Radio Spaetkauf Berlin

Radio Spaetkauf is Berlin's English-language news and interview podcast. Tonight we bring you an update on the Tempelhof petition intiative: the movement against development on the former airport has gained enough signatures to trigger a referendum, but politicians are stalling by scrutinizing every signature. Clown and sex worker advocate Harvey Rabbit tells us about her upcoming show, Variete Ridiculous, which as well as being a night of great cabaret entertainment, is also a space for the demystification of sex workers. Variete Ridiculous is on Friday January 31 at Keller Neukölln. Joel presents a taste of the kinds of music you can hear at the cabaret night by playing one of his songs live in the studio, an act of shameless self promotion only allowable because Maisie's away tonight.

On the first episode of Radio Spaetkauf for 2014, the Ordnungsamt has introduced a new fine for throwing sneakers over dangling wires or posts. It'll cost you €30 if you're caught. So don't do it, or don't get caught. Other new price hikes for the year include public swimming pools: it now costs €5.50 to take a dip in peak times, which has had its hours inverted. We re-visit the Amt für Werbefreiheit und Gutes Leben, who want all outdoor advertising banned from the city. They've gathered a lot of support, but they had a mixed reaction from their elected politicians. Another citizen's initiative not getting any political support is 100% Tempelhofer Feld, which looks likely to fail in its attempt to prevent development on the old airport site. The initiative has fallen short of the number of required signatures on its petition. The BVG has revealed it employs 120 ticket checkers on the U-Bahn. We're searching for a maths genius to use this number to figure out the likelihood of getting caught without a ticket a

On this week's Radio Spätkauf: Berlin city's scientists have warned Christmas market shoppers to beware of bad glühwein. After testing market stalls, they found 8.6 per cent of mulled wine is not what it purports to be. Jöran Mandik has dispatched his final audio architectural tour (sadly, he's moving to Australia in the new year). He takes us on a walk around the concrete monolith that is the International Congress Centrum, which will close its doors in mid-2014 for renovations, and may never reopen. We play some clips from the archives. Drinkers in a Neukölln pub attempt to define the difference between a döner and a schwarma. Our song of the week is another from Sean Nicholas Savage, a Berlin resident who channels 80s pop icons.

Berlin's fast-rising rents may be slowed by two political developments. The federal coalition between the CDU and SPD has promised to put in new controls on rental prices. Even new rental contracts, which have previously been uncapped, will now be limited to a 10 per cent increase. And on a local level, the Berlin senate has introduced tough new restrictions on the commercial use of apartments for holiday flats. By banning ferienwohnung, the city hopes to release more apartments for residential use. In another positive move for poorly-paid Berliners, the new federal coalition has also agreed to implement a minimum wage of 8.50 EUR an hour. But the wage won't come into effect until 2015, and even when it does it will not be a huge improvement. The Radio Spaetkauf team has another solution - why not start a campaign for a London-style living wage that reflects the real cost of working in the city? Maisie interviews Bo Van, an architect who has created the Unreal Estate House, a temporary mobile construction tha

Good news if you take the U6: as of today the line is reconnected. However users of the north-south S-Bahn line nearby will be disappointed to learn that the tunnel will be closed for most of the rest of the year due to track work. The recent referendum about de-privatizing the Berlin electricity grid was lost by just 20,000 votes. That means the city won't be forced to buy it back. But the fight to get the grid back into the hands of the people isn't over yet. Another initiative, Bürger Energie Berlin, plans to raise enough money to buy the power grid outright. If every Berlin power bill customer chipped in 100 euros, they'd have enough to purchase the grid. A Neukölln bar is set to close, but this time no one is likely to stand up and defend it. The bar in question is Freies Neukölln, whose owner filmed a famously nasty tirade against pretty much everyone who has moved to the neighbourhood in the past ten years. His bar will shut a the end of 2014 after the owner kicked him out. Few tears are expected to be

It's referendum time in Berlin. The city is voting whether to de-privatize the electricity grid, although international residents cannot take part. Another referendum is looming next year, this one about the future of Tempelhof airport park, and whether any building should take place there. A Berlin entrepreneur has come up with a new app that would allow citizens to take photos of badly parked cars and submit them to the city authorities for punishment. The app will be called Straensherif, although Maisie thinks it should be called Stasi 3.0. Joran Mandik takes us on an architectural audio tour of the old Kindl Brauerei in Neukolln, which is now being turned into a cultural center. Joel joins us again, back from a month in Australia and New Zealand, where he heard more German being spoken on the streets than in Kreuzberg.

On this show, we will be playing an interview from a group called, The Truth Booth. Maisie went along to meet them and find out about the project, how it works, the results so far and how it will evolve. See the link for the Truth Booth webpage: www.the-truth-booth.org Our "Short News" this time is regarding a Walter Womacka memorial that's been in Ikea bag storage for the last few weeks but recently has been re-located to Mitte, near Unter Den Linden by the housing association, WBM. Here's a link to Maisie's blog with documentation of the memorial: http://bit.ly/1axI0PK Before signing off... Maisie and Andrew had a chat about a recent video creation by the Goethe Institute of Germany. Not to spoil the surprise, but we don't think it's great.... Take a look for yourself on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1axI6qk Music this week from Phedre (Cold Sunday!) and House of Black Lanterns feat. Leni Ward (Shot You Down) The Spaeti team saw Phedre in a recent gig and found them to be most enjoyable.

On this episode of Radio Spaetkauf, how did your district vote in the election? Hear Andrew and Maisie reveal some pretty expected results. We discover a chance to rent Angela Merkel's old flat in Prenzlaurer Berg, without her old furniture sadly. Maisie talks about a new threat to develop on Tempelhofer Feld and what you can do about it and Andrew is surprised to see a last stretch of the original Autobahn is soon to be closed. Our main audio segment comes from the fantastic Jöran Mandik and another of his Berlin Audio Tours. It's episode 3 - a tour of the Hufeisensiedlung (Horseshoe Estate). Bruno Taut's architectural marvel in Neukölln. You can partake in the 100% Tempelhofer Feld campaign here http://www.thf100.de Music this week from UK band Crystal Fighters who are touring in Berlin next month and Mary Ocher, a Russian born, Berlin resident.

Don't worry, that "Go Home Tourrorists" election poster was only a joke by one of Germany's many satirical parties - although it might have been a viable vote-winner if it were real. The election is over, but one group of Germans wants to reform the voting system by gifting their votes to foreigners. We interview the initiator of the Electoral Rebellion program. Berlin's bumpy bike lanes may get smoothed over after the city government pledged €4 million to improve cycle routes across the city. This comes after Berlin was ranked the 24th most cycle-friendly city in Germany - quite far from the top. What's wrong with this poster? A graphic designer found out that using the German flag on a gig poster can incite unpatriotic Germans to tear the offending symbol down. Maisie share her traumatic story of being fined on the S-Bahn for not having a bike ticket, and Joel pours scorn on Robben & Weintjes, the truck rental company that enjoys blowing smoke in your face. Music by Skiing, who are playing a show at Wes

How desperate are Berliners to find an apartment? On this episode of Radio Spätkauf we discuss a new real estate option for those who can’t find a flat - a one-room bedsit inside a shipping container on the outskirts of the city, for €349 a month. Elections are coming up, so we talk about some terrible posters by the CDU, and an embarrassment for the FDP which used the same stock footage as the NPD. Andrew interviews an artist who uses acid to warp street posters and subvert advertising. Our new regular contributor Jöran Mandik takes us on an architectural audio tour of the Amerika-Gedenk Bibliothek, which has a few surprising secrets: there’s a one-person cinema for watching forbidden films, and a piano room where you can practice your scales.

Görlitzer Park is the feature of this broadcast. One political party, the CDU, think the park has become dangerous and want to close it each night from 11pm to 5am. Another party, the Greens, want to open a Dutch-style marijuana coffee shop in the park. Both plans seem quite different, but have the same goal: to stop drug sales. We discuss how Berlin is turning into a refuge for American political exiles, with the arrival of Jacob Applebaum and other activists escaping the observation state. Also on the show, guest journalist Matthew Tempest interviews author Alan Crawford about Angela Merkel and discovers some surprising facts: on the night the Wall fell, Merkel went to the sauna instead of celebrating.

It’s election time, and Berlin’s streets are full of political posters. We visit a meeting of the Pirate Party to learn more about who they are and what they stand for. If you’re interested, head along to their weekly English-language meetup at a bar in Neukölln. Police have been conducting raids on Görlitzer Park. One organization, Reach Out Berlin, is protesting against the racial nature of the crackdown. You’ve probably noticed the increase in U-Bahn tickets, but get ready for a 30% increase in haircut costs as hairdressers enjoy a new minimum wage of 6.50 EUR an hour. In a new segment, city planning enthusiast Jöran Mandik takes us on an architectural tour of the Akazienhof, a colorful World Heritage Listed development on the south-east edge of Berlin.

All this hot weather making you feel frisky? Fancy some outdoor lovin’? Might be worth losing your job first. We discuss Germany's strange laws regarding outdoor sex. Also on the show: a life sentence for Berlin's celebrity bears Maxi and Schnute, bye- bye Festsaal Kreuzberg, and the Mayor of London's love letter to Berlin. Building officially begins on the city's next BER, the Stadtschloss, plus: dirty lakes, and why the Jewish Memorial wasn't built to last. We talk to the people behind the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien's current show - Wir sind hier nicht zum Spaß! - an exhibition revisiting Berlin's nightlife and culture of the 90's http://www.kunstraumkreuzberg.de/start.html and announce a competition for Berlin's ugliest building. This week's song comes from exotic American songstress, Geneva Jacuzzi.

On this episode of Radio Spätkauf: Can you imagine an advert-free Berlin? The Amt für Werbefreiheit & Gutes Leben can. We talk to them about their campaign to remove advertising from the city's streets. Plus:the mysterious forces at work behind the aborted auction of the Spreepark in Plänterwald, awkward gig venues, Soviet poster boys, kim.com, no more eateries in the Graefekiez & an interview with the folks trying to set up an alternative to GEMA, Germany's main performance rights organisation. All tonight on reboot.fm 11pm and online.....

For our second summer special, we’ve taken our own advice and journeyed out to the lakes and woods of South East Brandenburg. But before that, we start off in Berlin, where we talk about a new threat to affordable rent, another endangered East German building, why wearing a bike helmet can save you money, and how former Stasi informants make new careers under capitalism. Then we head out to Klingemühle, a former GDR holiday camp in the Naturpark Schlaubetal in Brandenburg. We meet its inhabitants, Buenaventura e.V, who tell us about the camp’s history, what they’re doing there and making the transition from Berlin to the countryside. Plus a child of the GDR talks to us about holidaying in the East and we have a chat with the organisers of Camp Tipsy, the DIY festival in a forest. Campfire songs come from Nadia Buyse and Dirty Beaches.

Radio Spaetkauf is the Berlin podcast, a half-hour discussion of local news, politics, urban development, culture and music, presented by international residents Maisie, Joel and Andrew. This episode is a summer special, with some tips about getting out of the city and visiting the lakes of Brandenburg. We talk about the threat faced by some of the beloved garden allotments on the city's fringes due to housing pressure. In urban development news we discuss the Stadtschloss, a monumental building project that threatens to become a monumental disaster. Despite the enormous cost to the city, the city castle is going ahead. Even revelations that Berlin will have to pay €470M back to the federal government due to a population miscount hasn't deterred the castle's supporters. We interview the initiator of Spree Bluete, a local Berlin currency in development. And there's a special guest monologue by Joshua James Alas of Mobile Kino about the death of 35mm film projection in Berlin cinemas.

Radio Spaetkauf is the Berlin podcast. On this episode we tell you how to get a reduction in your rent if your building is in bad condition: if you've got an illegal brothel operating in your building, you can claim a 30% rent reduction. What's going on at Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station? We'll talk about the new station being constructed, and how the designers forgot to include parking for bicycles. Tiergarten may be blocked off with a permanent fence, if the CDU gets its way. They say a full security fence is needed around the park to protect large events held there against terrorists. We're not convinced a fence would do anything, and surely not holding events there is preferable to closing off the park? Plus our interview with a British woman who ran an association to connect with people in the GDR; possibly the only Englishwoman ever to exchange political jokes with East German party officials.

Have you ever paid attention to the lettering on the station signs on the U-Bahn? We interview typographer Anton Koovit, who has created a font called U8 based on the U-Bahn station signage. As Anton discovered, the original font was created in the 1920s but was promptly forgotten, and the existing signs are rotting away without proper restoration. He spent months creating a digital version of the U8 font to ensure it does not disappear entirely. During out extended interview, Anton shares some other interesting discoveries about the Berlin underground transport system. You can see his font in action at www.korkork.com.

Alexanderplatz is set for a facelift; several new tall buildings are set for development, one measuring 150 meters. Surveys show that a lot of Berliner’s don’t like the architecture at Alex, but they also don’t approve of the plans for new buildings. Maisie presents her interview with the band Jeans Team about the district of Wedding and the monstrous Gesundbrunnen Center, about which they have written a song. Joel discusses the freelancers’ rights movement, a push to improve the conditions of freelancers everywhere. He will be presenting on the same topic at this week’s Re:publica conference in Berlin.

Berlin's abandoned theme park, Spreepark at Plänterwald, is to be auctioned off, with a starting price of €1.62 million. The new owners will get all the rides, but will be obliged to keep operating it as an amusement park. For more about the history of Spreepark, listen to Joel's audio report from 2009 here: https://soundcloud.com/joelalas/berlins-abandoned-theme-park Obama is visiting Berlin in June for the 50th anniversary of the famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. What witty one-liner will he come up with to outdo JFK?Send us your ideas for the president via Twitter. How much do you pay for your room in a shared flat? The average prices have been released: €292 in Berlin, compared to €493 in Munich. For a cheaper option, an entrepreneur plans to build a village of shipping container apartments near Treptow. A bed in a cargo crate will cost you €220 a month. International language teachers in Berlin are demanding better conditions. They are leading a series of strikes to draw attention to the big differen