klaus Lederer. Since the beginning of the year, there had been confidential discussions with the women and also with Dörr in the cultural administration. Ten female Volksbühne employees had previously filed a complaint with Themis, the office of trust against sexual harassment and violence. The Volksbühne case was discussed at length in the cultural committee on Monday. Source: tagesspiegel

Police report criticized for structural racism

On the international day against police violence, when numerous initiatives in Berlin criticise racist police controls, the Berlin State Office of Criminal Investigation published the “Situation Report Clan Crime 2020”. What does one have to do with the other? Civil society initiatives as well as the Left Party have been criticising police actions against alleged “clan criminals” as structurally racist for a long time. The document reports 1091 criminal charges and 5631 administrative offences. How the police arrive at this assessment is unclear. Besides, to speak here of “ethnically isolated structures of Arab origin” is for the initiative an “ethnicisation of crime”. Source: nd

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Transport companies ban junge Welt posters

The spring campaign under the motto “Who is afraid of whom?” has invested more than 100,000 euros in advertising so for. Despite this, more and more obstacles were put in the way of junge Welt. The BVG in Berlin plus transport companies in Hamburg, Cologne and Leipzig refused to put up jW posters about this campaign. The reason given in those cities was usually the same: “Both client and motif do not correspond to our political neutrality.” So far, nothing has been heard of other daily newspapers being affected by such boycott measures. Source: jW

Court process against refugee

Judge Andreas Welzenbacher would have already pronounced the verdict on Tuesday. But in the case against the refugee Lazare M. the public prosecutor wanted some time to think about this case. Lazare M., who fled to Germany from Cameroon, refused to leave the counter room at the office in Dedersdorf on last November 4 2020, until he was paid the 310 euros he was entitled to for one month. However, because he did not show up for a scheduled appointment, he was supposed to receive only 103 euros. There, he was handcuffed by private security guard and stabbed with a pen. Source: nd

CSU politician allegedly collected one million euros in mask deals

There is a lot of money in the Sauter case, which further incriminates the CSU in the affair about the procurement of Corona protective masks. As if everything were not bad enough for the CSU. First there was the Swabian member of the Bundestag Georg Nüßlein, who brokered protective masks to several ministries in the federal government and in Bavaria and allegedly received a commission of 660,000 euros for this. Now, the Munich Public Prosecutor General’s Office has extended its investigations to five accused, including Alfred Sauter, on the grounds of initial suspicion of bribery and corruption of elected officials. Source: süddeutsche

Compiled by Ana Ferreira

BERLIN

Berlin’s schools start to reopen

The German capital has been gradually restarting school. Primary school pupils are already back. Next Wednesday, grades 10 to 13 will follow, also in a rotating model. The only ones left would be the seventh to ninth graders, who would continue to receive only distance learning for the time being. But Berlin Administrative Court decided to not generally exclude them. The education administration is relieved that the administrative court did not want to follow the plaintiffs on a second point. Martin Klesmann from the school administration, makes it clear anyway that there are currently no plans to change the alternating lessons and the mask requirement. Source: nd

Interior Senator admits racial profiling

The Berlin police deploy 180 officers to an operation in Görlitzer Park. A residents’ initiative is making serious accusations that the police are only checking people because of the colour of their skin. Action must be taken. Residents and park visitors are sensitised to the issue and often stop when officers check black people or people of colour. Black Berliners sometimes no longer come to Görlitzer Park for fear of being exposed by controls. “This must not happen,” says Interior Senator Andreas Geisel. “But at this point dealers are controlled and dealers arrested because they deal, not because they come from Guinea.” However, Geisel said: “I’m realistic enough to see that it [racial profiling] exists” Source: rbb

GERMANY

Nazi criminals ran children’s homes in post-war Germany

Nazi war criminals were allowed to run children’s holiday homes in postwar Germany where draconian corporal punishment and bullying were normal, new research has shown. The revelations provide a new dimension to the experiences of so-called “Verschickungskinder” (“sent-away children”) and the special educational homes that existed in West Germany. A newly-founded survivors’ initiative and self-help group has estimated that as many as 8-12 million children were sent to such homes, often on the recommendation of doctors, schools, and youth welfare authorities. There are reports of how young children often returned from these homes traumatized, with stories of suicide attempts and depression. Source: dw

CDU man collects commission for mask business

In the affair about lobbying activities of members of the Bundestag in connection with mask deals, accusations are being made against another CDU member of parliament. According to Der Spiegel, Nikolas Löbel is said to have demanded and received commission for brokering protective masks. Löbel admitted “mistakes” in this context. As a member of parliament, he should have “acted more sensitively in his entrepreneurial activities”, he said on Friday in response to a question. According to him, Löbel’s company had collected commissions amounting to about 250,000 euros. Source: jW

Officer on trial for stealing ammunition

The multiple scandals surrounding the Special Forces Command (KSK) in Calw, Baden-Württemberg, involve the question of how large quantities of ammunition could disappear over the years, too. In the trial of KSK non-commissioned officer Philipp Sch. a partial answer to this question was given. As a witness, an officer described the loose handling of the issue of ammunition during shooting exercises. In the trial, Sch. has to answer for violations of the War Weapons Control Act, the Weapons Act and the Explosives Act. Investigators had discovered two kilogrammes of explosives, several thousand rounds of rifle and pistol ammunition and various weapons in his garden in Collm.Source: jW

Compiled by Tom Wills

BERLIN

Strong start to housing expropriation campaign

It will take 170,000 signatures to force the question of expropriating Berlin’s biggest landlords onto the ballot paper. But with activists in Neukölln managing to collect 10,000 names in the space of 3 days, this goal appears within reach. Last weekend there were 400 to 500 teams collecting signatures in every part of the city, spokesperson Michael Prütz told Junge Welt. Despite this strong start, he emphasised that collecting the signatures needed within the four-month official deadline remained a big challenge. Source: Junge Welt

Call for halt to racist ticket inspectors

Over 25,000 people have signed a petition calling on the operator of the Berlin U-Bahn to tackle discrimination and violence perpetrated by its ticket inspectors. The petition ‘BVGWeilWirUnsFürchten’ (‘BVG because we are scared’ – a play on the BVG’s marketing slogan of ‘becuase we love you’) describes cases of discrimination on grounds of race, gender, social status and age, including a brutal assault on a man who had done nothing except travel without a ticket for his bicycle. The victim, Dr Abbéy, was left with a broken shoulder, a broken collar bone, two broken ribs and a lung contusion after being set upon by three ticket inspectors on the U5 in December. The petition calls for investigations into the attacks and compulsory training for inspectors. Source: nd

Public sector workers face extremism screening

Brandenburg’s conservative-green coalition government plans to root out extremists from public sector jobs by running checks to see if they are known to the domestic intelligence agency. The scheme was set out by interior minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) on Tuesday. Although it comes in response to cross-party calls to tackle far-right extremism, the left fears the law could be used more widely, bringing back memories of the ban on leftists in the civil service in the 1970s. Under the German government’s Radikalenerlass (‘radicals decree’), 3.5 million people were screened, mainly to identify members of the communist party and SDS, the socialist student organisation. As a result 1,250 teachers and university lecturers were blocked from getting jobs, and about 260 employees were fired. Source: nd

GERMANY

Skepticism over state surveillance of far-right

Media reports on Wednesday revealed that the Verfassungschutz domestic secret service had designated the far-right AfD party as a ‘suspected’ extremist organisation. The decision would pave the way for state surveillance of party members and elected officials. The Die Linke politician Jan Korte was one of those giving a lukewarm reaction to the news: “You don’t need the Verfassungsschutz to realise that the AfD has a right-wing extremism problem,” he was quoted by ND as saying. Jan Schalauske, a party member in Hessen, highlighted recent revelations about potential connections with the far-right within the ranks of the Verfassungsschutz itself. The agency carries protection of the constitution in its name, but doesn’t actually put it into practice, said Schalauske. The AfD has been fighting the Verfassungsschutz in court for some time. On Friday, judges in Cologne put the latest decision on ice, saying the leaking of the news to the media put the party at an unfair disadvantage ahead of this Autumn’s elections. Source: nd 1 / 2

Morocco shuns ambassador in Western Sahara row

The Moroccan government has banned all official contact with Germany. In a letter published by local media on Monday, civil servants were told to cut off communication with the German embassy and connected organisations. Although the reason for the decision was not made clear, it is assumed to relate to Germany’s position on Western Sahara. At the end of last year, Donald Trump acknowledged what he said was the territorial sovereignty of Morocco over the occupied region, apparently rewarding the country for its willingness to resume diplomatic relations with Israel. In response, Germany criticised Trump’s position and called a session of the UN Security Council. The Polisario Front has been fighting for autonomy for the region and an independence referendum has been supposed to take place ever since a ceasefire agreed in 1991. Source: nd

Germany puts Syrian rebels on trial for war crimes

Two men have appeared in court in Düsseldorf charged with committing war crimes in Syria in 2012. One of the pair is said to have executed a Syrian army officer who they were holding as a prisoner, while the other filmed the killing for propaganda purposes. The men have been in German custody since their arrest in July last year. As well as the war crime charge, they are accused of supporting or belonging to the Nusra front, which is banned as a terrorist organisation. The trial comes shortly after the conviction in Koblenz of a former member of the Syrian secret police for crimes against humanity, which was said to be the first time a court outside Syria had ruled on state-sponsored torture by the Assad regime. Source: AFP

Compiled by Tom Wills

BERLIN

Launch of official petition to expropriate big landlords

The race to collect 174,000 signatures and trigger a referendum on the expropriation of Berlin’s biggest landlords has begun. The DW Enteignen campaign is seeking to use Berlin’s ‘Volksbegehren’ direct democracy process to force the city government to take all the housing owned by the biggest landlords (those with over 3,000 properties each) into public ownership. In the latest phase, there is now a four-month window in which to gather support from at least 7% of eligible voters. If that threshold is reached, the question of whether to expropriate the landlords will appear on ballot papers with the elections this autumn. Meanwhile, one year since the introduction of the Mietendeckel rent cap in Berlin, tenants’ representatives have welcomed the news that new apartment prices have stopped climbing, although warn that action must be taken to close loopholes in the law. Source: nd, Junge Welt

Call to ensure right to education for ‘illegalised’ migrant children

The campaign Legalisierung Jetzt (‘legalisation now’) has called for action to make sure children living without papers are no longer shut out of the school system. The group estimates that up to 100,000 people in Berlin do not have official documents, including many children. By law, schools are supposed to accept them and there is an exemption from the usual requirement for public bodies to report on people without papers to the immigration authorities. But schools and district authorities are apparently often unaware of the rules, meaning ‘illegalised’ children are deprived of their education. Source: nd

Suspect of attack on leftist is free to hand out Nazi flyers

A main suspect in the arson attack on Die Linke’s Ferat Kocak has been seen openly distributing neonazi propaganda in Neukölln. Sebastian T was among a group of around 6 people witnessed posting flyers for the party “Der III. Weg” through letterboxes. The man is one of the main suspects for a series of attacks on antifascists and others in Neukölln. He was arrested shortly before Christmas after a long investigation, but soon released. Source:

nd

Berlin launches inquiry into Islamophobia

Berlin has become the first of Germany’s federal states to launch an inquiry into anti-Muslim racism. Dirk Behrendt (Green Party), the city’s senator for justice and antidiscrimination, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper: “It is unacceptable when in Berlin women’s headscarves are ripped off or even small children are attacked.” The inquiry will be carried out by a panel of experts over the course of a year and make “concrete recommendations” for actions to be taken by the city to tackle the issue. Around half of Germans see Islam as a threat, according to a representative survey by the Bertelsmann foundation. Source: Tagesspiegel

GERMANY

CSU politician resigns over facemask bribery claims

The deputy head of Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU party grouping in parliament has left his post amid allegations of bribery. Georg Nüßlein’s immunity as a lawmaker was lifted on Thursday morning and his offices searched for evidence. The tabloid newspaper Bild reported that the CSU politician had arranged a deal with a Coronavirus mask manufacturer – including government orders – in return for a commission of more than €650,000 paid to his consultancy firm. Source: nd

Party divided on key issues as Die Linke conference gets underway

At its national conference this weekend, Die Linke is expected to become the first German party to be led by two women. Janine Wissler und Susanne Hennig-Wellsow are the only two well-known candidates in the leadership election. Wissler hails from the left and has built her profile through close contact with extra-parliamentary movements. On one of the key questions dividing the party, she believes joining a coalition government would offer little hope of effecting a politics of disarmament and social-ecological renewal. Hennig-Wellslow, on the other hand, represents the more conservative “realo” wing that advocates working within the system. The conference will also debate policy, including a proposal from the leadership that calls for an end to all overseas operations by the German armed forces.

Source: nd 1 2

Doctor takes fight for abortion rights to highest court

Kristina Hänel, the doctor who was prosecuted for providing information about abortions on her website, is taking her legal fight to the highest court in Germany. Although abortion is allowed under certain circumstances, a law known as “Paragraph 219a” banned doctors from advertising publicly that they carry out the procedure. After Hänel was convicted in 2017 for defying the ban, she appealed and as a result the law was changed so that doctors may now state that they offer abortions – but not give information about methods. Hänel will now argue that the restrictions are unconstitutional and should be lifted entirely. Source: nd

Catholics rush to leave after Cologne archbishop withholds abuse dossier

Leaving the Catholic church in Germany is a legal matter, and in Corona times that means logging on to a government website to book an appointment in court. In a sign of the unprecedented crisis in the church in Cologne, the server crashed last weekend under the weight of demand. Discontent reached boiling point after archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki decided to withhold the results of an independent inquiry he ordered into the church’s handling of abuse. Source: Junge Welt

Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Fourth corpse found in Landwehr canal since 2015. Are these racist murders?

On 20 December 2020, the lifeless body of Pape Gorgui Samba Diop was discovered. He was floating in the water near the Schlesische Brücke. For the investigating authorities, a suicide. However, an initiative has now launched an appeal for witnesses in the hope of finding out more about the circumstances of Pope’s death once this is not the first corpse found on the Landwehr Canal. He is actually now the fourth person of colour to be found here since 2015, all of whom died in unexplained circumstances, without a fuss. There is a growing sense of unease and fear in the community. Source: tip

Suspected torturer living in Berlin

An official of the Argentine military junta lives unmolested in Berlin. Activists are now protesting in his neighbourhood. The German-Argentinean Luis Esteban Kyburg has lived here for seven years. The ex-military man is considered an urgent suspect for the torture and murder of opposition members during the dictatorship. He is wanted on an international arrest warrant. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office has been investigating the case since 2015. This is also important to mention, as Kyburg is not an isolated case: the German-Chilean ex-officer Walther Klug Rivera, who was legally convicted of multiple murders in Chile, lived unmolested in the Rhineland for four years. Source: taz

Extra buses and trams commissioned to fight Covid

To ensure more distance between passengers on heavily used lines, up to 100 additional buses have been running on Berlin’s roads since Monday, most of them articulated buses. These will be deployed on about 50 particularly heavily used lines. In addition, eight tram trains will be added to provide extra capacity on the busy M5 and M8/18 lines. The updated timetables are available in the VBB-Fahrinfo, where they are marked as additional journeys. However, because almost all pupils are still studying at home, the planned deployment of security guards will be postponed, according to the Berlin Transport Authority (BVG). Source: rbb

“Rigaer 94” suspicious of inspection

The Berlin police must grant protection to an expert fire protection test engineer during his inspection of the house project “Rigaer 94”. This was decided by the Berlin Administrative Court in summary proceedings on Thursday. In January, Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD), in his function as district supervisor, forced Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg to enforce fire protection. The “farce of fire protection” serves “our opponents only as another attempt to attack our house”, says a statement by supporters of “Rigaer 94” published on the internet. They state two fire inspections without police escort “ironically found deficiencies caused by the cops themselves”. Source: nd

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Majority is not working at home

“Home office” is the magic word of the workplace pandemic. But still most people do not work from home. According to a survey from Hans Böckler Foundation, only 24% of employees currently work mainly or exclusively in a home office. This is about 3% less than during the first lockdown just under a year ago. Still, it is slightly more than in November, when only 14% of employees worked from home. This also emerges from estimates by other research institutes such as the German Institute for Economic Research, which already came to the conclusion five years ago that home-based work would theoretically be possible in 40% of jobs. Source: nd

Astra-Zeneca’s vaccine faces criticism, WHO defends it

Side effects of the Corona vaccination of the pharmaceutical company Astra-Zeneca occur in isolated cases more frequently than previously stated by the manufacturer. According to various media reports, there were sickness-related absences after vaccination among at least 21 emergency service workers in the district of Minden-Lübbecke in North Rhine-Westphalia. As a result of such reports, vaccination beneficiaries in the state had already cancelled their immunisation appointments. Meanwhile, Berlin’s health senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) clarified that there is no freedom of choice in vaccines for under-80s in the capital after all. In Berlin, only people over 80 could choose a vaccination centre. Source: nd

Students face Islamophobia after meeting CDU deputy

Muslim students, beneficiaries of the Avicenna Studienwerk, say they became the targets of a vicious online campaign after a digital meeting with the high-ranking Christian Democrat Norbert Röttgen, who posted a picture showing 25 young people, some wearing headscarves. Some of the fellow students asked Röttgen to obscure the names of the participants. He then deleted any posts that allowed the students to be identified. A new law on hate speech is planned and the German government took the issue to the highest political level with its Cabinet committee on right-wing extremism and racism. Source: dw

Kunduz bombing night: limits of EU justice

Lawyers and opposition representatives have criticised the ruling from last Tuesday of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the German investigation after a deadly air raid in Kunduz, Afghanistan, eleven years ago. The bombing was ordered by a Bundeswehr colonel, although civilian casualties were likely. After the ruling, representatives of the victims of the bombing also pointed out the legal consequences of the judge’s decision: German courts would henceforth be obliged to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Bundeswehr soldiers abroad. The applicants are still hoping for an apology from Germany. Source: heise