Berlin

The Federal Constitutional Court said that a policy to freeze rents in Berlin for the next five years to combat soaring living costs was unlawful in a ruling published on Thursday morning.

The capital’s “Mietendeckel” law or rent cap “violates the Basic Law and is thus ruled void”, the court in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe said in a blow to millions of tenants.

Berlin districts have imposed fines in the millions against providers of unauthorised holiday flats since 2018. In seven districts of the capital alone, the sum amounted to 3.4 million euros, according to a survey by the news agency dpa among the twelve district offices, nine of which responded. Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg holds the largest share.

Anyone who wants to rent out their flat as a holiday home has needed a permit for this in Berlin since 2014. The corresponding law was tightened by the Senate in 2018. Since then, even those providers who only want to sublet a room to tourists need at least a registration number. They need a further permit if the room is at least half the size of the entire flat.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the president of Germany, has been vaccinated with AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine at the Bundeswehr Hospital in Berlin on Thursday, his office reported.

"I trust the vaccines approved in Germany," Steinmeier said in a statement. "Today I received my first vaccination with AstraZeneca. Vaccination is the crucial step on the way out of the pandemic. Take advantage of the opportunities. Get involved!"

The Berlin Senate agreed on Thursday on stricter contact restrictions from Good Friday. The governing mayor Michael Müller (SPD), announced this after a Senate meeting. According to this, Berliners are initially only allowed to be outside alone or in pairs between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Over Easter, the previous regulations with a maximum of five people from two households will remain. In both cases, children up to the age of 14 are not counted.

Michael Müller (SPD), the governing mayor, defended the stricter rules at a press conference after a senate meeting on Thursday afternoon. "Infections arise through direct contacts in the professional, school and private environment.

The new Berlin urban development plan - abbreviated StEP MoVe - focuses on the period up to 2030. One of Berlin's transport policy goals is to achieve a combined share of cycling, walking, and public transport of at least 82 per cent by then. At 30 per cent, walking should get the relatively largest share.

Primarily for climate protection and air pollution control, the Senate is aiming for a zero-emission zone "in the medium term". Initially in the city centre, later in the whole of Berlin, no vehicles with combustion engines are to be allowed. Günther had originally fought to achieve these goals by 2030 and 2035, respectively. However, the new urban development plan no longer mentions any dates after the red-red-green coalition had been at loggerheads over this issue.

Three unknown persons allegedly attacked a homeless man in Berlin-Britz and set fire to his belongings. The youths or young men allegedly chased the 59-year-old from his tent in the park on Gutschmidtstraße on Friday evening, according to police on Saturday. Afterward, they allegedly beat and kicked him with sticks. According to the report, he initially fled. When he returned, his tent was on fire. Two hours later, another tent of a homeless man burnt down nearby.

Federal prosecutors have charged a German citizen with passing blueprints and building plans of the Bundestag parliament to a suspected GRU agent in the Russian Embassy.

In a press release, Germany's federal prosecutor's office said the suspect worked for a company hired to check the electrical equipment by the Bundestag. In that role, the German national used his access to collect data and pass it on to "an employee in the Russian Embassy in Berlin, who mainly works for the Russian military secret service GRU," between late July and early September 2017.

The Corona agitator Attila Hildmann has apparently disappeared. The German magazine SPIEGEL stated that they learned from investigators, that they have not known where the conspiracy ideologue is since the beginning of February.

On Friday, the Berlin-Tiergarten district court, therefore, issued a warrant for Hildmann's arrest. The investigators accuse him, among other things, of incitement of popular hatred, insult, threat and public incitement to commit crimes.

In about half (48 percent) of the adults who said they tested positive for Covid-19 before the start of the study, no so-called neutralizing antibodies were detectable. This is shown by new data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The result once again speaks in favor of vaccination, said RKI President Lothar Wieler. It is generally not atypical for coronaviruses to lose their antibody protection more quickly than other viruses.

Sergei Maximishin, the deputy chief physician at the clinic in Omsk, Siberia, has died "suddenly" at the age of 55. The hospital's administration said so "with regret" in an official statement, U.S. broadcaster CNN reported. No details were given on the cause of death.

The hospital treated Alexei Navalny last summer immediately after he was poisoned. The Kremlin critic had collapsed on a flight from Tomsk, Siberia, to Moscow in late August. Initially, he was then treated at the hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing of the plane. Two days later, still in a coma, he was taken to Berlin's Charité University Hospital for treatment.

Shortly before the deadline, US electric car manufacturer Tesla has deposited a security deposit required by Brandenburg for the construction of the factory in Grünheide near Berlin. Tesla management late Friday night confirmed the agreement between Tesla Brandenburg and the State Office for the Environment for securing any dismantling obligations, the Environment Ministry announced Saturday.

In a special session on Tuesday, Berlin's government, the state Senate, set to join other parts of the country in implementing a 15-kilometre "Corona-Ring" beyond city limits, with residents restricted to travel within it.

The Senate also decided that the rule would stay in place until the incidence rate keeps below 200 for seven consecutive days.

"The goal of everything we're doing is to reduce travel and contact," Finance Senator Matthias Kollatz told reporters after the session. "The 15-kilometre rule, when the rate hits 200, aims to achieve a further reduction."

The Berlin police draw new hope in the theft of the 100kg "Big Maple Leaf" gold coin from the Bode Museum in 2017. During searches of jewelers in Berlin-Neukölln, the police arrested several people and seized counterfeit coins and amounts of money.

The police hoped that the measure would enable them to find pieces of the gold coin.

Some of the alleged perpetrators have already been legally convicted.

The Berlin Senator for the Interior Andres Geisel has presented the new concept for the fight against terrorism in the capital. Four years after the attack on Breitscheidplatz, the cooperation between security authorities is to be strengthened, cell phone data is to be evaluated more easily and prevention measures are to be promoted.

The new concept "SAVE" (first letters of the German words for: Protect, Enlighten, Prevent and Contain) is intended to support this.

The Berlinale organizers announced the decision to have its upcoming film festival online. Originally set for February 11-21, 2021, the festival is pushing back the dates for its program to from March 1st to 5th.

The winners and a selection of the films from the March festival will then be presented in Berlin theatres in the summer.

"As an answer to the times in which we are living, we have decided to split our offer into two distinct, yet related events and in this way fulfil the mission of the Berlinale," said artistic director Carlo Chatrian in a press release.

Along with various businesses and schools, is already confirmed that Berlin's cultural institutions are to remain closed until the middle of January, and Lederer said in a Twitter video message that he expected the lockdown for cinemas to "go on a little longer."

The Robert-Koch-Institut (RKI) has recorded 33,777 new Covid-19 infections and 813 new deaths in Germany over the past 24 hour-period. Germany's seven-day incidence has increased to 184,4. The Charité hospital in Berlin has switched to an "emergency-only program" on Monday due to the rising number of infections.

Gorillas, a grocery delivery startup that operates its own hyperlocal fulfilment centres and operates in Berlin and Cologne, has raised $44 million in Series A funding round led by hedge fund Coatue.

Founded by Kağan Sümer and Jörg Kattner in May this year, Gorillas delivers groceries within an average of ten minutes. Unlike gig economy models, it employs riders directly. It is emphasising its ability to get fresh groceries, along with other household items, to shoppers at very short notice and at "retail prices".

After an increase of 15% in attacks on politicians compared to 2019, around 100 members of the Bundestag have resorted to the offer of the Federal Criminal Police Office to secure private apartments or houses.

In the current legislative period, the Bundestag has spent around 1.4 million euros on security technology, each member has a budget of 19,000 euros.

After the raid in Berlin and in connection with the results of the investigation into the break-in into the Green Vault, Interpol is also looking for two clan members internationally.

The two brothers are accused of being masterminds of the crime.

After an apparently deliberate fire on a transformer building, the perpetrators broke into the museum in Dresden and stole several brilliant sets.

In 194 member countries, searches have been carried out for the two since November 17, 2020.

The intensive care units of the Emil-von-Behring-Klinikum in Zehlendorf, the Humboldt-Klinikum (Borsigwalde) and the Auguste-Viktoria-Klinikum (Schöneberg) are working to capacity according to a register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine. Corona sufferers in the capital city are no longer admitted there.

Besides, the "Berliner Morgenpost" reports that the St. Marien hospital in Lankwitz may be started again by rescue services and ambulances only at the beginning of the coming week. Also, the Vivantes hospital in Neukölln is considering a stop of admissions.

The hospitals in Berlin are the first hospitals in Germany to be overloaded and close their emergency rooms.