Tag: Walter Phippeny
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Tempelhofer Feld: Berlin’s Most Emotional Urban Conflict Is Back
We are approaching an election in September. Hopefully, you’re reading along in the Berlin Wiki to bone up on how stuff works in German elections, the lexicon, and the issues. Well, one of the issues we’re going to see debated concerns the Tempelhofer Feld. So let’s talk about that for a bit. The other night, I was at 20% Berlin’s live…
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What Happened When I Tried to Organize My Neighbors
There’s a lot of talk today about building community. At our March WahlheYmat Talk, the crowd brought up the subject, specifically that we should be creating more of it. Ideas flew around the room. We are living in an era of schism, where the people pulling the levers of power are trying to create an “us and them” narrative, defining who…
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The Good, the Bad, and the Arbeitsamt
Most places have an arm of the government to help folks out when they’re unemployed; governments like their citizens to have jobs and pay taxes. It tends to keep the governments – and the citizens – happy. There’s also the matter of not letting people starve in the street when they’re out of work. That’s usually frowned on and tends…
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Nebenkostenabrechnung: The Reckoning No One Explains
TL;DR If you’re in Germany, be ready for big costs at the end of the year. You should also always have a savings pool to deal with random, crazy, unexpected bills that might show up. They tend to do that as the year ends. We just had another Christmas in Germany. And wasn’t it magical, with all the Christmas markets and…
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Papers, please! — How I Turned a 90-Day Visa into a Home in Berlin
When you’re trying to set up your life in Berlin, visas are one of the first things you need to get in order. Unless you’re an EU citizen, you can’t live and work in Germany without one. Simple as that! But there are a whole bunch of different visa options. Should you try for the Blue Card? What is a Blue…
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Berlin’s Rental Maze: What an American Learns When the Landlord Plays Games
If you moved to Berlin from another European country, then you probably already know how many protections renters have here. My German friends hate it when I go on about how awful the US is – especially the low-level injustice and exploitative chicanery – but as a renter, you have essentially no rights in the US. In the land of the…
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