Following the New Year's Eve violence in Berlin, Bavarian Premier Markus Söder called Berlin a "chaos city" that was "unable to organize elections nor guarantee the safety of its citizens." What did he mean?
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Crime and violence in the German capital
When it comes to nationwide crime rates, Berlin tops the list. In 2021, the offense rate in Berlin was 13,158 per 100,000 inhabitants, well ahead of the country's second-largest city, Hamburg (10,062). The state with the lowest crime rate was Bavaria, with 4,138 per 100,000 inhabitants.
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Election chaos on September 26, 2021
Berlin held four votes on the same day — the federal election, the state election, local district elections and a referendum on the socialization of major housing companies. The logistical challenges proved to be too much: irregularities that violated electoral law included missing ballot papers, the wrong names on ballots and polling stations remaining open longer than they should have.
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Poverty
An estimated 167,000 children in Berlin live in socially disadvantaged households, most of which receive welfare benefits. So one in three children in the German capital lives in poverty. The latest figures show that the number of people affected by poverty in Berlin rose rapidly during the pandemic to almost one in five.
Image: Jens Büttner/dpa/picture alliance
BER airport saga
The story of Berlin's newest airport is one of failure and embarrassment. Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER) was slated to open on June 3, 2012 — until inspectors found some 120,000 defects, including faulty doors. Billions of euros over budget and massively delayed, BER finally opened on October 31, 2020. China's mega-airport, Beijing Daxing International, was completed in just five years.
Image: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images
Crazy bicycle paths
Attempts to turn the capital into a bike-friendly metropolis in the mold of cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen didn't get off to a good start when a widely ridiculed zigzagging cycle lane was painted in the western district of Zehlendorf in 2018. City council officials blamed it on a communication error with the contractor hired to paint the cycle lane.
Image: Paul Zinken/dpa/picture alliance
€29 ticket success
But Berlin also gets things right. While Germany has so far failed to introduce a successor to the hugely popular "€9 ticket" — a special monthly travel pass allowing holders to travel on local bus and rail networks across the country in the summer of 2022 — Berlin quickly introduced a €29 ticket that is much appreciated.
The street violence in Berlin on New Year's Eve has triggered a debate on law and order ahead of regional elections in several states, including Berlin. Bavaria's center-right premier, Markus Söder from the center-right Christian Social Union (CSU), lashed out at the center-left government in Berlin, claiming it could "neither organize elections nor guarantee the safety of its citizens."
