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?
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.
(Continuation of the saga about the balcony “that would not be affected”, and the biggest lie ever told to me).
That part of the scaffolding (which is separate from the rest of the scaffolding as it was built much later) has now been there for two years, and those disgusting mats have been there for three months, for no apparent reason other than restricting my use of the balcony even further.
My question is now (yeah right, as if I ever receive any replies to my questions on this matter) – will this be the third whole summer season that I am unable to use my balcony fully? And the second whole summer season that I can’t invite visitors (2019 and 2021 – luckily for them there were other reasons why I could not invite people over during 2020 ……).
I have been lied to more times in the five years I have lived in Germany than in the 63 previous years living in Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, and Denmark (again) put together.
I have conveniently forgotten most of them because they were less important in the grand scheme of things. The worst one, and the one I will never forget or forgive is the one told to me in the Eigentümerversammlung where we were told about the renovation project – Viktoriahöfe – next door and promised that our balconies would not be affected.
We were also told that that part of the scaffolding would be there for about eight months, i.e. till March-April 2020 (!).
And now they are letting several pairs of rats with wings (pigeons) nest on the shelf just above my balcony and I think also on the one above that.
I have had psittacosis twice before, with no after-effects, and I am not keen on tempting fate once more, which means that my balcony is off-limits for me from now on.
I thought the previous summer 2019, and spring and summer 2020 (the year where I had to spend most of my time at home (!!)) were ruined because at least 50% of the daylight was stolen by the monster scaffolding and I had to look at all that ugliness. But I could at least spend time on the balcony and grow a few herbs etc. there, although I did not feel like inviting friends around, even during the times where it was allowed.
However, now that they have let the netting collapse around the scaffolding, allowing pigeons to nest virtually on my balcony, but out of reach for me to remove them, I have to stay indoors altogether and also give up growing herbs etc. there.
EDIT 4 March – this one paragraph added: Despite my tendency to catch psittacosis easily, and the fact that pigeons also constantly try to nest on my own balcony (which I am able to control – sort of), and my resulting lack of sympathy for them, I still think this constitutes cruelty to animals, and despite several messages to Cresco Capital Group, they are seemingly refusing to respond let alone do anything about it: https://www.facebook.com/1073953174/videos/10221891189003568/.
So I have to stay off the streets as much as possible to avoid one virus – and off my balcony to avoid another one, in this case purely because Cresco Capital Group can’t be bothered to finish their work on one wall and remove that part of the scaffolding. This particular part of the scaffolding was added much later than the rest of the scaffolding and could therefore be removed again much earlier. If they wanted to. But the magic word, as ever, is DENKMALSCHUTZ, which means they can behave whichever way they like and I just have to be honoured and eternally grateful to be such a close – literally – neighbour to a building which – and this is the big irony – if they ever finish it in – what five? eight? years (this IS Berlin after all) – will still be one of the ugliest buildings in the world.
The wall has been looking like this since some time between 22 and 25 September when I came home from a trip. I wonder how long I will have to look at that.
This time, everything is covered in sawdust which I assume will not be too difficult to remove, but I had not planned on having to clean the balcony once more this side of winter.
