DIGITAL OFFSET PRINT Undubbed at CineStar Original FROM 13 OCTOBER INFERNO Select shows in English at IMAX with Laser In INFERNO, symbologist Robert (Tom Hanks) teams up with Dr. Brooks (Felicity Jones) in order to stop a global virus! And from 27. Oct., meet DOCTOR STRANGE, Marvel Comic’s brainy new super hero – starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Mads Mikkelsen and Tilda Swinton! Info and tickets at cinestar.de WHATEVER YOU NEED. carbon neutral natureOffice.com | DE-179-229349 print production WE ARE FAST! PRINTPRODUCTION PRENZLAUER BERG: Kastanienallee 91 · call 44 02 44 02 Wörther Str. 29 · call 44 03 77 0 visit our website: www.solid-earth.de ´TIL MIDNIGHT copying printing binding anything
Berlin in English since 2002 TRUMP Yes, there are Republicans here – and they’re thinking about choosing the “lesser evil”. pg.8 SECRETS A Floridian comes to Berlin and finds out the truth about why his grandpa fl ed Nazi Germany. pg.20 €3.90 <strong>October</strong> <strong>2016</strong> www.exberliner.com BLUES Singer Eb Davis on what it was like being a “blues ambassador” behind the Wall. pg.26 COLUMN— Political Notebook Election Quiz <strong>2016</strong> <strong>153</strong> How we l do you know the US presidential candidates? pg.6 Populism isn’t that popular Konrad Werner explains German politics. This month: Why is the AfD winning? The Amis left 22 years ago... but thanks to army brats, redneck bars and expat burger flippers, US presence is alive and kicking. And with the election looming, Berliners have America on the brain. Editor-in-chief Nadja Vancauwenberghe Deputy editor Rachel Glassberg Web editor Walter Crasshole Film Paul O’Callaghan Music Michael Hoh Art director Stuart Bell U1 Cover <strong>153</strong>.indd 3 23/09/16 00:14 Cover illustration by Agata Juszczak Publishers Maurice Frank Nadja Vancauwenberghe Ioana Veleanu Editorial Design Art Amanda Ribas Tugwell Stage Lily Kelting Food Françoise Poilâne Start-ups Sophie Atkinson Feature / Politics Ruth Schneider Graphic design Maria Runarsdottir This month’s contributors Dani Arbid, Victoria Barnes, Tom Cox, Dyllan Furness, Anna Gyulai Gaal, Jean-Michel Hauteville, Ava Johnson, Julyssa Lopez, Kaya Payseno, Kate Richards. Photography: Karolina Spolniewski, Maria Runarsdottir, Erica Löfman. Illustration: Catherine Franck, Ulli Lust, Agata Sasiuk. Ad sales / Marketing Maurice Frank (business manager) Bettina Hajanti (sales) To discuss advertising please contact us: Tel 030 4737 2966, ads@exberliner.com Subscriptions www.exberliner.com/subscribe Iomauna Media GmbH Max-Beer-Straße 48, 10119 Berlin-Mitte Tel 030 4737 2960, Fax 030 4737 2963 www.exberliner.com, Issn 1610-9015 Icons from flaticon.com Germany has had five state elections this year and, since our media is a fevered gaggle of click-merchants, each one has been reported as a catastrophe for Angela Merkel: the German people’s angry verdict on the chancellor’s refugee policy. The reason why reporters reported this is mainly because the losing candidates fielded by her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), went round to any hack that would listen and told them that this was why they lost. Lorenz Caffier in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Julia Klöckner in Rheinland-Palatine, and then Frank Henkel in Berlin all ran “we’re-not-Merkel” campaigns that featured talk of burqa bans and “upper limits” on asylum seekers and ended up STILL losing voters to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party. A moderate exception was Reiner Haseloff, the state premier of Sachsen-Anhalt, who led the CDU to a smaller loss of votes and was re-elected. Even though the AfD is deciding what politics is in Germany at the moment (helped by the media’s obsession with one particular minority group), when the big government parties pretend they’re protest parties – banging and blaming and coming up with pointless policies like banning burqas – it only helps the AfD. No voter wants Diet Coke when they can get Fat Coke. The truth is, though, that Germany’s “refugee policy” is actually the most restrictive it could be under the constitution, whose Article 16a guarantees the right of asylum to anyone under political persecution. The populist-right talk about imposing an “upper limit” on asylum seekers is – as every single one of the politicians who keep demanding it knows – unconstitutional. So the next best thing, which Merkel has already done, is extend the list of “safe countries of origin”. That legal amendment, made in 1993, made it easier to speed up asylum applications and keep large groups of people out, and thanks to Merkel’s supposedly pro-refugee government, it’s a list that is now longer than ever – including all of the Balkan countries and soon Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Meanwhile, the government continues to bring in regulations that will hinder integration – it is now almost impossible to bring spouses and children here, refugees have to help pay for their own integration courses and cash allowances have been replaced by food tokens. You think finding a flat in Berlin is hard? Try finding a flat, then telling the landlord they will have to wait four to six weeks while a local authority processes your application to move from your statedesignated home. In other words, even if the AfD won a massive 40-percent-plus victory in all the states in Germany and then went on to take over the federal government in next year’s general election, they would find that Merkel has already imposed most of the changes they would. The rest is noise, because what “populist” voters are actually voting for is a political “fuck you”. It’s a good feeling for isolated, riled-up people in Meck-Pom or Sachsen-Anhalt, but it doesn’t have much to do with making laws to administer problems more easily. Or running the country, as it’s also known. n LPG BioMarkt Kaiserdamm GmbH, Kaiserdamm 12, 14057 Berlin 8x in Berlin Charlottenburg: Kaiserdamm 12 Friedenau: Hauptstr. 78 Kreuzberg: Mehringdamm 20 Kreuzberg: Reichenberger Str. 37 Prenzlauer Berg: Kollwitzstr. 17 Steglitz: Albrechtstr. 33 Tempelhof: Viktoriastr. 18 Treptow: Bouchéstr. 12 NEW STORE: Alt-Moabit 98 (Spreebogen) Welcome to bio paradise LPG BioMarkt fair & local since 1994 Honey 1kg from 5,99 € * Wine 0,75l from 2,49 € * Kiwis 1 piece from 0,25 € * Bread 1kg from 2,75 € * Pasta 500g from 0,89 € * Potatoes 1kg from 1,99 € * *Permanently reduced prices for members Check our website for special offers and a lot more information: www.lpg-biomarkt.de
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