I'm a born-and-raised Berliner but I moved westwards in 2002. When growing up here, studying and working I always took the Öffis, I didn't even have a driver's license. Back in the days where the 2-hour-ticket could still be used to get there and back again. Or just for funsies take the S7 from the east to Alexanderplatz, then the 100 bus to Zoo and then another bus all the way out to Heerstraße.
That is to say, I've been on a lot of Öffis in the 25 years I've lived in Berlin.
But coming here for Christmas, arriving in Südkreuz, taking the Ringbahn to Ostkreuz and then further east I can understand why women might feel uncomfortable doing so.
I hadn't really gotten to the upper platform yet when a one-legged junkie in a wheelchair would roll dangerously close to the tracks and suddenly jump down on the platform and down onto the tracks because he saw something valuable. He was immediately screamed at by several people which did not bother him in the slightest. Whatever he saw was of no use to him which he audibly announced by howling and luckily he came back on the platform, in his chair and he rolled off.
Later on the S42 there were several very disheveled people shuffling through the train and again some junkies at Ostkreuz.
It was very disheartening to see.
This year I was also in Vancouver and they, too, had a real problem with the Fentanyl junkies. In the evening they'd zombie walk all over Gastown.
Even in the 90s we had homeless people in the entrances of subway stations but it feels at least like it's gotten so much worse since then. :-(
its a mirror of society. less people get chances and drown. too much money is taken out of the ecosystem. but thats no news.
edit: its usually also when people start to blame the struggle on the powerless.
this is simply not true. the main reasons are new dangerous drugs like crack and fentanyl + increased poverty-migration from mainly eastern european countries
most homeless people that live on the streets in Germany are german actually. what’s way more decisive than the substance itself is whether a person lives isolated with their addiction or whether they have a support system
Not true. The vast majority of visible homeless are eastern european
64% of the people living on the streets are german. perhaps you just notice homeless people more if you don’t perceive them as german.
Homeless does not equal living on the streets. So your little statistic is just misleading and citing it demonstrates how unfamiliar you are with the entire subject.
All aid organisations in the city agree that the VAST majority of VISIBLE homeless are in fact from eastern Europe. That's one of the main problems in the first place since those people have nor right to any welfare service
yes that is why i specified homeless people living on the streets since that is what most people perceive as homeless. most homeless immigrants in germany have accomodation. you just don’t know how to read apparently.
feel free to link your source, i volunteered for an aid organisation and am not aware of any numbers that prove your claim
my little statistic is from the official report by the Bundesregierung
The statistic you provided talks about homeless people in general and on a federal level, not about people living on the street in Berlin. There are no reliable statistics about them since they are illegal and actively avoid being counted. All relevant aid organizations do agree that they are largely eastern Europeans. Everday life confirms this
again, you apparently did not read my comment at all. i clearly specified "in germany" why tf even reply to a comment if you can’t be arsed to read it and just make shit up.
the report does differentiate between homeless people living in accommodation, homeless people living on the streets and homeless people living with friends/family etc so no it does not just talk about homeless people in general but why bother fact checking your claims.
i can tell from your comments and your profile history that you most likely never worked with homeless people and you won’t cite a source so i apologise for being blunt but you don’t seem to have a clue
sounds like Schwurbelei to me
The commenter wants to make sure that enough readers here think they should blame east Europeans. Your report only disturbs his story because it contradicts it. So don’t use too much energy to argue with him.
did you ever take a look at the relative numbers? and berlin has a much stronger support system then most other big cities in europe
what numbers are you referring to? yes germany has generally a good support system but not everyone has access to resources. most people i’ve worked with fell through the security net. and by support system i mainly meant family and friends providing support :)
sure, you can see the relative numbers in this official report (page 29): https://www.bmwsb.bund.de/SharedDocs/downloads/DE/veroeffentlichungen/wohnen/wohnungslosenbericht-2024.pdf
homeless people from poland, romania and bulgaria are strongly overrepresented. of course, these people still deserve much better support than they currently receive. however, the report also shows that the increase in homelessness in berlin is not only a result of insufficient government support, but also of misguided migration and integration policies
For God's sake. What chances are you talking about? Germany is one of the most developed countries in the world, offering every opportunity imaginable, and at the same time having a ridiculously broad social policy. I can't even imagine how hard you have to do your worst here to hit the rock bottom.
But you're right about one thing, it really is a mirror of society. The greater the proportion of people who tolerate those jerks, blaming everyone and everything but them for their antisocial behavior, the more you’ll see the consequences of this approach.
edit: all the downvoters are welcome to express themselves.
Thats because you either dont want to, or cant be empathetic. It's actually quite easy and there are lot of reports, articles, documentaries out there showing how, but i reckon it's easier to blame the individual.
If you're A) having mental issues and B) have no social support net
It's almost given that you will 'fall through the net".
Please be my guest and tell me what mental illness makes you smoke crack in the fucking U-Bahn. I'm very interested.
And you know what? Stop weaponizing empathy all the time, it doesn't help the argument. I'm empathetic enough, but there's a limit.
So whats your explanation? A mentally stable person just gets up one day and thinks to themselves: "oh boy I cant wait to fucking smoke crack in the ubahn today."?
I get the feeling of feeling burnt out from empathy but it's not "weaponizing empathy" to say the people need help, not judgement. The fact that more people need help in recent years is obviously a systemic issue.
You're confusing cause and effect. No, they just made one wrong choice after another until they ended up there. Who's fault is that?
I don't judge people who find themselves in a difficult situation and are at least trying to get out of it. Such people can always count on my support and help. But you're accusing me of not feeling empathy for insolent fucking assholes who can't even make the effort to get out of the subway to light their shit, and trying to make me feel guilty for it. It is a weaponization of empathy, yes.
Well its easy to blame the individual because then we dont have to act as an collective(it gets pretty rare)
Well, it's easy to blame the system, because then we don't have to take any responsibility for ourselves.
dosent help all the homeless people right now on christmas eve. We have to do better as society
Okay, I will try my best to explain what can cause someone to come to that point. Maybe they were married, their wife passed away, they got depression and couldnt work amymore. Because of this, they lost their work and shortly after that their home. Maybe they came to Berlin/ germany from some eastern EU country and didnt know how or where to get help for their problems and didnt know anyone in this City. They started asking for money and because life on the street is really really harsh, they started doing drungs.
Or maybe they had a really bad childhood and ran away from home and ended up on the street.
Or they had an injury which made working impossible and they started using pain killers
There are so many different reasons and stories how people ended up on the street and using drugs. We can blame society/ our government that those people dont get the adequat help they need.
How does any of these stories explain consumption at the U-Bahn station?
Before Germany, I lived in a country that is significantly poorer ($4000 GDP per capita) and has no social programmes at all. Guess how many times I saw open drug use there?
Where else would these people use? I dont like it either that they do this so openly but if youre addicted and need your next shot you at one point dont care anymore what happens around you. The usage of your drug is more important than the picture society has of you. And the picture society has of these people is already bad, they cant really make it more bad. Their whole life is focused on the drugs. We have to give them rooms where they can practice safer use (Druckräume) with some sort of medical attention nearby. It would take some of them off the U-Bahn and hopefully makes it safer for everyone.
Idk, let them do it in hospitals and playgrounds, or better yet, let them use your apartment. I think it's safe enough.
You're a person of great empathy, so why not?
People with addiction will use their substance, no matter where. And because of this they need Druckräume.
When I was a kid in our house drugs were sold (we lived 5th floor and on the ground floor they were selling) and Junkies would use right behind our door (our flat had a door in the front part of the house and one we didnt use to the Seitenflügel). When the police raided that place they found dozens of used needles behind that door. I am glad I never went there by accident and I think its a shame they use on playgrounds. Its dangerous. I know that. But if there were places for them I believe some would go there for their drug use.
But until we have Druckräume, they are welcome to use your apartment, right? Otherwise, you are a terrible, unempathetic person and part of the problem.
what illness makes you smoke crack in the U-Bahn? addiction?
Addiction to U-Bahn? Did you even understand the point of the question?
don’t be difficult on purpose please. addiction to substances. but if you don’t have a home and it’s cold outside the U-Bahn is somewhat safe and warm.
Oh, so why not just shit right there at the station, since it's so safe and warm there? I'm not asking why addicts use drugs. I'm asking what, apart from being assholes, compels them to do it openly and in public.
It's not me being difficult, it's you pretending not to understand what the problem is.
hate to break this to you but people do shit in the U-Bahn.
i don’t think you understand what the root of the problem is. it’s almost never malicious. they don’t really have anywhere to go. we need more consumption rooms people have easy access to and feel safe visiting.
Holy fuck. Consumption rooms. What else? Maybe crack delivery service or foot massage? Big screen TV? Morning blowjob?
I know, I'm surprised you haven't handed them the paper yet.
It's almost funny how you seem to have no understanding of the concept of mental illness at all.
No, it's funny how you don't understand the concept of causation. There is no mental issue that makes you use crack, there is drug abuse that causes mental issues.
opportunities are not available to all and opportunities are not equal in germany. its easy to fall through the system and not everyone has the resources or luck to find the help they need. the difference between most homeless people and the rest of our community is usually nothing but a healthy support system
Go on, tell me, a person from a shithole third world country, about resources and luck.
a country having resources and citizens having equal opportunities and access to these resources are two different things. having worked in different schools i can assure you that opportunities are not equal. children don’t have equal prospects to education and people face structural discrimination
Do you even know how things are in other countries?
No one said "equal". I said there are plenty of opportunities, and they are available if you put in the effort. And the opportunity to not shit yourself on the subway after getting wasted is definitely available to literally everyone.
Come on, I came here 18 months ago with one fucking backpack, no education, no German, barely speaking English. And somehow even I managed not to get my life together.
yes, i’ve lived abroad. other countries have homeless people too. i’ve also seen worse than Berlin.
you were replying to a comment that was explaining that some people are disadvantaged. these opportunities you speak about are factually not available to all people.
i am glad things worked out for you well. it’s sad to see your lack of consideration of others though. merry christmas.
Dude, you're not following the point at all. I said that Germany offers more opportunities than most countries in the world, as well as support if you fail. You disagree?
They didn't. But they worked out, and if I keep trying instead of whining and looking for someone to blame, then they will work out well.
I'm not Christian, but Merry Christmas anyway!
It does, in theory, for people who manage to use them. Which is made very difficult on purpose to prevent people from doing so. Fill out lots of Formulare, provide Nachweise for things you don't have access to, wait for months to have it processed...
Are you familiar with the concept of comparison? I have lived in four countries, two of which are drastically worse than Germany in every possible metric. In none of them have I seen homelessness or open drug use on such a scale.
Just talk to the homeless people directly. They aren't there for fun. More than half have mental health issues. In fact Germany is the state with the worst vertical social mobility in Europe
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2817602
https://landgeist.com/2023/09/23/social-mobility-in-europe/
I'm not talking about homeless people. I'm talking about drug addicts who are no longer even shy about openly using drugs in public places. They don't even look for a secluded place to use anymore; they sit in parks, playgrounds, and subway stations as casually as if they were supposed to be there, because people around have gotten used to it and are tolerant of such behavior.
It’s a well known fact in the medical community that addiction is a mental disease. It needs proper treatment and care.
People turn to drugs to ease their pain. If someone is homeless and has no support system and no hope in having a better life, they will almost certainly turn to drugs to ease this pain. Whether their homelessness caused drug addiction or their drug addiction caused homelessness, those people need help.
If this is something you can’t wrap your head around then there is nothing anyone can tell you to change your mind. And if you aren’t holding this position because you are misinformed, then there is nothing else other than lack of empathy. And that’s not weponizing the word.
You completely missed the point, didn't you? Once again. Addiction is a disease, OPEN use is not. If I have diarrhea, I don't shit in the middle of a grocery store.
And addiction is not schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, which come on suddenly and for reasons beyond your control. Drug use leads to addiction, and that's no surprise to anyone, including those who start using them. It is a choice, and it has predictable consequences.
Mental issues don't lead to crack use, but crack use does lead to mental issues. And I don't dispute that these people need shelter, rehabilitation and replacement therapy, but a permissive attitude toward their antisocial behavior and disregard for all possible social norms is not helpful at all.
No fucking way. Setting reasonable boundaries does not mean a lack of empathy, but common sense. I may feel sorry for a homeless person, but as soon as they start, say, jerking off in a subway car, my empathy ends and they can go fuck themselves.
It’s also a country with one of the least penetrable class systems. Least private wealth and high bureaucracy. For benefits you need a bank account. For a bank account you need an address. For an address you need a bank account. Good support system? Yes but also many cracks to slip through
To say Germany, where bureaucracy is slow and inefficient af, where fax machines are still in operation, where a simple road construction can take up one year to finish, and where you can't even buy daily commodity and groceries on Sundays, is one of the most developed countries in the world was your first mistake.
Want to compare with other countries or do I need to explain the meaning of the word “most” to you? Check out how the world outside Europe and North America is doing, and let's get back to this conversation.
What a bullshit - so these people were forced by the evil capitalists who don’t pay social welfare and ended up being hooked on drugs that made them high? No way. They took it deliberately. With their own minds. They were in charge. Society and left circles made them believe that drug use like cannabis is a good thing and then it took a wrong turn. It’s the fault of the left idiots who always blame others and who think that digs are a cool things. No mercy with them.
There is literally no one ever who thinks using fentanyl is good. No clue where you get this shit from…
Dass du dumm wie Scheiße bist hättest du uns auch mit wesentlich weniger Worten mitteilen können
From my experience in Berlin, yes. It has gotten worse. I'm not 100% sure it is just drugs though. I really think Berlin (and Germany?) needs to get its ass in gear as far as building housing go, among other things.
I only recently learned that in the south-east in Saxony they have a real Meth problem. :-/
That explains their voting habits
Nazis and meth seem to go hand-in-hand, from US biker gangs to literal SS troops burning through their Pervitin-supplies. It's just a natural symbiosis.
That's far from new. Meth was common there 15 years ago.
since more than a decade or so
Is this really a housing problem?
I feel like you can still get a very cheap apartment if you decide to live in the middle of nowhere in Germany. Could be wrong though
It is a housing problem. Because for people with drug issues or psychological issues that would lead to drug abuse, moving to middle of nowhere where they have no social ties, no institutional support, and less education or job perspectives, is not a working strategy.
And for people who are fine, it's similar. Sure some areas in Berlin might be overly popular, but by and large, the housing isn't where the jobs and universities are.
It's one of the problems, maybe the biggest one for otherwise stable people. But I think access to mental health care and rising costs of living coupled with low incomes are another two.
Yes of course I didn't mean to say it's the one root cause of everything. But drug issues become more visible when coupled with homelessness.
I agree with you, I think part of the housing problem is people just all flocking into the same areas.
If you don’t really have your shit together, aren’t very responsible, and you lose your apartment in Berlin though, I think it’s very possible that you just end up in the street.
But that is a housing problem. Once you lose your Appartement is hard to get another one. If you get a job in another place, or try to move out to get away from abusive partners or simply a bad environment, you simply can't.
Housing crisis also means your friends or family don't have a living room anymore to crash in times of crisis, so it's straight to the streets.
You can easily find a sublet apartment in a couple of days.
Why would they build new houses, the shortage of housing increases the values of the buildings that already exist. It makes landlords much richer. That's the only thing that matters.
It is way more complicated than that. The builders are not the same people as the existing landlords. They are often building to sell at a profit - something that a housing shortage could make easier for them.
But they don't, at least not fast enough to make up the deficit and then some, to keep up with the population growth.
Since they are not, there are two solutions.
And why is that way? it is a mix of things.
Either the city builds more, the city changes the regulatory environment to make trying a project here less risky, or things won't change.
Just to support this. An investor have bought terrain near/at Ernst-Thälmann-Park 2011. The innitial plan was to build 500 apartments. He just got permission to go for 400... thats 15 years, the money locked into this are insane and from now i can predict that 100m2 appt will go for 1mil at least. Burocrats are slowly killing Germany/Berlin.
People are doing drugs openly in U-Bahn stations, smoking crack or injecting heroin or other stuff with syringes right into their legs / feet. Yes, I’ve seen this multiple times, during the day, right next to other people or children.
There are some stations were it‘s really, really bad and they’re blocking entire benches with three, four, five people sharing their stuff.
I’ve seen people do it openly in doorways around Kottbusser Tor. Yes, it has become way worse and everyone who says it’s normal, it definitely isn’t. This was different just 5 years ago, by no means so widespread and open.
Leinestrasse represent
Leinestraße, Boddinstraße, Heinrich-Heine-Straße - many of the U8 stations in the Southern part of the line are ridden with junkies, but these three are especially terrible from my experience.
U Kurfürstenstr. at 10am
I hear you ...have to get off there everyday after work and it is horrendous
I've lived at Ubahn Leinestrasse for 10 years and there definitely seems be more open drug usage there in the last few years. I don't remember ever seeing it when I first moved here.
It just moved around. It used to be Neukölln station, then Leinestraße, and back and forth again.
In my opinion, most of them don't really look homeless though. I'm not saying that one needs a "look" to be homeless, but quite a lot of them are dressed relatively normally and don't look too dirty.
I wonder if they have homes, but just use the station to do drugs? Surely there are less obvious places to do it?
Excuse my ignorance, I'm genuinely curious.
Once saw a man injecting his penis at Alexanderplatz
same, walked right through the smoke from someone smoking H underground at Voltastraße
Gratis Drogen. Sei dankbar.
100% it has been getting gradually worse since Corona (2020), and recently it feels like a threshold has been crossed where it’s just right on the nose across many Kiez in Berlin
It was different even in 2022, something happened last year and this year..
I have lived in Germany for almost three years and I also saw differences in terms of the amount of people and also how openly they do it
Homelessness has doubled since 2022 (though that seems to include people staying with friends/family) according to the first sources in Google so you are likely seeing that.
[deleted]
Conflating Ket and MDMA with things like Fentanyl and meth is just silly.
[deleted]
Saying "Ket, MDMA and other hard drugs" implies these are in the same category. If you didn't mean to imply that, that's cool, but inadvertently you did. And yes stuff can be cut, but on the whole, Ket and MDMA use tends to be casual and fairly harmless and ideally should be made legal and regulated for safety.
Keep strong!
That’s absurd. You’re portraying this as some sort of 90s Russia.
Really, has this person been to a country where people actually have no future? It doesn't look like Germany!
It just shows how immensely privileged some people are. Germany is the third richest country in the world(!) yet some people act like the only avenues for young people are drugs and crime.
I think Berlin just tolerates it more, in munich for example drug users without housing are shooed away from the city centre so they end up consuming in underground tunnels.
i feel like we need more safe consumption rooms for people so they don’t do it in the u-bahn and other public places.
More ignored than tolerated, really. Berlin has no real concept, personnel or money to tackle these issues.
Nein, ignoriert keinesfalls. Ich bin süchtig und hab in München gelebt. Dort wird man ständig vertrieben. Hauptbahnhof, Platzverweis -> Sendlinger Tor, Platzverweis, usw.
[deleted]
Was in seiner Aussage hat dich zu dem Kommentar verleitet?
In Hamburg they are much less present as well. Berlin should do the same.
i don’t think the way munich for instance deals with this is good at all. not sure how Hamburg handles this.
Hamburg handles drug issues even worse than Berlin!
I see people openly smoking crack in train station entrances every time I go to Hamburg. I even got a contact high the last time I was there when someone came and smoked it right next to me on the platform at Hauptbahnhof.
Well, there are only that many ways to deal with this issue. Opening safe consumption centres breeds dealers in the streets and parks around them, which is absolutely unacceptable to normal people living in, or crossing, the area that soon becomes unsafe to everyone but the junkies.
Studies actually show that consumption centres reduce crime significantly, as well as drug related deaths. it offers users a safe setting which results in less people using drugs in public
this video offers a comprehensive easy introduction :)
Wann wurde in Hamburg denn aufgeräumt? Vor allem wenn man den falschen Ausgang am Hauptbahnhof nimmt, konnte es zumindest vor einem Jahr vorkommen, dass man hart grenzwertig angebettelt wird. Wenn man dann eine frische 0,5er Getränkeflasche anbietet, damit sie einen nicht weiter nerven, bekommt man mit etwas Glück noch Gegenstände fast gegen den Kopf geworfen, weil die nur Geld wollen (wofür wohl).
Utter fucking bullshit!
The drug problem in Hamburg is orders of magnitude worse than Berlin.
I go there very often for my work and it honestly shocks me how bad things are there.
Berlin is unfortunately the new capital for homeless people in whole Europe. We offer a great social service compared to other European cities and are not so homeless people hostile like Eastern Europe so we became a magnet. I think Berlin needs new contracts with other capitals to deal with this new type of problem.
This. The percentage of Eastern Europeans amongst the homeless is really exorbitant.
also has to do with construction contracts - people come on a contract for 6-12 months on building sites with no home/living off whatever they get and once the contract expires they end up job & homeless
what makes you say that Berlin is the new capital for homeless people in Europe?
hostility and violent crimes against homeless people have been rising unequivocally
In August, I stayed a month in Berlin and I have the same impression. We stayed around the Kudamm/Zoo area, which I have frequented all my life and there have always been junkies and homeless people there, obviously (Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, etc.). I remember seeing the first person in my life eating from a trash can there decades ago.
But in my impression, it has gotten worse. There were no tents in the Tiergarten area back in the day, and you didn't have crackheads roam the streets outside the Bahnhof area aggressively as they are now. And I don't remember seeing as many people sleeping on mattresses on the sidewalk, as I have seen now. But it makes sense, because due to Schengen, a lot of homeless and drug addicts from all over Europe have come to Germany and especially Berlin. According to certain estimates, Berlin has at least a couple of thosuand Polish homeless people alone. So yes, I have the same impression as you.
renting used to be much cheaper back then. people are being pushed into the streets, to live and to use.
Yes. As someone born here and out and about in the city and public transport every day - yes it’s gotten worse. Hard drugs are consumed casually and in the open any time of day.
Yes, so true. I live in Neukölln and there are so many junkies and homeless people. It wasn't like that when I moved here 17 years ago and it makes me sad and annoys me every day.
Yes, absolutely. I grew up in Berlin and as far as I can remember, it has never been as bad as today. Just yesterday I took the S-Bahn home around midnight and literally had a crack junky light up inside the car on a seat next to where I was standing. Then I got out at my stop and saw two men on the staircase of the station, one of them lighting up a crack pipe. So it has gotten so bad that they are using in plain sight and directly in the public space.
I do not give money to any homeless people anymore because I know the likeliest thing is that they will spend it on drugs.
There’s also the impact of isolated, knee jerk policy (eg put security on half of the U8 and then there’s people shooting drugs on the U9, etc). Can’t believe people are buying that the capital of Europe’s largest economy is too poor to provide adequate care and security.
I‘ve experienced Berlin since 2020 and spent 4 Winters here. The Winters are always tougher on the homeless and you see them more in the Öffis compared to when in Summer. I believe that it has gotten worse and Covid and the economic situation certainly played a role
You are right, Covid and the lockdowns messed up completely the societal fabric, see it everywhere, more aggression, less respect, more selfishness. No wonder that homelessness and drug addiction got also far worse.
Who would've thought social isolation, zero places to experience art in person, no parties, no way to calmly sit in a care or restaurant, meetings beyond 2-3 people being at some point illegal, and (less so in Germany, but much stricter in France, Italy etc) restrictions on leaving the house would be extremely damaging long-term for societal mental health and the social fabric.
I remember how, back then, some people online basically dismissed the social effects of the restrictions, because "but there are so many COVID deaths it's like a plane crash everyday!". Like, there were weirdos (including our former health minister) who even repeated that in late 2021 and throughout 2022.
Na ja, sagen wir es mal so. Die Amis haben seit 24 Jahren im September einen Trauertag. Müsste man deiner Logik folgend jetzt abschaffen bzw. für Covid jetzt ja auch jedes Jahr machen oder ein Denkmal bauen, da sind zu Hochzeiten in USA mehr als 3500 Menschen pro Tag daran gestorben. Richtige Lockdowns gab es hier übrigens nie, bzw. nur für sehr kurze Zeit. An freier Luft waren die ganze Zeit diverse Aktivitäten möglich. Nicht mal die Versammlungsfreiheit wurde abgeschafft, sondern gab nur leichte Auflagen. Kann ich aber nicht beurteilen, weil ich weiterhin jeden Tag im Krankenhaus arbeiten musste.
Nein, weil COVID sollte man spätestens seit der Durchimpfung völlig akzeptieren, wie zB in Großbritanien. Es sollten immer deutlich mehr Schaden im Kauf genommen werden. Vollkommend tragisch, dass wir einen Gesundheitsminister hatten, der selbst 2022 dachte, dass wir jährlich im Winter Maskenmandaten haben sollen, da man darf nicht die COVID einfach akzeptieren als Teil neuer Normalität. Zum Glück hat aber - auch wenn zu spät - die Parteipolitik sein Wahnsinn runtergedrückt.
So sagten immer diejenige, die damals Fans von Einschränkungen waren. Die Gesellschaft sieht es anders.
Nach der Durchimpfung gab es doch quasi keine Einschränkungen mehr. Wer ist diese "Gesellschaft" ist die mit uns im Raum? Ein paar Schwurbelköppe ganz sicher nicht.
Hast du denn 2G+/3G/3G+ völlig vergossen? Maskenpflicht im ÖPNV bis zur Ende 2022? Keine Großveranstaltungen bis April 2022? FFP2-Maskenpflichte in Läden und Kinos, als fast alle andere Länder Europas null Einschränkungen im Alltag hatten?
Naja klar, genau weil es "ein paar Schwurbelköppe" waren, haben alle Fahrgäste (die noch es folgten, da ungefähr die Hälfte hat es spätestens seit Mitte 2022 nicht gemacht) auf einmal die Masken innerhalb von 1-2 Tagen seit der Ende des Maskenpflichts im ÖPNV abgezogen. Und gerade deshalb alle Parteien außer von den Grünen und Linken die Abarbeitung der Pandemie im Sinne von "zu viele Einschränkungen" betrachten, da die Wählerschaft jetzt die Lockdowns als extrem schlimm betrachtet.
Du musst raus aus deiner Meinungsblase.
Laut Herr Telegram-"DiE gRüNeN"-Chat bin ich also in meiner Meinungsblase. Genau mein Humor. Stell dir vor, in Krankenhäusern galt noch viel länger Maskenpflicht, als es in Orten wo viele Menschen zusammen kommen, schon längst keine mehr gab. Muss man wissen, dass die ganzen rücksichtslosen Menschen, die man heute auf der Straße trifft alles Pflegekräfte und Ärzte sind. Außerdem musst du deine Meinungsblase mal gerade rücken. Entweder du sagst, in Italien und Frankreich war es noch viel schlimmer, oder hier. Was genau hat jetzt eigentlich diese Maßnahme mit Schutzmasken mit dem Ursprungsthema der sozialen Isolation zu tun, wenn man wie du selber sagst ins Kino konnte und Öffis fahren und Shoppingtouren machen? Erschließt sich wahrscheinlich nur deiner Meinungsblase.
Ich meine, ja. Du kannst gerne schauen, wie viele Stimmen die Grüne und die Linke insgesamt in Deutschland kriegen, und dann mal schauen, wie alle andere Parteien, die ca. 3/4 der Wähler repräsentieren, die COVID-Einschränkungen in Nachhinein betracten. Zeigt ganz gut, wie die Wählerschaft diese Einschränkungen jetzt betrachtet.
2020 und Anfang 2021 in Italien und Frankreich, da man durfte nicht uneingeschränkt im freien Luft bewegen. Ende 2021/Anfang 2022 hatten diese Länder eben keine Alltagseinschränkungen mehr. Und wir hatten immer noch 3G und FFP2-Pflicht.
Ach ja, vielen lieben Dank, dass Ende 2021/Anfang 2022 selbst das von uns nicht genommen wurde. Manche, die damals hysterisch zu Todeszahlen reagierten, wollten auch das einschränken, und zwar dauerhaft. Ich erinnere mich daran, wie Menschen wie du sagten selbst 2022, dass wir dürften nicht die vermeidbare Todesfälle einfach im Kauf nehmen. Natürlich war es völlig klar, dass wir gerade das machen wurden. Leider deutlich später als die andere Länder.
Alle diese Einschränkungen, nach 7-Monaten-Lockdown im 2020-21, haben die Rückkehr zur Normalität (wie zB gemeinsame Einkaufen, Restaurantbesuche, Kinobesuche - da keiner will im Saal in einer Maske sitzen oder eine Stunde lang in einer Maske einkaufen, usw.) verhindert, was auch die soziale Isolation noch verstärkt hat.
Na dann liste mir mal mit Quelle auf, inwiefern sich die Betrachtung der Covidmaßnahmen von SPD und CDU zu denen der Linken und Grünen (welche bis 2022 gar nicht in der Regierung waren) unterscheidet.
Kurze google Recherche zeigt übrigens, dass in Frankreich erst Mitten 22 und in Italien erst Q3,2022 die Pflichten aufgehoben wurden, also knapp ein halbes Jahr vor hier. Erzählst also Unwahrheiten.
Fahr doch einfach ins nächste Krankenhaus und tritt dem Personal da ins Gesicht. Hinterlasse bitte auch eine Verfügung (und trage sie immer bei dir), dass du niemals behandelt werden möchtest. Das hilft allen. Du kannst ja nicht mal bei einem Thema bleiben und einfachste Fragen beantworten und die, die du versuchst zu beantworten erhalten einfach nachprüfbare Falschinformationen.
It's definitely worse than it was 5 or 10 years ago.
It most likely has worsened, which is not uncommon to happen in larger cities.
I think there are many reason that make it affect one city more than another, which go beyond the city itself. Economy, politics, housing costs and that people just tend to go where like-minded are.
If you you see something a lot you are likely to desensitize. Coming back, and having a direct comparison, maybe even increased awareness and expectation, probably makes this stand out even more.
I dont know why, but the wheelchair junkie story amused me. I have this image of Smeagle in my head.
"My preciousssssss!" jumps on tracks, examines find "Nooooo they has trixed us, them nasty hobbitses"
I primed your synapses for that with my "there and back again"!
yeah i think it's been getting way worse i'm 19y/o and was born here so i can see a trend in it getting worse and worse, even some of my friends started using drugs like heroin or moved here and started to use drugs it's insane (needless to say that i'm not friends with them anymore, not just because of drugs but because they did some other ungodly things)
I think it’s not only a drug problem. Some people seem to be in their own world, not aware of the reality and may need professional help, maybe also be in a hospital but this is not happening
Stopping institutionalisation was extremely cruel, not, as at the time thought, humanist.
Ich wohne seit über 40 Jahren hier. Früher als Kind, Schule, Studium usw. bin ich natürlich viel mehr Öffis gefahren als heute, da ich viel Motorrad als daily fahre. Von gestiegenem Drogenkonsum, fixern die sich neben einem einen Schuss geben oder ihr Crack aufkochen, kann ich jetzt nicht viel berichten. Zumindest nicht von den Horrorstories, die man hier auf r/berlin liest. Ich benutz meistens nur U8 nördlich vom Alex, U8 nördlich vom Zoo, U6 nördlich von Wedding, Ringbahn meistens Wedding bis Treptower, S1, S2, S25 bis Friedrichstraße, S85 bis Grünau. Ich bin auch schon mal nach den Berichten hier am Leo raus und hab erwartet, dass da an den beschriebenen Stellen überall Fentanylleichen wie an der Allegheny in Philadelphia rumstehen würden und hab nichts gesehen. Also entweder bin ich komplett blind oder extrem lucky. Die Statistiken sind sicher seit 2000 steigend, aber meiner Meinung nach auf einem noch niedrigen Level. Auf jeden Fall nichts im Vergleich zu Fenty Städten in Nordamerika.
Du meinst sicherlich U9 nördlich vom Zoo
The online trade of illicit substances has changed the game massively. 15 years ago you still had big players in the European market that controlled everything, and changes to those power structures and distribution systems only happened gradually.
Then Germany changed the Grundstoffüberwachungsgesetz in 2008 and it became extremely hard to produce MDMA and amphetamines in Europe. So the market started to shift and more and more research chemicals from China flooded the market. Just like fentanyl in the US.
It probably didn't help that Breaking Bad was released at the same time. The show definitely gave Meth a boost in Europe as well, where it wasn't really much of an issue before. Surprising so, because the Czech Republic has always been one of the most advanced producers of high grade meth.
So with a shortage of MDMA and Amphetamines in a market but an oversupply of cheap research chemicals a lot of people started dabbling with those with severe consequences. The physical and mental toll was and is excessive.
After around 2015 Fentanyl and Crack also started creeping in. It was honestly more of a surprise how long it took to switch for European users compared to other continents. But the supply from Asia wasn't enough so the Mexican cartels started filling the gap. After the US pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021, the decade old heroin trade to Europe was interrupted and all hell broke loose.
Cue the situation today. A growing homeless population, fueled by the EU-Erweiterung with Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. Strongman conservative politics created growing difficulties for the homeless population in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. A growing divide between rich and poor in general. And Berlin became more famous for being a liberal safe haven.
COVID, the rise of the Albanian mafia and complete ignorance by politicians certainly didn't help either. Experts were ringing the bell for a long time already.
So if you want to know why drug use in Berlin is so much more visible today than it was 5-7 years ago, the answer is Crack, Meth, Fentanyl and RC drugs. None of that existed on a large scale in the Berlin scene, up until around 10-15 years ago.
Ps: There is obviously more nuance to the whole issue, and I invite everyone to add their knowledge.
Yeah, it has gotten worse in every aspect: a lot more junkies, and they got more aggressive, and their behavior got even more dirty and antisocial, they piss and shit and puke everywhere. And nobody tell them anything, it's all society's fault, they're angels and victims, and the police ignores them while they're living in parks and spiel platz and sbahn and making everything dirty and stinky.
Yes, it looks like it’s getting worse. Crack cocaine seems to be more prevalent. Which leads to fast depravation and more violent behavior.
Not sure, but it feels way worse than the Berlin Heroin wave in the early 90s. Open drug use and junkies near all stations and in trains.
Visited Germany and was sad to see the state of Berlin compared to other cities. Lots of trash littered on ground, U-ban had open drug use, and I definitely didn’t feel safe going out at night alone. Had visited San Francisco prior and it made me wonder if Berlin was close on their heels. It was truly wonderful experiencing so many clean cities in Germany. Not a cigarette butt on the ground anywhere. Until arriving in Berlin…
Of course. As life gets worse for all more people turn to drugs.
First time I visited Berlin was back in 2010 or something and I was scared by the amount of drug users out in the open in Görlitzer park. Then I used this as a reference every time I went back there, like how many people would be in the park selling and doing drugs out in the open after dark or during the day?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as bad as back in 2010 though. I was in Berlin this summer and tried to go in the park, but this time there was a big event for children so the whole park was filled with children and families. On the nearby streets there were lots of migrants, but not nearly as many as I’ve seen in for an example southern Europe.
Honestly I haven’t noticed myself that it’s become worse, to me the experience is the opposite, but I wouldn’t use that as a reference for anything as I don’t live there… was just surprised how “orderly” I found Berlin this summer vs “back in the days”
I’ve lived in Berlin for 12 years and IMO it’s become a much bigger issue on a wider scale, but maybe in places like Görlitzer Park it might not have changed so much. When we moved here you would basically see open air drug use in a handful of places, especially around Kotti, but in the last few years I’ve seen people doing hard drugs openly in places like Bundesplatz and Heidelberger Platz, which I never saw in the past.
I used to work near Bhf Zoo around 2000-2004 and feel like it was way worse then, but maybe more concentrated?
It's a very different city compared to back then.
Hi there! Urberliner here. Crazy i just had a dream where I was staying in London and got threatened by homeless people/junkies multiple times today. Dunno if it's that bad there tho.
I can say that most homeless people / junkies, delusional as they may be - leave pedestrians in peace. There are mostly beggers here and they only approach for money. Around Warschauer Str. And in the former eastern parts of berlin the tone gets rougher tho. Been adressed as "Schickse" (hard to translste? Fancy bitch???) When walking around there or waiting for friends at the metro several times. Or people laughingly mumble creepy and disgusting things to themselves- sometimes sexual things. Thats new in my opinion. However i grew up in berlin and am honestly used to it, my mother is a nurse and my father is handicapped i had a lot of contact with ill people when going to the hospital and I came to the conclusion that addiction is one of the worst illnesses.
Also been to vancouver and experienced it waaaay worse than here; The tents, the fecies, the smell, the overall dialogues you get to hear, the aggressive stare - east hastings is their street now and you better take a detour before deciding to shortcut and go there.
With respect to the opiate or meth issues, I don’t think I’ve seen an increase in the past couple of years. I saw a lot more street use during the pandemic but it’s held relatively stable in the past two years. I do think that clubgoers are getting less healthy with their drug use though. Far more people that I know are taking more drugs than a few years ago, and I’ve known more people to go too hard and pass out or otherwise have issues. As someone who’s struggled with drug use before, it’s becoming harder for me to go out sober as it feels like many of the people I know are spending more time in the bathrooms or booths than they are on the dancefloor.
Yes
Exponentially
I live here the past 8 years, and it suddenly got worse around summer last year (2024)
FWIW, this is a global issue, not just Berlin. Places like San Francisco, Portland, London, Rome, Paris, Toronto, etc all have far worse and more flagrant drug use and homelessness now than pre-COVID.
It‘s basically a symptom of the degradation/downfall of the collective west.
It's worse than before. For sure. I haven't experienced this as Berlin getting unsafer though, it's just bit more sad. I do smell weed a lot less now than before when it was everywhere. So you feel the city is more unsafe now?
Been living in Berlin for the past 6 years. Only in that time, it's very noticeable that it has gotten worse.
I’m from Vancouver and I personally thing it’s WAY worse than in Berlin. Living in Berlin in comparison I don’t notice so many homeless/drug addicted even though I always hear people complain about them.
People should be able to live here without paying €1000 per person per month. That’d fix a lot of problems.
I don’t care how it’s enabled. I’d shred anybody and anything opposing it.
Do you think this is the problem of the junkies we are talking about here?
I think so too. I feel it’s a combination of: Increased homelessness + constraint rehabs + long, long waiting time for psychologists + unemployment + easier access to substance + increased loneliness & materialism in the society.
Yes, drug consumption is rising. And at the same time the current government has cut social programs so that's that...
Nice fairy tale about the one legged junkie doing parkour. Just wait until you meet our one armed bandit!
I know "pics or it didn't happen" but I was far too concerned that he'd get rolled over by an S-Bahn to pick out my phone and create a TikTok reel.
You can take your time after pulling the emergency lever.
There are four homeless junkies living in my stairwell in Neukölln. The first one "moved in" over six weeks ago. The police and the Hausverwaltung don't seem to mind at all. Seems like the city pulled in all the resources to help people with addiction and removed a lot of safety nets. In NK in particular it feels like "punishment" against Arabs for being Arabs, and for most people living here not being a fan of ir*el's genocide. We're supposed to clap loudly at the tens of thousands of slaughtered babies or else they shut down street cleaning and fixpunkt and fill our streets with racist riot police instead.
Wow. End of december and for sure still one of the dumbest things if read the entire year. Congratulations!
Berlin has 55.000 homeless at the moment. It was 8.000 some 20 years ago
[removed]
Right wing extremism and/or pro-AFD content is not welcome on this sub.
I think Vancouver has imported the Berlin model 🤣 anyway what funny is that a lot of the Junkies are not in fentanyl 🤣 And to be honest in Germany there's no reason to become such a junkie if you want you can get a job and be a hygienic junkie 🤣 just joking
It’s not only Berlin it’s everywhere
I still remember the mate always pooping in schonelibe strasse station 8am pretty much every day 😆
Like what Martin Hikel said, it's mostly a visibility problem. Berlin used to have lots of empty lots and abandoned buildings where homeless could sleep and live. Those are gone now, so you see them in train stations and in the streets.
I don’t for a second believe you’ve lived here 25 years if this shocks you or seems new. If anything they’ve push3d the jUnKiEs out. Also dont use the word junkies it’s dehumanising and really short sighted..
Well until 1990 I lived in East Berlin and even after that Neukölln and Bahnhof Zoo weren't exactly my hangs.
Of course there were always also homeless and junkies but in my personal experience not at that scale.
The main difference is that in the past even if there was way too much stuff around, the people had fun, now most of the people are just boring corpses that constantly go in a loop and forget even the music they are listening / liking and the result is a disconnected crowd mixed with young kids that have no clue how to party. I am precisely talking of the nightlife
The correct answer is: Dit is Berlin
Berlin is pretty much lost, god i miss the early 90s, best time of the city. I left in 2017 and at that time it was already bad.
Y'all need Jesus. Seriously.
Yeo worse now dont come back ty