Radio Spaetkauf Presents

Zombies in the GDR. Deutschrap. Heavenly lakes. Joy despite cancer. Days before her death, Maisie Hitchcock and I talked for one last time. In a hospital room in London, she shared her favourite memories from her years in Berlin - and revealed a few untold surprises. It's not all tears, because Maisie could be so funny. Her depth of knowledge about architecture, German history, music and culture is astounding. This is just a sample of her best moments from more than a decade of co-hosting Radio Spaetkauf. Make time for this. Take a walk. Listen until the end. Be prepared to laugh and cry. And maybe Maisie will convince you to change your life. I'm Joel Dullroy, and here I join with co-hosts Andrew Mason, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern to remember Maisie Hitchcock. Thanks to our fellow Radio Spaetkauf collaborators Izzy Choksey, Matilde Keizer, Anne-Marie Harrison and Sebastian Filip. Thanks to Radio Spaetkauf listeners for sending in your favourite memories of Maisie. More About Maisie Maisie Hitchcock was the co-founder and co-host of Radio Spaetkauf. Hers was the first voice ever heard on the podcast, announcing it into existence in late 2011. She was also a writer, tour guide and gave classes on architecture and design. Maisie moved to Berlin in the early 2000s, drawn by an appreciation for the overlooked art and architecture of the GDR. Maisie Hitchcock died from the effects of ovarian cancer on August 9, 2023, three years after her diagnosis. Her only initial symptoms were slight stomach bloating. She wanted others to know the signs of ovarian cancer, for which there is little research. She asked people to donate to charities including Ovarian Cancer Research (UK), Eierstockktrebs Stiftung (Germany), and Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (US). Maisie Hitchock Obituary Radio Spaetkauf Archive How To F#€k Up An Airport Rent Freeze All Episodes and Series Maisie on Megan's Megacan Maisie on RBB TV (use a VPN in Germany) Music Tom Evans - Particle Sound Various Tracks Ducks! Various Tracks Radio Spaetkauf Theme - Time Taken Everett Darling Springtime Won't Wait Crocus & Greenbreir Skiing Deadliest Tide Hiddensee Holly Portal Robyn Hitchcock Various tracks Plesiosaurs In The Desert Celestial Transgression Benjamin Michael Requiem

The Berlin Mietendeckel experiment is finished. The city's revolutionary attempt to freeze rental prices for five years, and reduce overpriced leases, has been killed off by Germany's highest court. The decision has unleashed a political storm. Everyone is angry - but who will voters punish? The R2G parties who tried to regulate rents? Or their opponents, the CDU and FDP who successfully derailed the project? We make the case for why each side is to blame. There's a big bill to pay, as hundreds of thousands of Berliners now face back-payments, higher rents and permanent shadow contracts. We'll run the numbers on the potential local economic crisis that could follow. What hope is there left for affordable housing? And what can the rest of the world learn from Berlin's short-lived rental revolution? The experiment is over. Now it's time to analyze the results The Challengers The CDU and FDP took the Mietendeckel law to the constitutional court, where it was struck down. They perpetuated a false narrative - "build, don't cap" - which claimed, incorrectly, that the Mietendeckel prevented new development (constructions from 2014 were specifically excluded from the law). The CDU was responsible for weakening federal rental regulations in the first place, enabling prices to skyrocket. And then there's political donations - or as Joel calls it, legalized corruption. Almost 80% of the CDU's publicly-declared donations come from the real estate sector. Joel interviews Berlin FDP leader Sebastian Czaja and challenges him on his false claim that the Mietendeckel prevented building, and on the FDP's donations from real estate companies. Czaja says his party takes donations from all parts of society. The Supporters Are the parties who created the Mietendeckel culpable of incompetence? The governing coalition of the SPD, Die Linke and Die Grünen - or R2G - took a huge political and financial gamble, and lost. The R2G promised renters a revolution, but delivered a regression. Many tenants must now make large back payments for which they have not saved. They went against the advice of many legal experts who warned their law was unconstitutional. We speak to two of the Mietendeckel's creators. Kilian Wegner is a law professor and SPD member who co-authored a policy paper which laid the groundwork for the Mietendeckel. He says the R2G was right in taking a chance on an uncertain law, due to out-of-control property prices. Another lawyer, Professor Franz Mayer, wrote an expert opinion which argued Berlin had the constitutional right to create the Mietendeckel. He says there was a chance of success, and believes the court should have helped tenants by negating backpayments. The Big Bill How much will the Mietendeckel fiasco cost? We interview real estate researcher Christoph Trautvetter. He estimates the backpayments will cost renters between €100 to €300 million. Ongoing rent increases will cost around €500 million annually - that's half a billion euros flowing from tenants to landlords, money not going into the local economy. Daniel Halmer from Conny.Legal, formerly Wenigermieter, says tenants may be able to reduce backpayments and shaddow rents by using the Mietpreisebremse - the existing rental regulation that limits rent increases to 10% of local prices. Time to Sieze Property? An even more radical concept is now gaining support - the referendum initiative known as Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen, who want to seize properties from big corporate landlords. We speak to Wouter Bernhardt from the movement's podcast Von Menschen und Mieten. He says expropriation would be a permanent solution to rising rental prices. The End of the Experiment? The Mietendeckel experiment ran too short to answer many questions, and the data was disrupted by the parallel pandemic. But we did learn a few things. If you want a minor reform, demand a revolution. If you get your revolution, prepare for reprisal. Tenants globally now know rent control is no longer excluded from the political discourse. Rent Freeze is produced and presented by Joel Dullroy, Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern. Artwork by Jim Avignon. Music by Tom Evans and Ducks!

Every Berliner knows the new airport is about to open. But few know about the disasters that could happen next. We're here to explain. Masie, Joel and Jöran take part in a test of the new terminal and find it functional, if a bit dull. We meet the only hero in the BER saga - Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, the airport's fourth CEO, and the one who finally finished the job. He's a bureaucratic nerd who visited the building site on weekends to check on progress. And he has a penchant for prose when talking about his airport: "In the evenings, when the sun disappears behind the horizon, or when airplanes with their landing lights are touching down at Schönefeld... I don't want to call it romantic, but there are special moments." But just as BER was turning the corner, COVID-19 has slashed air traffic by 70% and put a huge hole in an already shaky budget. Critics say the pandemic is masking a passenger capacity crunch. Can the airport really handle all of Berlin's travellers? We'll only know after the crisis. How will BER pay the bills? We talk to business professor Hans Georg Gemünden from the Techniches Universität, who says the airport company has used accounting tricks to hide serious financial problems, and predicts it will go bankrupt in several years. Should BER open at all? Environmental activists from Am Boden Blieben (Stay On The Ground) will blockade the airport to protest unnecessary air travel. They propose a frequent flyer tax to discourage jetsetting. Radio Spaetkauf urges you to support any of the many charities rescuing people from drowning in the Mediterranean. We all deserve a good and safe life, no matter where we are born. European governments are acting immorally, but some people are trying to save lives. Donate to: Sea-Watch: http://www.sea-watch-org Mare Liberum: https://mare-liberum.org/ Alarm Phone: https://alarmphone.org/ Sea Eye: https://sea-eye.org/ Or any other Mediterranean rescue organization. How To Fuck Up An Airport is presented by Radio Spaetkauf and RadioEins. Producer: Joel Dullroy Presenters: Joel Dullroy, Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern Music: Ducks! - https://ducksmakemusic.bandcamp.com Artwork: Jim Avignon - http://www.jimavignon.com Subscribe to Radio Spaetkauf on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radio-spaetkauf-berlin-podcast/id571999392 Support us with a monthly donation! https://www.radiospaetkauf.com/donate

Radio Spaetkauf presents our new series - Rent Freeze. What happens when an entire city of 3.5 million residents stops paying rent increases for the next five years? Welcome to Rent Freeze, a podcast about Berlin's rental revolution. Berlin is about to introduce the Mietendeckel, a law that will freeze rents for five years, cap new rental contracts at a maximum price, and allow some tenants to claim a rent reduction. Supporters say it will be the best thing to happen to the city since the fall of the Wall But investors and landlords are outraged. They say the reforms will scare off businesses, leave houses unbuilt and in disrepair, and feed a grey market for off-the-books rental as desperate Berliners try to find a flat. On this episode we explain the basics of the law, and talk to Daniel Halmer of Wenigermiete.de about why the existing rent controls haven't worked. Produced and presented by Joel Dullroy, Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern. Music by Tom Evans and Ducks! Art by Jim Avignon. Rent Freeze is a production of Radio Spaetkauf and RadioEins. More at www.radiospaetkauf.com

BER has been built twice - the first time incorrectly, the second time incompletely. We hear from Marco, an engineer who worked on site. Employees were busy stealing copper instead of fixing the fire system. Some managers got rich taking bribes. Informers had their coffee poisoned. Joel and Jöran drive out to the unfinished BER terminal to inspect the too-short escalators that end with stairs. They were just one of 150,000 mistakes discovered in an audit after the 2012 cancellation. Cables were stuffed together in overloaded enclosures - a fire risk. The sprinkler pipes too small to carry the required water. More than 600 fire walls had to be reconstructed. And the builders forgot to install lightning rods. Even when it's fixed, BER will need another overhaul: "As soon as they open it they have to modernize it," Marco says. "The technology is old standards. New airports are already building in a different way. This is going to be from the beginning an old airport." But finally, heads are starting to roll... the wrong heads. The BER supervisory board fires the only people who know what's going on, creating new chaos. Then they fire the CEO Rainer Schwarz, but bungle the paperwork. Will any politician ever take responsibility? How To F#€k Up An Airport is presented by Radio Spaetkauf and RadioEins. Producer: Joel Dullroy Presenters: Joel Dullroy, Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern Music: Ducks! Artwork: Jim Avignon

BER is the international airport code for Berlin Brandenburg Airport, nickname Willy Brandt. It has also become a signifier of failure, incompetence, corruption and Berlin's general inability to get its act together. If you've flown to Berlin Schönefeld Airport in the last few years, you'll have seen BER as your plane taxied along the runway. But despite outward appearances, BER is far from finished. It has been under construction for 11 years, blown through six opening dates, three general managers and two state leaders. Costs have ballooned from around €1 billion to at least €5.4 billion. Across this series, you'll learn why the escalators are too short, why the lights are always on, and why the rooms seemed to be numbered by bingo. We'll interview insiders and disgruntled workers, chase ghost trains running to the terminal, and go inside the unfinished airport. On this episode we'll go way back to before any plans had been drawn, before even the Berlin wall had come down, to discover the foundational flaws that continue to haunt the unfinished airport. Presented by Radio Spaetkauf and RadioEins Produced by Joel Dullroy, Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern Music: Ducks! Artwork: Jim Avignon