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Berlin-Neukölln: Many are annoyed by the rules
Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
Neukölln, of course.
Where else? The Berlin district, with 330,000 inhabitants the size of a medium-sized German city, was Germany's front runner for new corona infections for days: a high-risk area of the pandemic, jazzed up by the "Bild" newspaper even to the "ultra-risk area" and mentioned in the same breath as the Brussels district of Molenbeek, where new infections are around four to five times as high.
Molenbeek has its migrants, as does Neukölln.
Many people live in the district who have a German passport and have often lived there for decades, but for whom a real wedding requires a few hundred guests and a visit to the shisha bar at the end of the day.
Hotspot for party goers and night owls
Neukölln is also a hotspot for party-goers and night owls.
Anyone who dreams of Germany as a tranquil and bio-German model railroad company detests Neukölln.
For the right-wing populists of the AfD, especially those from the West and East German provinces, the Berlin district has been an object of hate par excellence for years.
In the meantime, Neukölln is no longer the front runner when it comes to corona infections, but the tranquil Berchtesgadener Land.
In the Bavarian idyll one is apparently just as helpless in terms of infection rates as in the multicultural metropolis on the Spree.
It is all the more worthwhile to take a look at the prejudices and events in the capital.
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District Mayor Hikel: "I don't believe in bashing and finger pointing."
Photo: Christian-Ditsch.de / imago images
Martin Hikel is the district mayor of Neukölln, a social democrat and, at the age of 34, the youngest mayor of Berlin.
Hikel has also been concerned since the corona numbers skyrocketed in his district.
He also knows that there are cultural peculiarities that may make Neukölln more susceptible to the virus than bourgeois suburbs, where wearing masks, keeping your distance and restricting personal contacts are now part of the social comment.
But Hikel warns against jumping to conclusions: "I don't believe in bashing and blaming. To say now that the young people are to blame, or that this Turkish wedding was responsible for it, does not get us any further."
Neukölln now has many small foci of infection that can no longer be identified and localized.
The main reason for this lies in the fact that the district is more densely populated than other parts of Berlin.
In Neukölln there are 7343 inhabitants per square kilometer, in Zehlendorf there are not even half as many with 3215.
Look at the population density
There are also differences in the distribution of corona infections in Neukölln, explains Hikel, and they sometimes have less to do with cultural peculiarities than with square meters: "Where the population density is relatively high, where there are larger settlements, such as the one Old building quarters in the north - the infection rate is much stronger everywhere. "
Recently, a certain carelessness had spread, Hikel has also observed: The return to a certain extent to pre-Corona normality, which was not immediately noticeable in the summer by increasing infections, has consequences in the cold, wet autumn.
Any meeting that is harmless outside in the fresh air can quickly lead to many contagions in poorly ventilated indoor spaces.
In pubs and bars, but also in narrow social housing, of which there are plenty in the district.
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Curfew in Neukölln
Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
The curfew, which the Berlin Senate has issued in an emergency, is also intended to reduce the scene celebrations in Neukölln.
The restrictions have been in effect for about two weeks.
All restaurants must close between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Alcohol can no longer be sold, not even at gas stations.
Operators who do not adhere to them face fines.
Some restaurant and bar operators had therefore filed an urgent application against the measures at the Berlin administrative court and were - in part - right.
"Bars can offer a balance, especially in stressful pandemic times. Overcrowded lanes or private parties are much more dangerous," says Michaela Krüger from the "Bar am Ufer", which is also one of the applicants.
Annoyed by the rules
Maik Raczkowski runs the "Britzer Mühle" restaurant.
He observes that his guests are increasingly annoyed by the Corona measures.
"Here we have discussions every day with people who don't wear a mask and don't want to fill out the slip of paper, and who are angry if you don't use them because of it."
Sometimes, says the landlord, you have the feeling that "you don't talk and discuss with adults, but with a small child".
Perhaps that is why some pubs in the district do not enforce hygiene requirements.
But then they become the case for the regulatory authorities.
In Neukölln alone, 50 employees are currently working in three shifts to investigate and punish violations of the Corona rules.
They are now supported by the state and federal police.
According to the spokesman for the district mayor, the public order offices have received a total of more than 100 reports in the past 14 days and 6,000 euros in fines have been received.
There is talk of a "lack of ability and willingness to provide information" among the infected.
Checking the bar is like Sisyphus work anyway.
Since March, 494 fine proceedings have been initiated in Neukölln for violations of corona requirements, and just 67 fine notices for a total of 9,635 euros have been imposed.
The risk of being asked to check out is therefore manageable for pubs and operators of late night sales outlets.
Neukölln's City Councilor for Health, Falko Liecke, called for further armament measures in the "Berliner Kurier": "And maybe our neighbors from Brandenburg could support us with hundreds of people. That would be a signal to all party-goers: The party is over."
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