A weekly round-up of news stories that piqued our interest or made us scratch our heads.
Finally connected? In an attempt to catch up with mobile capitals, Berlin is working on two public wi-fi projects. The Senate Chancellery is implementing “Free WiFi Berlin” in a number of parks, such as Gleisdreieck, aiming to raise the number of hotspots to 1700 by the end of 2018. Good news for BVG lovers, too: Around 180 buses will go online in the next four months and in addition to that, all 173 U-Bahn stations will have wi-fi by the end of the year. Brave new world...
Walk for freedom Another Saturday, another demonstration - this time in support of Sara Mardini, the 23-year-old Bard College Berlin student from Syria arrested on Lesbos, Greece last August for volunteering with an NGO in a refugee camp. Greek authorities accuse Mardini (who herself arrived on Lesbos as a refugee in 2015), of facilitating the illegal entry of migrants to Greece for profit. The march, initiated by Bard College Berlin, starts at 1pm at Neptunbrunnen near Alexanderplatz, and ends at Brandenburg Gate.
Up! Twenty-five years after the initial plan by architect Hans Kolhoff was presented, two new high rises at Alexanderplatz have been green-lighted by Berlin's building authorities. With no concrete drafts for the buildings as of now, two facts are confirmed: the towers shall not dwarf the Park Inn Hotel at around 130m and at least 15 percent of them shall be used as living space. Close-ups of the TV tower from your bathroom, anyone?
It runs in the family The four men that stole the 100kg gold coin worth €3.75 million from Bode Museum in March 2017 are finally being indicted. Three of the perpetrators are extended family of Neukölln clan R., reported for previous acts of violence and break-ins. Good to be connected if you want to sell a mountain of gold.
The Spex come off After 38 years in the indie-pop game, Spex is kaputt. The magazine cites dwindling readership and advertising moving more-and-more online as reasons for its bankruptcy, making it this year's third German print mag death after Intro and Neon. Spex, published in Cologne, has been shaping German pop discourse since 1980. Expect the last issue on December 27. The downfall of any print makes us sad... but R.I.P. to Germany's indie scene staple.
The Joker of Berlin Federal police is looking for witnesses after a S1 passenger was attacked last Sunday... with a playing card. The unknown perpetrator – supposedly a homeless man in his thirties – chose to shun the pocket knife he carried and went for the element of surprise. Did he overplay his hand?
In-freaking-divisible And now some good news! More than 240.000 supporters, six times as many as expected, took to the streets last Saturday in a peaceful march against racism and rightwing politics at the #Unteilbar demo. Different parties such as Die Linke, Die Grünen and queer organisations showed solidarity for a common cause. The odd one out: Berlin's CDU, whose general secretary Stefan Evers alleged that the organiser of the demo had ties to leftwing extremists. Way to go, Union!