Plans to turn a three story Berlin sex shop into a huge brothel have been shelved after local protests. The venture at the LSD sex store on the boarder between the Mitte and Tempelhof-Schöneberg districts of Berlin, was halted by 3,400 signatures of local residents. The neighbourhood is known as a haunt of prostitutes, however, residents found the thought of a mega-brothel on a prominent corner overwhelming.
The Berlin police have searched the headquarters of the rightwing extremist party, NPD, and arrested a senor party official. The raid took place on Thursday at the offices in the Köpenick district of Berlin. The national treasurer and director of the party newspaper Deutsche Stimme – German Voice - Erwin Kemna was arrested.
A rapper who was shot in the Berlin district of Neukölln in mid-January has accused the police of sloppy work. He said that the police arrived late and let two suspects get away.
Barack Obama won a landslide victory with 80 percent of the votes on Tuesday night in the Berlin leg of the Democratic primaries. The vote at the Max and Moritz bar in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin attracted 200 of the 10,000 living in Berlin. Americans who are registered to vote in a state can vote directly in their state elections via an absentee ballot.
The Berlinale international film festival opened on Thursday with the film Shine a Light, a Martin Scorsese documentary movie about the Rolling Stones. Scorsese was joined by band members at the star-studded opening at the Berlinale Palast.
On New Years Eve, Germany, a country where about one third of the population smokes, ended an era of being a smokers' paradise. Germans, who otherwise have a reputation for being sticklers for rules, are showing a rebellious streak.
Berlin's public transport system has come to a standstill because of a strike by mass transit workers. The result is a “chaotic situation,” according to a passenger organization IGEB.
A church filled with Nazi symbols in the Berlin district of Mariendorf has gone public with its search for an investor. The protestant church, which was built between 1933 and 1935, has door arches adorned with images of SS officers, soldiers on the alter and Hitler youth as decoration, and is in need or renovation.
Unions are threatening prolonged strikes at the Vattenfall headquarters in Berlin due to a conflict over wages. The unions IGBCE, who represents workers in the energy industry, and IG Metall, the industry union of metal workers, are demanding an 8 percent increase in wages, while Vattenfall is insisting on its offer of a 3.2 percent wage and a one time payment of 500 Euros.
Poor language skill could be blamed for much of Germany’s youth crime, a new study suggests. A study led by criminologist Claudius Ohder showed that violent behaviour that could lead to later criminal activity was often identified at the ages of 5 or 6. Measures that followed the diagnosis had minimal effect.
A bartender is among five people to have gone on trial in Berlin on Thursday, accused of encouraging a 16-year-old boy to drink himself to death in a tequila drinking contest.
A shop selling a clothing brand populare with neo-Nazis has been forced to close following widespread protests. In response to the protests, a shop for Thor Steinar, a clothing brand popular with neo-Nazis, will have to move. The Thor Steiner shop on Alexanderplatz will close at the end of the month due to cancellation of its rent contract. Thor Steiner, however, told the Berlin daily, the Tagesspiegel, that it has already found retail space elsewhere in Berlin and will open its new store this week.
