Latest / 20 Percent Berlin Podcast / #40: Hacker attack, Saxony-Anhalt election, Volksbad fiasco, Bureaucracy

Transcript

#40: Hacker attack, Saxony-Anhalt election, Volksbad fiasco, Bureaucracy · 20 Percent Berlin Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the 20 Percent Berlin podcast,
0:02
SPEAKER_00: the companion podcast of the 20 Percent Berlin newsletter.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: I am 20 Percent writer Andrew Bulkeley and I'm joined this week as always
0:11
SPEAKER_00: by co-writer Maurice Bray.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Frank.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Hello, Andrew.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: How do you do?
0:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing well, man.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing okay.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: I had a hectic week.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: It was my wife's birthday.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: And we had, I think, three different visitors from out of town last week.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: And I got nothing done because I was just spending
0:26
SPEAKER_00: the whole time celebrating my wife's birthday and dealing with visitors.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: Saying this is where the Berlin Wall used to be, stuff like that?
0:33
SPEAKER_00: We had two visitors who basically were just here for our apartment.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: They weren't here to see us.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: They were not here to see Berlin.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: They just kind of wanted a place to stay that was not home, which is weird.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: It's a very weird situation.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: We're just basically,
0:45
SPEAKER_00: so I thought next time I'm just going to buy them a spot at the camping ground.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: I'll just pay for it.
0:49
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Because then I don't have to wash sheets.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: And then I was talking about another thing later on under Bear's Knees.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: But that was my week was just like dealing with visitors.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: And you?
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: I had an annoyance at Coffee Fellows today, my least favorite national coffee chain.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: I like the fact that they say they basically set themselves up
1:07
SPEAKER_00: as like impromptu co-working spots.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that about them, but I hate their logo.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't care about the logo that much.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: But you know what I hate is how they have all these pre-made bagels
1:19
SPEAKER_01: where they have cream cheese and then vegetables and cheese
1:22
SPEAKER_01: and all these inappropriate things on the bagel.
1:24
SPEAKER_01: And then you order it and they try and put it in.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: A sandwich toaster maker thing.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Like a Tramazzini.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to Tramazzini it.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that to a bagel.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: I feel like if you don't know what you're doing, just don't do it.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: Everywhere in Germany does that.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: It's not just them.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
1:41
SPEAKER_01: You have a sandwich with lettuce and tomato in it, and then you put it in a toaster.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: The lettuce is going to wilt.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be lukewarm.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be just all around mediocre.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but that's because Germans don't understand sandwiches.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: They really don't.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: That's not a thing here.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: You know what I love about London?
1:56
SPEAKER_01: You get these sandwich bars and it's like,
1:59
SPEAKER_01: you just build it as you go along and then they make it in front of you and
2:04
SPEAKER_01: then it's like four pounds, five pounds and then you have a sandwich.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: We both know the guys that opened Dolores,
2:09
SPEAKER_00: you know, and they wanted to do that at Dolores that you build your burrito.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: In America,
2:13
SPEAKER_00: you just stand there,
2:14
SPEAKER_00: you tell them what you want in your burrito and it didn't work.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: It's confused Germans.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: They want a complete meal.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: Though I have to say, Shout out to the Rewe salad bar.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: They've really upped their game.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: Rewe does a decent salad bar.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: It's weird that it took the German supermarket so long to realize,
2:30
SPEAKER_00: oh, if you give people nice stuff, they'll pay for it.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: You know how much nicer grocery
2:34
SPEAKER_01: stores are now?
2:36
SPEAKER_00: And I realized that writing a thing for 20% once,
2:39
SPEAKER_00: the pre-holiday shopping craze, it was just madness.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: It was anarchy in there.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: It's gotten better because they learned, oh, if we restock the shelves, we sell more products.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Because the problem used to be you would go in at five o'clock or six o'clock
2:53
SPEAKER_00: after you're done working and there would be nothing left in the store
2:56
SPEAKER_00: because everybody's panic buying for the next day.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: But now you just go in there.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you have to fight with the people stocking the shelves, but you just get everything.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: You can even get the weird camembert you want at 9pm on a Friday before holiday.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: And Aldi, they spruced up their interiors.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: They give this sort of club vibe.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: So I have to say Penny and Lidl, they're the holdouts.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: They're still like...
3:15
SPEAKER_01: Penny, Lidl, Netto.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: Wait, there's one below it.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: What's the one below it?
3:18
SPEAKER_01: It's really Penny?
3:21
SPEAKER_00: No, there's one down below it and it's only in like the east and actually Bavaria has them.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: Norma, yeah.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: Now we have a few Normas there.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes there was actually a Norma in a tent in Berlin for a while.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: I bet Norma would love to have just all of them in a tent.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: But I think part of what German's like about a Penny or a Netto, it depends, there's two Nettos.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Depends on which Netto because the Swedish Nettos are kind of nice.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: I think it's actually Danish.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: A Danish, whatever, Scandinavian, they're all the same.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: It is Danish, it's the shipping guy.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Anyway,
3:50
SPEAKER_00: I think Germans sometimes want to go in there and they want it to look shitty
3:53
SPEAKER_00: in there because then they think they're really saving money.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Germans don't want nice shops because then they think, oh, I'm paying for the interior.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that is changing sort of with the Instagram.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: I think it totally is.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: People want stuff to look nice now.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: People finally realize like, Jesus, I can have a nice experience.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, we can make more money by making stuff feel and look nice.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: But now just stop putting sandwiches, which you have to call sarnies in London.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: You can do that.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: A sarnie.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: There's no sandwich culture here.
4:25
SPEAKER_01: You know what I really miss from London?
4:27
SPEAKER_00: A chip butty, which is basically... We have those here.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: It's a bread roll.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: With French fries.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, with butter and fries.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: Wait, where can you buy that?
4:39
SPEAKER_00: It's a staple down where my wife comes from in Hessen.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: It's called a hippie brüchen.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you don't have them in Berlin, though.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: No, you're good.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Hippie.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: Hippie Brüchen.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's also the Gammler.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what a Gammler is?
4:50
SPEAKER_00: You just throw the Brüchen into the fat, the frying fat.
4:53
SPEAKER_01: That's gross.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: You just deep fry a Brüchen.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay, wow.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, but you got all the other juice in there from them frying schaschlicks and...
5:00
SPEAKER_01: Right.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just an admission of how garbage we're eating.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: But no, there's,
5:05
SPEAKER_00: because I did a thing on Instagram about it and a lot of people were like,
5:08
SPEAKER_00: oh my God, I miss the hippie version.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Half the Germans were like, you were like, that doesn't exist here.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: And the British people were like, it's just a chip buddy.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, and this is the Berlin News podcast.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Right, so this week we want to talk about,
5:18
SPEAKER_00: national-wise,
5:19
SPEAKER_00: the election in Saxony-Anhalt that's coming up and is going to ruin our future,
5:22
SPEAKER_00: the fiasco that has become the FolkSpot swimming pool,
5:25
SPEAKER_00: the current ongoing cyber attack on the Berlin administration,
5:29
SPEAKER_00: 65 years ago they built the Berlin Wall,
5:32
SPEAKER_00: and you want to discuss a little bit of bureaucracy.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: And then we will,
5:34
SPEAKER_00: of course, have our favorite segment, Bears Knees, Two Things We Like About Berlin.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Should we talk about Saxony-Anhalt first?
5:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what do you want to say about it?
5:42
SPEAKER_00: In Saxony,
5:43
SPEAKER_00: on-hauled voters are heading to the polls this Sunday,
5:45
SPEAKER_00: an election that could reshape the political balance in the state with
5:48
SPEAKER_00: the AFD seeking to make significant gains.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: I had chat GPT right there.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: Significant?
5:53
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a takeover.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: They could.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: The AFD could get a simple majority alone, so they could run the state.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Right.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: There was a very good thing.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: I talked about this.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't have Netflix.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't have Amazon Prime.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't have Apple TV.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't have HBO.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: I don't have any of that.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: So I'm forced to watch the ARD Media take.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: And there's a very good thing about what that might mean.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: Realistically, they're going to just change funding for culture.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: That's about the only thing they can do right away.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: They can also mess with the school curriculum a little bit.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Their idea for school curriculums is insane.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: Refugees, it's refugees because immigrants can stay.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: Refugees have to go to a school that's like their school at home in their native language.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: That's what the AFT wants.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: Or at least in a separate classroom.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: In their native language.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean,
6:34
SPEAKER_00: they have to go to classes that are in their native language following
6:38
SPEAKER_00: the curriculum of their home country so that it's easier for them to go home.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: Basically,
6:42
SPEAKER_01: they don't want the refugees to integrate because then they might get the idea
6:46
SPEAKER_01: that they're going to stay.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: But how much would that cost?
6:49
SPEAKER_01: I know, and where are you going to find all those teachers that want to do that job, you know?
6:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: They live in as much of a dream state as Die Linke.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: These are things that are not going to happen.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: One thing that probably will happen, they want to put a German flag
7:04
SPEAKER_00: in front of every school.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Those are the kind of things that will happen.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: And they want kids to sing the German national anthem.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: I pledge allegiance to the Republic of the United States of America.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: No, I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and the Republic for
7:18
SPEAKER_00: which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, something like that.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: I say that every day, man.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Every day?
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Every day, yeah.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: For which it stands, yeah, crazy.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: And it's actually not as tattooed on my brain as I would have thought.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: They also want funding,
7:35
SPEAKER_01: like organizations who receive culture funding in Saxon on how to sign a sort of,
7:43
SPEAKER_01: what do you call it?
7:44
SPEAKER_01: A document saying that, swearing that you're patriotic.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: And that you won't give money to anything that's critical of the state.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: Critical of Germany.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, that being the state.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: Which is just completely ridiculous.
7:57
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be like a flood of lawsuits about this if they even try anything.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: The Verfassungsschutz,
8:02
SPEAKER_01: like the last court in Germany,
8:04
SPEAKER_01: will shoot that down because it goes against artistic freedom and freedom of speech.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't be the Verfassungsschutz, it would be the Verfassungsschutz.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: The constitutional court.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: No, of course.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: But that's what's going to happen.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: I was just trying to think of like, what could you do if you get into power as the AFD?
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Those are the things you could do immediately.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: You could change the way you found it.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: You could hang those flags up.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, I still think, I think you can look to America to see what's going to happen.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: The police is going to feel even more motivated to be unfair to immigrants and refugees.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a lot of it won't be official policy.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: It will just be vibes.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: We feel like we can be shittier to immigrants and
8:41
SPEAKER_00: people of color.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And then politicians or judges
8:44
SPEAKER_00: who are far right wing will make more far right judgments
8:46
SPEAKER_00: because they feel like that's, I mean, we're just herd animals.
8:49
SPEAKER_01: They also want to cancel So each state has a contract with
8:55
SPEAKER_01: the public media organizations of Germany.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: And if the AFD gets into power, they want to basically shut down the local branch of public TV.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: MDR.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, they have MDR there, right?
9:10
SPEAKER_00: What's it called?
9:11
SPEAKER_00: Mitteldeutsche.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: And they want to basically have their own version of it,
9:15
SPEAKER_01: which is going to be called like Heimfunk or something.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: And it's just going to be like local news coverage of local...
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Like village fests, stuff like that.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's going to watch it.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh, man.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: Can they do that, though?
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Can they cancel it?
9:30
SPEAKER_01: I think they can nullify that contract.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Man, all of this just ends up in court and wasting time.
9:40
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a legal morass for everyone involved.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Because I debated,
9:44
SPEAKER_00: like, do I stop doing comedy gigs in Anhalt, like Halle, Magdeburg, you know?
9:49
SPEAKER_01: No, because the people that come to your shows are pretty regular nice people.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: That's what I just said.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: And now that I'm German, I also feel like maybe we need to fight for this.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: I am, you hate East Germany.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: I like East Germany.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't hate East Germany.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Not when the, you know, podcast is recording.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: I like, there's some great places.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: East Germany.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Halle is actually nice.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Leipzig is easy to like.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like Wartburg.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been there?
10:17
SPEAKER_00: I have not, but that's in Turingen.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's in Turingen.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: It's the castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible into German.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Of course I've been there.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: I thought you meant the town Wartburg.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: No, I meant the castle.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: The town Wartburg is actually where BMW was founded and then when BMW moved to...
10:34
SPEAKER_01: How's that possible?
10:34
SPEAKER_01: It's called Bayerische Motorwerke.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Because it was called something else before that.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Really?
10:39
SPEAKER_00: One of the best museums I've ever been to was the Trabi Museum in Zwickau.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Because that was the heart of German automotive and it explains what happened and how they...
10:47
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Like all the executives knew that the Russians were not going to be good.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: The Soviets were not going to be good and so they moved.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: But no, I've been to the Wattburg where Martin Luther...
10:55
SPEAKER_01: It's a really cool castle on top of this rock.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and Eisenach.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Eisenach, also a really pretty city.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that stuff.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: And how can we lose that?
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Weimar, beautiful city.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Quedlinburg in Saxon.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: Great place.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Actually was the seat of German government for a while.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, in like the seat of the German Empire.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: Right.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: In what, like 1100 or something.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: It's funny because a friend,
11:18
SPEAKER_00: an ex-colleague from Bloomberg,
11:20
SPEAKER_00: she bought a house,
11:21
SPEAKER_00: one of those old Holtz, those half-timbered Tudor things and restored it.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: She's British, so it's all very, very nice.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: All right.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: So I don't actually think they're going to get a majority.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: Do you think they'll get a majority, the EFD?
11:36
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: So then they were going to get like 41% and then the CDU will get like 25% maybe.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: And then they'll have to kind of put together a coalition of all the other bits.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: Of everybody else.
11:49
SPEAKER_01: I know.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: It's like when you're eating dinner and you've only got a little bit
11:52
SPEAKER_00: of everything left and you just have to put all of that onto one fork.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, you've got a little bit of the panade from the schnitzel.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: You've got a little bit of Jager Sosa.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: You've got a half of a French fry left and a mushroom.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know,
12:03
SPEAKER_01: the thing about AFD,
12:04
SPEAKER_01: you know,
12:05
SPEAKER_01: it's a lot of it is to do with the popularity of their main candidate,
12:09
SPEAKER_01: who's probably going to be or who would be the premier of Sachsen-Anhalt,
12:14
SPEAKER_01: this guy Ulrich Siegmund.
12:17
SPEAKER_01: And he's got this sort of,
12:18
SPEAKER_01: you know, shaved sides, slick back, kind of right wing looking haircut.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: And he's doing his campaign.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: He's riding from village to village on these East German scooters, the Simpsons.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, man.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: You've got these little convoids that go around the...
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Because I'll be on it like probably in the next year or two,
12:37
SPEAKER_00: I'll be buying a Schwalbe, a little Simpsons myself.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: There was this ad on Instagram.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: It was like, oh, you can electrify your Schwalbe.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, man, I'm going to buy a Schwalbe and electrify it.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Turns out electrifying it costs as much as the Schwalbe itself.
12:49
SPEAKER_01: But that is kind of AFD connotated right now.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: It's always been.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: It's East German.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: But the Simpsons family who were Jewish came out and said, that's garbage.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Take it back.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: The AFD don't make any sense, though.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: They're not going to fix the economy there.
13:08
SPEAKER_01: They're going to scare away skilled workers.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: They're going to scare away investment.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: What are they going to do to improve sex?
13:14
SPEAKER_01: It's all vibes.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: It's all about like, hey,
13:17
SPEAKER_01: middle finger to Berlin,
13:19
SPEAKER_01: to the federal government, to the media, to the elites, etc.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: But there's no real substance to it.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: There's a really good podcast we just listened to.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: The rest is history.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: I think it's called the rest is Geschichte.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: It's a German language podcast explaining when the wall came down.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: And part of the reason they said the East Germans are so distrustful that
13:37
SPEAKER_00: the government won't vote for anything was because they went onto the street.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: They caused the...
13:43
SPEAKER_00: Was it the purple revolution in Germany too?
13:45
SPEAKER_00: The peaceful revolution, whatever.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, they caused the wall to come down.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: They got democracy and they were just direct democracy.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: And then they got representative democracy.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, wait a minute, nothing happens.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: Nobody's doing anything.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: So it was like, it was always going to be just like this revolution where it's direct democracy.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: We want something, it happens.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And it turned out nothing happened.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: They just got democracy.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: Democracy is about stuff not happening.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: Especially German democracy.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: 16 years of Angela Merkel just sitting there doing nothing.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Also ignoring the fact that she was East German.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: That came up too.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: So that's part of why the Germans now are like, we'll just vote for the AfD, fuck it.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: They look like they're going to do something.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: And every time you say they're racist or Nazi,
14:27
SPEAKER_01: they're just like, ah, just don't believe the press.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: They're just lying about it.
14:32
SPEAKER_01: Although this guy, Siegmund, actually has...
14:36
SPEAKER_01: Connections to really far-right people like Martin Zellner,
14:39
SPEAKER_01: who is this Austrian identitarian, basically neo-Nazi.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the people he's hired on his campaign,
14:46
SPEAKER_01: they're just literally like skinhead thug types.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: So yeah,
14:53
SPEAKER_01: but are they going to get anything really changed in this small,
14:57
SPEAKER_01: mostly rural state of 2 million people?
14:59
SPEAKER_00: No, but there's also the argument of letting them show how incompetent they are.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: But that's a dangerous, that's a slippery slope.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they'll get the majority, but you think they might?
15:09
SPEAKER_01: I have no idea, Andrew.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: Sunday.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: Es bleibt spannend, as the Germans say.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: It's Sunday in two weeks, right?
15:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: No, 20th of September.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Sunday in two weeks.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: 6th of September.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: So, moving on.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Should we talk about the Volksbad swimming pool?
15:28
SPEAKER_01: Go for it.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: What happened, Andrew?
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Racist.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: So to begin with,
15:31
SPEAKER_00: the Volksbrunner built a swimming pool in front as like a marketing joke
15:34
SPEAKER_00: or whatever.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: Volksbrunner,
15:35
SPEAKER_01: as everyone knows,
15:36
SPEAKER_01: is a big state-funded theater in also Luxembourg plants in Mitte
15:40
SPEAKER_01: with traditionally very left-wing.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Traditionally, pieces I don't understand.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: With so many German literary references, I have no idea what they're talking about.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: So they built the swimming pool.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Racist comments and threats led the Folk Spooner to cancel a joint event last Friday.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: It would have been last Friday with the Each One Teach One Association
15:59
SPEAKER_00: that would have opened the theater's Folk Spots swimming pool only
16:02
SPEAKER_00: to young black swimmers from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: Billed.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: All the German right-wing media jumped on that as reverse racism,
16:09
SPEAKER_00: that white people would not be allowed to swim.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: And so then the head of the Folk Spots said,
16:14
SPEAKER_00: we're not going to do this event after all because we cannot guarantee
16:18
SPEAKER_00: the swimmers' safety.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what began,
16:20
SPEAKER_01: what opposed sort of fake outrage about so-called reverse racism was
16:26
SPEAKER_01: a CDU politician from Mitter.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: She made a video about it and posted it, which is pretty outrageous, I think.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and it's also about artistic freedom.
16:35
SPEAKER_01: This is a theater.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: They can do whatever the fuck they want, you know.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: And I think this, yeah, I don't know.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: They can't do whatever the fuck they want.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: I agree with the idea of like everything should be open to everybody.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: But I also agree with, sometimes it's okay for women only events.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Like we've, men have fucked up enough that women can just go hang out by themselves sometimes.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like whitey,
16:53
SPEAKER_00: we've fucked up enough that if a bunch of black people want to go swim for a minute,
16:56
SPEAKER_00: go ahead.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: This, I mean, you know, I do take issue with words like safe space.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think safety is the issue here.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: I think it's just like, hey,
17:06
SPEAKER_01: this is an association that has the interests of young black people living
17:13
SPEAKER_01: in Germany in mind.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, they do face discrimination.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: What?
17:17
SPEAKER_01: So they say, Andrew.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: I cannot imagine.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: And so why not let this like association or club or whatever it is,
17:23
SPEAKER_01: just like have their private swim party.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: But I also feel like part of the problem was that on the FolkSpot website,
17:29
SPEAKER_00: it literally said like, you know, black people only.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Like rather than saying private event with AODO,
17:35
SPEAKER_00: like they sort of like tried to use it as a marketing tool for the FolkSpot
17:41
SPEAKER_00: and FolkSpot to say, look how cool we are.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like You know,
17:45
SPEAKER_00: it's sort of like in America,
17:46
SPEAKER_00: we were always taught the Protestant thing of like,
17:48
SPEAKER_00: if you give a gift, don't expect a thank you in return, give the gift.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: And so it's kind of like,
17:52
SPEAKER_00: if you're giving this to the AOTA swimming pool,
17:53
SPEAKER_00: then just give the swimming pool to AOTA and just stop.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm surprised he canceled the event.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: Couldn't he just have got more security guards?
18:00
SPEAKER_00: That's what I feel like.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: He's in the press release specifically.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Not even the police can protect them.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: I think what they were thinking about was like these swimmers coming on the subway
18:08
SPEAKER_00: and bumping into protesters who are also coming on the subway to protest the thing.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly some skinheads from Saxony Anhal are beating up a couple of black kids
18:16
SPEAKER_00: from vetting.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's...
18:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is just...
18:18
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's incredible that, you know, who comes out of the woodwork because of something so...
18:26
SPEAKER_01: That's utterly uncontroversial.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: And I always felt like, were you even going to swim there anyway, dude?
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Like all these people, like there was this woman on Instagram, everybody reposted her.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I feel so weird.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: Like you weren't even going to swim there.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't even going to affect you.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: And then the folkspooner,
18:41
SPEAKER_01: like at the end of the whole saga, they put up this big sign that said,
18:46
SPEAKER_00: fuck you.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: On like around the swimming pool, which is a little bit ambiguous.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: Like, what do you mean by that?
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Well, but this is also kind of like the swimming pool is starting to kind of annoy me.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Because one, look how much money the Volksbrunner gets.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: And okay, like artistic actions.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: And he even said like the people swimming in the swimming pool are like actors.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: And this is like a, you know, theater piece.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: And I get that.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: But on the other hand,
19:08
SPEAKER_00: I feel like, you know, maybe you're getting, maybe you have too much money.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: What's his name?
19:12
SPEAKER_01: Lilian, Johannes?
19:13
SPEAKER_01: Lilienthal or something.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
19:15
SPEAKER_01: I mean, did he, was there somehow like a plan behind this?
19:19
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's it.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: The whole thing is just sort of a guerrilla marketing.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Bingo.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm starting.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: And the whole thing, the swimming pool was closed all week because the showers were broken.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: And he even said, oh, apparently there's a lot more to running a swimming pool than I knew.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Where it's like, dude, yeah,
19:32
SPEAKER_00: why don't you like,
19:33
SPEAKER_00: I just, and he came out and said, oh, Berlin is caught spending on infrastructure.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to put a swimming pool because Berlin is spending off on infrastructure.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like, yeah, because they're giving your theater too much money.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: To be fair,
19:43
SPEAKER_01: it costs 300,000 euros,
19:46
SPEAKER_01: which seems quite low actually to install an entire huge swimming pool on
19:50
SPEAKER_01: a public square with changing rooms and showers and stuff.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but once you get up to a certain number,
19:56
SPEAKER_00: like it's all just like, you know, we're going to spend 200 grand.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you can get a lot for 200 grand.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: What I don't like,
20:02
SPEAKER_00: if you know about construction sites or if you ever go to like a convention,
20:05
SPEAKER_00: build these stands and then they just throw all the wood away afterward.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: So all that's decking around the thing is just going to get chalked.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: The whole thing will get thrown out.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: And that big plastic liner.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: And so it's kind of like, I just think like maybe this wasn't such a great idea.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: And oh, he said, oh, Berlin's not spending enough on infrastructure.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: I feel like one of the few things that works in Berlin are the swimming pools.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: I spent a lot of time in swimming pools with my kids.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: I haven't gone lately, but they were all pretty nice.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: I think the U-Bahn works okay.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: There could be more of them.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: You know what I love though?
20:32
SPEAKER_01: I love buses.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
20:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm really rediscovering buses now.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, no way.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes there'll be like a quicker,
20:38
SPEAKER_01: if you just use the BeFog app,
20:40
SPEAKER_01: you'll find a quicker way to go from like,
20:42
SPEAKER_01: whatever, Tempelhof to Zoo without changing on the U-Bahn.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: And it'll just be some direct line with nobody on it.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: The double-decker, you can sit at the top.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: The double-decker's great.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm still, I turned into a little kid on the double-decker.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: They don't smell as bad.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: They have that weird bus smell though.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: That weird like plastic, diesel, that help with the motion sickness I get.
21:02
SPEAKER_01: My kids love sitting at the top right at the front.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: We all do, but you don't?
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Some of my favorite pictures are me sitting on the bus
21:09
SPEAKER_00: with my little Birkenstocks up against that window.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Wait, as a kid?
21:14
SPEAKER_01: No, no,
21:14
SPEAKER_01: I would take the
21:14
SPEAKER_00: bus from Hondo's Plot over to Wittenberg Platz to get Dolores
21:17
SPEAKER_00: for lunch.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: When I was at Hondo's Plot.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: But they're still buses, man.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: But of course, they're made fill the holes where the subway is in.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: All right.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: The whole thing is the whole thing.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, did you really need to?
21:32
SPEAKER_00: And now you've pulled black people into it.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and those kids are probably feeling kind of crappy that their event was cancelled.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: And if they actually follow the whole debate around it.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: And it didn't have to be.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: You could have just said, hey, Ioto's in here on Friday, closed for a private event.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he's like, hey, look at us.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: A bit of virtuous signaling.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: That's, I feel like, a little bit.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: The problem is, it shouldn't have ended the way it should.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: Everybody should be like, yeah, that's kind of cool.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, I wasn't going to go swim there from 12 to 6 on Friday anyway.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Right, but there are people out there who,
22:03
SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
22:03
SPEAKER_01: they were from their East German childhood,
22:05
SPEAKER_01: or whatever it is, who just see the word black.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: It was the Springer Presse.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: And then they just freak out.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Bild is West German.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: It's up for you, man.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: We believe we're under the cyber attack.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
22:19
SPEAKER_01: so the Berlin government announced on Monday that the state's IT network was hit by
22:25
SPEAKER_01: a cyber attack.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: With hackers exploiting a vulnerability in both the housing and urban development,
22:31
SPEAKER_01: as well as the transport departments.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: Sensitive data has been stolen, authorities said.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: We don't know what it is exactly.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: Both departments have been cut off from the internet since Friday.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: A
22:43
SPEAKER_01: newspaper and an anonymous employee said, internet and email work is practically impossible.
22:51
SPEAKER_01: They're allowed to use the phone, SMS and fax to communicate.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: There's faxes around.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: Apparently that's what the faxes are used for in Berlin,
23:03
SPEAKER_01: communicating within the city administration.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: It's still used a lot.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: I like the Volt poster that says Berlin has your information five different times.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: They don't need it again.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so they're investigating the breach.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: But basically,
23:18
SPEAKER_01: you know,
23:19
SPEAKER_01: some cybersecurity experts have said that they just haven't implemented all
23:23
SPEAKER_01: the recommendations that they've received like years ago.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: And then in a separate problem,
23:29
SPEAKER_01: which may or may be related to this,
23:32
SPEAKER_01: or may not be related to this,
23:34
SPEAKER_01: is that it's been impossible to apply for mail-in ballots online since Friday.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: Which is kind of serious.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: In the 2021 election, 15% of ballots were mailed in.
23:45
SPEAKER_01: And then when we had that sort of do-over election in 23... What do you think about this?
23:52
SPEAKER_01: Do you think it's a targeted attack to mess with the results?
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, Trump doesn't want mail-in ballots in Berlin either.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that could just be.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Is it the Russians or just German incompetence?
24:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, like, I mean,
24:07
SPEAKER_00: the thing is,
24:08
SPEAKER_00: so you have to see like the wall,
24:09
SPEAKER_00: the election stat, you get a mail, a piece of paper.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: They send you a piece of paper that says you can vote.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: And this is coming up.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: That way, almost every day, I'm like, should I get a mail-in ballot?
24:18
SPEAKER_00: It's really fun.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: I would even be a voter helper.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: What are they called?
24:22
SPEAKER_00: But I have a gig the night before, so I'll be in the train coming back.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: But you get paid 100 euros.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I would totally do it.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: I would totally do it.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: I just can't because I have a gig in Bevo Home and wherever the hell that is.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Do you think you're going to change your mind at the last minute?
24:34
SPEAKER_01: Me?
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Like when you see the ballot?
24:36
SPEAKER_01: I do this thing.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be an impulse.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: When I go out to dinner,
24:38
SPEAKER_00: I always pick two things,
24:39
SPEAKER_00: what I might order,
24:40
SPEAKER_00: and I make a decision at the last minute when the waiter
24:43
SPEAKER_00: or waitress is standing right there.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of how I am right now with the election.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Because inside me is a little bit of an SPD guy, but the SPD sucks right now.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Like Lars Klingbeil, I just want to punch him in the face.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Volt, super sexy.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Love on Volt at the moment.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: Don't want to waste my vote.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: If everyone thought like that.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, maybe everyone does.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm a trendsetter.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: You're voting Volt.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: Do I need to disclose that on this podcast?
25:08
SPEAKER_01: I think it's so funny.
25:09
SPEAKER_01: What difference would it be?
25:09
SPEAKER_01: I do like Volt, yeah.
25:11
SPEAKER_01: They've been getting a lot of crap thrown at them on Instagram by sort
25:16
SPEAKER_01: of different various left-wing expat types.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: Like who?
25:22
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: There's that one Scottish guy.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: He's like, just look at their campaign posters.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to disqualify based on vibes only.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: It was
25:34
SPEAKER_00: like in Vietnam.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: It looks socialism works, man.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: Ignoring how the Vietnamese killed their own people to get to where they're.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: Your point being?
25:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't, that guy's, I just, whatever.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I know that, I know you're talking about it, I just ignore him.
25:47
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why my Instagram is dominated by people, like,
25:50
SPEAKER_01: by basically sort of, like,
25:52
SPEAKER_01: grouchy left-wing, not just left-wing, some of them are, like, revolutionary left.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: Like, D-Linker are just neoliberals and stuff like that, yeah.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: No, I tell Instagram, I told them, I was like, I don't care about these people.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: That one dude who used to write for the Berliner, what the hell is his name?
26:09
SPEAKER_00: Nathan.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh, is that him?
26:12
SPEAKER_01: Nathaniel Flakin.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whatever dude.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: He's a revolutionary.
26:16
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't go by his real name.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: Like Stalin.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: When I look at that guy, I
26:19
SPEAKER_01: become a conservative.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: Has Nathan ever paid his
26:20
SPEAKER_00: own bill?
26:25
SPEAKER_01: The guy, I think he's kind of a rich kid from Texas.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Oh, as always.
26:30
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not rich, but he's definitely from Texas.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: As always.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: It's always like, dude, you don't have to pay your own bills.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: I have more respect for a champagne socialist that knows they're rich,
26:38
SPEAKER_00: but just wants life to be better for everybody.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: Rather than like, let's screw the system.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: All right, we'll give away your money.
26:43
SPEAKER_01: It's also, but he's, this guy, he is a, he's a nice guy.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: I bump into him once in a while.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: But he's a Trotskyist.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, whatever.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: Like if Trotsky had run the revolution, had,
26:56
SPEAKER_01: you know, been able to run the Russian revolution, everything would be cool now.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: All right.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of Russian revolutions,
27:02
SPEAKER_00: 65 years ago,
27:03
SPEAKER_00: last Thursday or last Wednesday,
27:04
SPEAKER_00: whatever,
27:06
SPEAKER_00: in August 1961, construction began on the Berlin Wall dividing East and West Berlin.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Why did they build a wall, Andrew?
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Ostensibly to keep fascism out.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: Right, because fascism was dying to take over the rubble of East Berlin.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: Made easier by the fact that a bunch of East Germans were leaving for the West.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Right.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: So, you know.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: AKA brain drain.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so they pretty much had to build a wall to keep people in.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: That's why they had to build a wall.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: And the thing I learned actually,
27:32
SPEAKER_00: which was interesting,
27:33
SPEAKER_00: I know that statement by Walter Ubrecht, nobody is planning to build a wall.
27:38
SPEAKER_01: He said it like two months beforehand, right?
27:40
SPEAKER_00: And nobody actually asked him, are you thinking about building a wall?
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Like nobody was even talking about,
27:44
SPEAKER_00: they were talking about where's the border between Germany and the Germany is going
27:48
SPEAKER_00: to be like,
27:48
SPEAKER_00: and he said, well, you know, West Berlin is actually on East German territory.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: And so like, well, where are you going to put the border?
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, nobody's thinking about building a wall.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: And everyone was like, yeah.
27:57
SPEAKER_01: And he was, he just said,
27:59
SPEAKER_00: no, we're thinking about building a wall.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Like he really just, that's what I didn't realize that.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: Like for years I've said that as a joke, but that is actually what people leaked the plans.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: But you know what I realized?
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Do younger generations care about the wall anymore?
28:13
SPEAKER_01: I remember it was such a big deal when we came here.
28:15
SPEAKER_01: Huge.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: Every round number anniversary was a huge deal.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: There'd be these lines of light,
28:25
SPEAKER_01: all these installations,
28:27
SPEAKER_01: people holding hands on their former border with candles and lights and stuff.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: And now I feel like it's just like,
28:32
SPEAKER_00: yeah, we know there was a wall here, but I don't really remember.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: I know.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: Our childhood, man, it was huge.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Berlin was in the news every other day.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: And now it's like if you open an American newspaper today, there's no mention of even Germany.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: When I was a journalist in Germany, I'd go visit my parents.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, oh, what are we talking about today?
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And then you'd be like, there's absolutely no German news in here.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: So it's a big deal of the 65 years thing, but I kind of think maybe not.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: I remember in 2005 or 2010, they were like, oh, we tore down too much of the wall.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: There's no remainder of the wall left.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: And everybody who lived here knew exactly where the little pieces of the wall were.
29:12
SPEAKER_01: You know what I find strange is down at the Eastside Gallery, how...
29:17
SPEAKER_01: You have that long stretch of wall.
29:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: And then you've got the river and then in between you have the sort of where
29:23
SPEAKER_01: the death strip used to be.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: And now they're just building apartments in the death strip, which is kind of wild.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: And a really ugly apartment.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Like I like the one big, super rich people's tower.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Like I kind of like that.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: The thing they built next to it is just, it looks like a Mediterranean hotel.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it kind of messed up though?
29:38
SPEAKER_01: You got the window in the Berlin Wall is like a meter away from your window.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, it depends.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you were living on the death strip up on Banau Arshtasa, that's kind of sexy.
29:47
SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's little condo, there's little townhouses there?
29:49
SPEAKER_00: There's a townhouse that you and I should have bought.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: I drive by there and I'm like, I didn't even know they were building those.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh, I wish I'd known I could have bought one for like half a million.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the death strip.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: It's just weird to live there, though.
30:00
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a nice part of Mitter.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: But the thing over on the East Side Gallery, they're building those things there.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the problem is they have a really bad track record of development Berlin.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: The thing they did around the Uber Arena is just a disgrace.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: I think the marketing Berlin as a place
30:20
SPEAKER_01: that all these bad historical things happened,
30:24
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's working for tourism anymore.
30:27
SPEAKER_01: Nobody cares about East Germany.
30:29
SPEAKER_01: Not that many people care about...
30:32
SPEAKER_01: Even World War II and the Nazis anymore.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: Like the walls, it's losing its importance.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: World War II is now like, we have grandfathers who fought in the war.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: We knew people who fought in World War II or like had an opinion, like we're there.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: And the new generations don't have that at all.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's exactly what historians are saying.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: That's why fascism is coming back.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
30:52
SPEAKER_00: there's one of my favorite jokes by a Berlin English language comedian was,
30:55
SPEAKER_00: you can like Berlin for a lot of things, but not its history.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: I love Berlin history.
31:01
SPEAKER_01: It's just been milked to death.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: What else can you say about it?
31:07
SPEAKER_00: We need a couple of decent artists or thinkers.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: There's a generation of authors that lived here.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: You're a thinker, Andrew.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's why we get a thousand views on our podcast.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: We need Berlin that isn't just, oh, we all do drugs.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: And apparently more people are dying of recreational drugs now too.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: GHB.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: I can see the taxis on the street.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: And when I come home from a gig, I can see the drug taxis.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: You can see them.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Like if you wanted something, you could just walk up and be like, hey, man.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just cars anymore.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: It's also Lieferando dudes.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: Really?
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean,
31:43
SPEAKER_01: Berlin has just become this sort of,
31:45
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, sort of like this backwater where no planes even fly to.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's it.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: Do drugs, pass out on the street.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, to be fair, Amsterdam, you know, they're making a
31:56
SPEAKER_01: living from that.
31:57
SPEAKER_01: But didn't they move the whole red light district to the outside of town?
32:00
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to downsize it.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: It's apparently very hard.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: If you have a tourist business, they will not let you open it inside the city anymore.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: Like a friend of mine, she has a bike tour company and they basically made her leave.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, because Berlin would never, like, that's a crazy incursion by the government.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: That would never happen here.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: Tourism's kind of stagnating here though, isn't it?
32:24
SPEAKER_00: It is.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what it looks like.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: But everything's cyclical.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: People freak out about this stuff.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: Life is cyclical.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going to happen.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Everybody who thought Berlin was great has been here, seen it.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: They've posted their thread on Reddit.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: And now, I don't know.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: That's what my wife says.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: If the war ever ends in Ukraine, Kiev's going to be just madhouse.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: Kiev's going to be that new Berlin.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: Kiev, yeah.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: All right.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: So those 65 years of the wall, it's up to you.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: It's up to me.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: Oh, somebody's trying to call me.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: She's cute.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: It's your wife.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't know.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: I just saw the picture.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: She's a business partner.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: Back to Berlin politics.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: So, every election, the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce complains about bureaucracy.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: I think they trot out the same study, actually.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: Right.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: So, they basically had this study done saying that if you cut red tape...
33:20
SPEAKER_01: In half, like all the rules and regulations in half.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: You could free up 35 working days for a small company employing 20 people.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: So eliminating outdated regulations,
33:32
SPEAKER_01: approval requirements,
33:34
SPEAKER_01: reviewing costly rules like species protections and accessibility standards
33:39
SPEAKER_01: that inflate construction costs.
33:41
SPEAKER_01: That's like when you found when like a huge project has to be delayed
33:47
SPEAKER_01: because they need to move like one antville.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: Frogs.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't entirely agree with those examples, like accessibility, but the idea of 100.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: They're saying they could create thousands of jobs and create
33:58
SPEAKER_01: an additional 1 billion in economic output.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: It's a billion.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: It's always a billion.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: It's not that much, actually.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: And that's a small percent.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: That's not much in the big picture of Berlin's economy.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Like 20% Berlin, we're a pretty streamlined operation.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: We're not subject to much.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: We have to have the impressum.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: It's actually just business imprint, but...
34:18
SPEAKER_01: You know,
34:19
SPEAKER_01: the IHK director said,
34:20
SPEAKER_01: what need is a systematic review across all departments of the administration.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: So even that, a systematic review makes me uneasy.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how much, how many meetings and that is?
34:32
SPEAKER_01: I know.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: And there's not going to be a doge type committee who just,
34:35
SPEAKER_01: but that's young guys going in there.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Just, I feel like they really do have to just like,
34:39
SPEAKER_00: how are Germans complaining about piracy all the time and not doing anything
34:42
SPEAKER_00: about it?
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Like to be fair, the citizenship process, that was a good move that made it much easier.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: They still require too many documents, but whatever.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: But there's just all this crappy things.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Like when my kids wanted to get a driver's license,
34:58
SPEAKER_00: you first have to get approval from the state to go get it.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: You have to go sign to say,
35:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to get a driver's license before you can go take classes to get
35:05
SPEAKER_00: a driver's license.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: Why?
35:07
SPEAKER_01: Why?
35:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Get rid of what's the reason.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: And there's tons of these little tiny steps that are just pointless.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: Like, and I don't know why the government's not doing more.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, sometimes they have these laws that say,
35:19
SPEAKER_00: like, if you pass a new law, you have to get rid of an old one.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: The problem is, is the laws themselves are complex.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: And so the bureaucracy basically has to implement what it says in the laws.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: And the laws are just insanely complicated.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: Simplify, man.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: It's like everything has just become an income tax return at this point.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: Nobody understands what all this stuff is on there.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: A lot of businesses have all this tax software.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean,
35:44
SPEAKER_01: they're making killing off of just the fact that the government doesn't know how
35:47
SPEAKER_01: to have a decent user experience.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: A user experience of Germany, the German user experience.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: I like that, that we need a UX designer for Germany.
35:57
SPEAKER_01: I know, absolutely.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: I mean, somebody,
36:00
SPEAKER_01: when I wrote about the commerce thing in the newsletter,
36:04
SPEAKER_01: a reader wrote, you know what they could do to cut bureaucracy?
36:09
SPEAKER_01: Or just what the EHHK could do, basically not make it a requirement to be a member of the...
36:16
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know that was a thing.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: If you start a business, which is a gevalber, not just freelance business...
36:22
SPEAKER_01: How do you describe and explain that?
36:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, you just register your business.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: You get a registered commercial.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: You get a business license.
36:29
SPEAKER_01: Right.
36:30
SPEAKER_01: Then you have to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: Why?
36:34
SPEAKER_00: You just do.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: It's like this weird thing of like, you have to pay the TV license fee.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: You have to pay the Gates Ed, but it's not a tax.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: It's like you have to contribute to the business lobby group.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: To be fair, like I read that thing and I totally agree with him.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: But then I think, you know what you need to do?
36:49
SPEAKER_00: You need to call them up and say, how can you help me?
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Because they have all this money.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: They have tons of money because all these people have to join.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: So they do have things that will help you.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my old business, I mean, this is 20 years ago.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: We had to pay 150 euros a year.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: I don't think we ever used any of those services.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: I feel like part of the things we as expats or internationals or whatever you want
37:08
SPEAKER_00: to call us, we don't ask for help enough.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: And you can actually call them up and be like, hey, can we get some help?
37:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the German mindset is more like, how can I milk?
37:18
SPEAKER_01: The system for something.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but if that's the mindset, you're a part of that system, you need to get in there.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: As an expat, you don't be a burden.
37:26
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to bother anyone.
37:28
SPEAKER_01: You might be a little nervous about it.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: But you could see the moment, like,
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Bramable's Donuts very definitely,
37:34
SPEAKER_00: at some point,
37:35
SPEAKER_00: they were, like,
37:35
SPEAKER_00: getting a loan from Spakas,
37:36
SPEAKER_00: and Spakas was like,
37:38
SPEAKER_00: call the IHK,
37:39
SPEAKER_00: call the Chamber of Commerce,
37:41
SPEAKER_00: and then suddenly experts jumped on Bramable's Donuts as a way to make money.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: I think what they do,
37:46
SPEAKER_01: they do offer, like,
37:48
SPEAKER_01: health and safety training for people who are opening up restaurants for
37:52
SPEAKER_00: free or
37:53
SPEAKER_00: a low
37:54
SPEAKER_01: price.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, my wife got a loan for her business for Spakas,
37:57
SPEAKER_00: and she had to go to the IHK and get a business advisor.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: Really?
38:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: Free advisor.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: What was the advice?
38:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he just helped her like look at how to look at figures more.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: Is this a good idea?
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Is this a bad idea?
38:10
SPEAKER_00: The business plan.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the business plan.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: And then,
38:13
SPEAKER_00: you know,
38:13
SPEAKER_00: they just say,
38:13
SPEAKER_00: the one thing we quote is we were talking to him about,
38:17
SPEAKER_00: I went once with her and we were talking to him about a friend of ours is opening
38:21
SPEAKER_00: an ice cream store.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, it's on the wrong side of the street.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: I've never seen an ice cream business that survived that didn't have a Southern exposure.
38:29
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: And they just have little things like that.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: And like my wife and I joke about it all the time because we'll find out,
38:34
SPEAKER_00: we'll see an ice cream show.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: We're like, I've never seen one succeed.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: And it's true.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: And so they just, they're there.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Does she get good advice?
38:41
SPEAKER_00: I would say she got good advice.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: Do you have an accountant?
38:45
SPEAKER_01: No.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's like accountant advice.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: It's not great, but also your life would be worse without it.
38:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: Do you do your own taxes?
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: I got to start doing that.
38:54
SPEAKER_01: I don't even have half the stuff in Elster.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of like blindly click away.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I did.
39:01
SPEAKER_01: Just make up the don't check.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: I've got to do a thing.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we've been chatting way too long.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when we get on the couch.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: We talk too long.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: It's time to get to our final and our favorite portion of the podcast.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: Bear's Knees, Two Things We Like About Berlin.
39:17
SPEAKER_01: What's yours?
39:18
SPEAKER_01: We're going to go with a full header, man.
39:19
SPEAKER_01: The Wuhlheide?
39:21
SPEAKER_01: Wuhlheide, no, the U's.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: It's not a Wuhlheide?
39:24
SPEAKER_01: It's a Wuhlheide.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: Wuhlheide, what is Wuhlheide?
39:26
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's probably the Wuhlheide River goes through, that's what we decided.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: But what is the plan, when you do that?
39:32
SPEAKER_00: It's a concert venue.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: It's an open-air concert venue.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: I usually think I... Is that the one out east?
39:36
SPEAKER_00: It's the one down by the Union Berlin.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: There's like a little free time,
39:42
SPEAKER_00: like a little forest down there, and there's a lot of things in there.
39:45
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: So I usually don't like big concerts, like about more than 1500 people.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be there.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: But it was actually nice.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: We went to see this German band, Annamie Kantereit.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: This guy has just a perfect voice.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: The songs are just okay, but his voice saves it.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: Man, you really are going German.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't have a choice.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm married to a German.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: She has German friends who come to Berlin just to go to this concert.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: Who is this band?
40:07
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard of them.
40:08
SPEAKER_01: You've never heard the song Pocahontas?
40:10
SPEAKER_01: Pocahontas?
40:11
SPEAKER_00: Es tut mir leid, Pocahontas.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: It's his pet, which is some weird like double level of cultural appropriation.
40:18
SPEAKER_01: Double level.
40:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
40:19
SPEAKER_01: What's the name of the band?
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Annenmeikantereit, which is the last names of the three members of the band.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: You're, you, this is just more, you're more German than I am.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: I think you've heard it and you're just acting like you did.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: I've never, never, I have no idea what you're talking about.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: That would be like saying, I've never heard Phil Collins.
40:38
SPEAKER_01: I listened to German music made before 1800.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: That's about it.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: Why is it good to watch TV?
41:03
SPEAKER_00: I think part of the reason I hate big concerts is because I don't want to get
41:06
SPEAKER_00: a fight down on the pitch or try to get a good thing.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: I just want to sit down and enjoy it.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: And it used to be,
41:11
SPEAKER_00: so you're sitting there and the lead singer's the size of a penny
41:15
SPEAKER_00: and you can't see anything.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: I saw Morrissey at the Citadella not that long ago.
41:20
SPEAKER_01: I know he's not what you're supposed to see, but I got free tickets.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: I like how the Citadella is all the Gen X bands.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: It's like people get a new hip and they go there and dance.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: It was really quite empty.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: There were like 3,000 people.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Good.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: OMD was there, I guess, yesterday.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: I saw Patti Smith there.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: But so the thing is, but now they have these monitors.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: They're nice monitors.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a cameraman standing right in front of Patti Smith.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: So you feel like you're closer.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: And it gives it a nice air.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: And then I just happened to be sitting next.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: I wrote about this Hubertus Heil, the former labor minister.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: Turned out to be a very nice guy.
41:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:52
SPEAKER_01: Because I kind of insulted him.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, you used to be the labor minister.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: What are you now?
41:57
SPEAKER_01: What is he now?
41:58
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I'm a person.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: He's getting that like whatever euros a month just to just to take it and think about it.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: No, he's still he's still a parliamentarian.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: He's been the longest in SPD.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: He was super nice.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: We bonded.
42:12
SPEAKER_01: Nice.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: So that's I think like Vulaida, it's not a bad venue.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to get to with the train.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: Then we got off the train and they have like a little park train,
42:19
SPEAKER_00: like one of those little hobby train.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're like two euros.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: We'll take you right to the stage.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: Jumped on that thing.
42:24
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: Volunteer Railway.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: I've always wanted to take that thing.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: Every time I've been down there, I'm like, oh, I want to take this train someday.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: And so it was a nice experience.
42:32
SPEAKER_00: Easy.
42:32
SPEAKER_00: Like, there were no lines for the beer.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: Also a plus.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: How much was beer?
42:37
SPEAKER_00: I think it was six euros.
42:39
SPEAKER_01: Damn.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: But, you know... You know what I hate?
42:42
SPEAKER_01: You go to a concert and you've got to pay like two... You get those...
42:46
SPEAKER_01: You have to pay two euros deposit for the plastic beer cup.
42:49
SPEAKER_01: And then they give you these chips.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: Then you always use the chips.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: This one, they're, of course, Annenmaikantereit tour cups.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: So you can take them back and get your deposit back.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: Or because we're drunk at the end of the show.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were here.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: I want them.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: I still don't understand the band.
43:05
SPEAKER_01: Can you say it again slowly?
43:06
SPEAKER_00: Annenmaikantereit.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: What?
43:09
SPEAKER_00: It's the last name.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: It's like the lead singer is Henning Mai.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the other two dudes.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to listen to that.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: You've heard it anyway.
43:15
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to hear my bear's knees?
43:17
SPEAKER_01: My bear's knees is,
43:18
SPEAKER_01: you know,
43:19
SPEAKER_01: now the weather is getting cold and we can complain about Berlin weather again.
43:23
SPEAKER_01: And you don't know what the hell to do on the weekend with the kids.
43:27
SPEAKER_01: Take him to the technical museum.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: The technology museum.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I had this as a bear's knees once.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: You did?
43:34
SPEAKER_00: Or at least thought
43:34
SPEAKER_01: about it.
43:35
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
43:35
SPEAKER_01: I checked.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: It's not a bear's knees map.
43:37
SPEAKER_01: Folks, we have a...
43:38
SPEAKER_01: Bears Knees Map on 20percent.Berlin.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: You can see all the former Bears Knees.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: Did you really just say folks?
43:46
SPEAKER_01: Folks.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: Folks.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: Folks.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: No, just the fact that you're using the word folks.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: Folks.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: You really do like German music from before 1800.
43:53
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
43:54
SPEAKER_01: Obama said folks.
43:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: Obama's like a boomer.
43:58
SPEAKER_01: Right.
43:59
SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
43:59
SPEAKER_01: What are we?
44:00
SPEAKER_00: We're Gen Xers.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, to everybody else, we're boomers.
44:03
SPEAKER_01: Trains, planes, automobiles.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: I love the technology.
44:06
SPEAKER_01: It's one of those things
44:07
SPEAKER_01: I don't go enough.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: I love the thing in the back where it's just train cars.
44:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and a giant hangar full of trains.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:16
SPEAKER_01: I like the boat department.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: They have a Babbage computer in there.
44:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:20
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, and that used to be the cargo train station for the train station.
44:24
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
44:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: It's a great place.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: Got one of the Rosinen bombers, the Raisin bombers in front.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can spend like four hours on that.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: Except for the annoying little kids.
44:34
SPEAKER_01: And there's like a weave.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: Those are my children.
44:37
SPEAKER_01: There's a weaving machine.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: Who doesn't like to weave?
44:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: It's so rewarding.
44:43
SPEAKER_01: Have you woven?
44:44
SPEAKER_00: My grandma was a big weaver.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: Like when she quit being a school teacher, she got way into weaving.
44:49
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
44:49
SPEAKER_00: And there's just something like that like soothes the side of you that you put that
44:53
SPEAKER_00: through and then it comes off and then you put it back through the other way.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Like watching something like slowly.
44:56
SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: Gen Z would say, it's just good for my ADHD.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: Are you mocking your own children?
45:02
SPEAKER_00: My children don't say that as much.
45:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm mocking comedians.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: Do you know anyone who doesn't have ADHD?
45:07
SPEAKER_01: No, that's my point.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: That's my point.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: So Teschnik Museum, I think it's good for adults too.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: I think it's actually good enough.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: You wrote that chat group about this podcast.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: I thought I got to go back.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: 100%.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: All right, Maurice, thanks for coming over.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Andrew.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: Let's hope I get some clips.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: Jusikovsky.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: Bye.