A couple of weeks ago, our “Hausverwaltung” – Schön & Sever – forgot to tell us that we would have no water for over half a day, starting in the early morning and lasting till the early afternoon. They did not reply to our questions when we discovered it, nor did they bother to let us know how long it would last. I don’t go in for bottled water normally, so I don’t have a stock in the house, but if I had known, I would have made sure I had some for my dog and myself to drink, to make coffee, and to at least be able to brush my teeth in the morning.

Today, our lift will be out of order till about noon tomorrow. This is not due to an emergency but part of a major overhaul which has been in the planning for a while. The people who have arrived to do the work told me that. Not Schön & Sever. Admittedly, it will do both Max and me good to walk up and down the stairs the five to seven times it will be necessary over the next 30 hours. But if I had known that, I would not have set aside part of today to do my weekly supermarket round, and I would not have booked the mobile vet for noon today if I had known they would have to schlepp themselves and their gear up the stairs to the sixth floor. Not to mention my trusty cleaning help who always brings much of his own gear in a trolley. The janitor was here yesterday. Would it have killed them to make sure he put up a note about this then?

Is it just me ……?

When I moved into this building, there was a café in the ground floor which I soon came to greatly appreciate. Friendly staff, good coffee, freshly baked croissants, freshly pressed orange juice, light meals cooked on the spot for lunch, and free wifi (of which I made much use in the beginning before it was available in my flat upstairs). It was run by a lady with the help of her sons and a friend of hers. I was always made to feel more than welcome.

At the time, they closed around 18.00 which I always found a shame since I found it quite cosy that there was always somebody there. It is not a big place – at the time, it accommodated two or three tables inside, and the same number outside on the pavement.

Later, they asked permission to stay open till about 21.00, and during UEFA 2016, they – like all other cafés, restaurants, kiosks etc. in Berlin – showed the games on a big screen just outside the café. During the games, mostly coffee and alcohol-free beer was consumed, and once a game was over, everybody went home.

I dread to think what it would have been like if most guests had been Danish, British and Irish in terms of alcohol consumed, the mess left behind, and noise made – all through the rest of the night. But – as in so many cases – hypocrisy ruled then and still does, and soon came the beginning of the end for the café.

Two of the other flat owners started harassing the people running the café. First, there was allegedly too much noise coming from the café in the evenings. This was complete nonsense. First of all, it was only until 21.00 hrs, and secondly, it could not be heard above the traffic noise at all.

Later, the same owner started claiming that drugs were being dealt in the café. This was such a blatantly vicious lie that there ought to be a law against spreading such totally unfounded despicable garbage. But here it is again: the word lie and the concept of lying seems to have a different meaning and level of acceptability in Germany from most other countries in the world. I have a feeling I was the only person in the building who tried to object, among other things in the form of a letter to our – so-called – Hausverwaltung, a letter which was completely ignored.

On top of the above complaints, the lady running the café told me about several incidents of more direct harassment in the form of threats to collect signatures against them etc. Furthermore, her application to install a cash withdrawal machine on the premises was denied. For some strange reason, we had to vote on that in an annual meeting of owners. Don’t ask me why we were even asked. I was the only one who voted for it. I simply could not see how it could be any of my business at all, and anything to attract guests in a very boring and unattractive street, with just a trickle of tourists ambling by on their way to and from the Jewish Museum, could only be an advantage.

Oh, did I forget to mention she and her family were Turkish? So it was all pure bloody-minded, evil, xenophobic discrimination. I see no other motivation at all. A big disappointment and something I had not expected from Berlin.

In any case, in about March 2019, the lady gave up and terminated the lease. To this day, I am still missing that café, and not only because it has become such an eyesore. I thoroughly enjoyed it while it was there. The rooms have been empty since then and for about a year now, it has looked like in the photo above.

So bikes parked in the courtyard are considered unaesthetic. This mess in the ground floor facing the street apparently not. They sure do have weird tastes in this country.