Berlin: Kitaplatzmangel is as bad as ever

Actually, Aline Beck, 37, thought she had done everything right: Just in the fourth month pregnant, she asked at the first daycare for a place for her unborn child. Only a week after the birth of her son Theo, she returned to be enrolled in waiting lists. At the age of one, Theo was due to go to the day care center so that Beck could go back to work. She also informed the youth welfare office - in the hope that it could help with mediation. Finally, in the meantime desperate, she put a search ad on EBay classifieds: "Search Kitaplatz. Offer 500 Euro."

To date, Theo, now seven months old, no care in prospect. Since the beginning of last year every child in the capital has been entitled to free care from the first birthday - but it's not that easy. Aline Beck summarizes her search as follows: "It is a complete catastrophe."

So she is not alone in Berlin. Fifty parents have already sued this year alone to legally demand their entitlement to a childcare place. 175,400 places are currently available, by 2021 it should be 193,000 - to finally compensate for the shortage.

The city promised relief - but nothing has changed

Already last year, thousands of angry parents took to the streets in the capital. Your demand: more kite places. Nationwide, there was a lack of care for 300,000 children at that time. The city then promised a quick remedy. But who speaks today with parents and educators in Berlin, notes that changed since the catastrophic care situation since then hardly anything.

For Beck, the missing kitaplatz means one thing above all: financial problems. She considers it now hopeless to return to her job as planned after twelve months off. Beck works in the nursing sector, the money is tight, anyway. A month unpaid parental leave, they could bridge, somehow. After that it would be difficult.

At the beginning, she still believed that Theo could be put into a bilingual kindergarten. Beck herself is a native French speaker. Today she dismisses the thought with a resigned laugh: "With these Traumkitas you have certainly no chance."

Three to four requests - a day

Helene Umbeer, 32, and Sabine Sauer, 31, lead one of these dream kites. The children's store Krikelkrakel is located in the district of Prenzlauer Berg in an old apartment, 25 children are cared for here in a mixed-age group. Many young families move to the "Prenzl", Berlin is hip, but tidy - and daycare places are scarce.

Stimmenfang # 65: Kita emergency in Germany: Why does not the politics get that better?

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The hardest thing is to say, Umbeer and Sauer, to deny the desperate parents - every day, several times. "We're getting three to four requests a day, which has never been so bad," says Umbeer. "The other day a mother started crying in the middle of a conversation, she just did not know how to continue."

There is also a waiting list with them. "But I stopped counting how many names on it," says Sauer. For the next two years, her day care center was already full - the few places that would be vacant were already given to sibling children.

250 euros for each place, the Kitas additionally create

But not only parents and day-care centers seem desperate. Even the responsible Berlin Senate for Education, Youth and Family is going unusual ways to master the problem. Every week, according to Umbeer and Sauer, they have been mailed. Again and again, the Senate asks to create additional seats. 250 euros per child per month would be offered. A bonus program, which in the opinion of the Kitaleiterinnen go to the children's expense. "Overcrowding is out of the question for us," says Umbeer.

And there is another problem: the care of other children would fail because of the lack of staff. Umbeer and Sauer would like to take over their trainee. But he plans to study after completing his education. "Educators are simply being paid too poorly," says Umbeer. The market was swept clean, the search for a good specialist almost hopeless.

Kita chaos in Berlin - "And what do I do now?" (Video v. 05/2018)

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"An incredible pressure"

"For the parents, this is an incredible pressure," admits also Iris Brennberger, spokeswoman for the Berlin Education Senate. But since the past year, there has been great progress: 5400 Kitaplätze had been added. "Things will be tight again until the summer," says Brennberger. As soon as the school year starts, however, she sees good chances that all children will get a place.

Aline Beck does not believe it. In retrospect, she blames herself for not being stubborn enough in the search. A friend had given her the tip to personally check in every week at her favorite kitas to bring cake. "I did not want to congratulate myself," says Beck. Today she thinks she would have had to check over the phone to see if the seats are still available - and have to make an effort earlier.

"Actually," says Beck, "I should have started the search the moment we stopped using it."

Note: In an earlier version of the article it was said that every child in Berlin has been entitled to care since the first birthday. Every child in the capital has a right to free care after the first birthday since last year. The legal right to care has existed for several years and is valid nationwide. We have changed the corresponding passage.