By all means, do not let such minor details deter you. You are driving a motorised vehicle. In Berlin, that automatically categorises you as a V.I.P. first-class citizen.
That gives you the right to do whatever you like.
Including leaving the rubble on the ground, spreading all over the driveway, leaving a horrendous mess. But don’t worry about that. We are honoured to have to look at that because it means that a very important person was here.
Happy Corona summer on the balcony.
Edit 6 August 15.45: Wow. What a difference a Facebook post can make. That is a heck of a lot more light than before. What happens next is of course a worry, but for now I assume I can risk starting to clean and re-furnish and use the balcony. And enjoy what is left of the summer.
I still wish they would inform me (IN WRITING) what is going to happen to that wall and to my balcony, and preferably approximately when, because I am fully aware of the fact that the real nightmare may not even have started yet, but they do not seem to want to do that.
This morning:
Every time I think it will get better, it gets worse.
In an e-mail last week, I was informed that the last work would be done on 3 and 4 August, and that the net could then also be removed (I don’t know what it is doing there at all now). I therefore dropped my plans of leaving Berlin for any considerable length of time.
I did flee the chaos for three days, and arrived home in the afternoon of 5 August hoping to be able to slowly start cleaning and using my balcony (and my living room) again.
Instead, I found things looking worse than ever. In addition to some more boards and some more rubble, they have installed what looks like an entire euro-pallet – ON my balcony. So much for “your balcony will not be affected”. That statement is becoming more and more laughable by the week, and has been for over a year now.
No work was being done on that wall yesterday afternoon, and none whatsoever today, 6 August, either.
I don’t know what is more breathtaking – the arrogance or the propensity to lie over and over again. Do they actually think it is nice to have a good-sized balcony and not be able to use it? Especially during the summer, in a year where I ought to be at home most of the time? Not to mention the fact that my living is full of most of the things that are normally on the balcony.
First, an overdose of photos from Alaris Butterfly Park, about 35 minutes walk from the center of Wittenberg.
Next door: “Abandoned Wittenberg”
On the way back: Playing with the 35 mm Macro, and later with Lightroom:
Soviet War Memorial:
Stadtkirche where Luther was married:
Luther Garten
Actually three very different gardens connected by lines of a total of 500 trees, integrated in the green belt surrounding the old town which used to be the location of the city fortifications.
All-Saints Church where Luther was buried:
A few of the celebs who have graced Wittenberg with their presence for shorter or longer periods over the centuries:
Not particularly worth a visit, but it is part of a walk in the green belt around what used to be the ramparts, and the entrance fee is 1 euro.
EDIT: Latest development: There is now an agreement that the current work will be finalised, and the net removed, by the end of next week.
I will make sure I am not in Lindenstraße, or even in Berlin, a lot during the next ten days.
During the week 10 to 15 August I will then be able to clean everything and take possession of my balcony again. They did offer to do the cleaning, but I prefer to do that myself. I really am not in the mood to have strangers invading my home these days and I do not want to talk to anybody.
I sincerely hope that these are the last words I will ever write about this matter.
EARLIER: Now they are turning up on my doorstep – unannounced – asking to be let in. Why? So they can tell more lies, this time undocumented? If they want to see the balcony, they are almost standing on it.
The must have eaten nails, as we say in Danish.
I guess there is no point in cleaning the balcony today (see video below). I hear a fresh layer of dust descending upon the one from yesterday (see next post).
I just spoke to one of the young people in the WG next to me who was almost in tears. All three are either studying or working from home and keep having to go somewhere else, and they have so far been unsuccessful in obtaining a reduction in rent (despite the fact that the owner of the flat will sooner or later receive compensation, or at least that was promised in a meeting of owners with the Hausverwaltung in spring 2019 – but perhaps that was also a lie, just like the claim that our balconies would not be directly affected).
And still no indication how long this is going to last. But I guess that is better than when they lie and say they have finished when they clearly have not.
They said they had finished and that it was no longer necessary for the balcony to be empty, so I cleaned parts of the balcony yesterday and started to put things back on it.
Now I just arrived back from a daytrip and found this. The entire balcony looks like this – again.
F…! It was THIS close to having been a lovely day.
I was always taught, in school and by my parents, that lying was completely unacceptable. Here in Germany, it seems to be a sport. That, and blaming others for everything that goes wrong. You can certainly see where a certain US president, with German ancestors, gets his habits of lying and blaming others from.
By the way, what are those black stains, and how do I remove them? They appeared during the work they did last summer, shortly after this part of the scaffolding had been erected. There are many more, also on the marble shelf and on the floor of the balcony – currently covered by dust – again. I thought I would be able to scrape them off, but they are completely solid and stuck.
Is it because the monstrosity is under Denkmalschutz that they can get away with being so unbelievable arrogant and do what like?
Schön & Sever , Cresco Capital Group, Cresco Real Estate
Background:
One thing I AM beginning to understand: Why many Germans are so suspicious of others.
I sold my parking space, to be handed over to the buyers on 1 August, together with two keys (a contractual requirement) for the entrance door because there is a small box in the basement that goes with the parking space.
When I asked our Hausverwaltung how I could procure those two keys, they said that would be too complicated because I would need a power of attorney, so they would take care of it. Because of one person going on holiday, another taking over, and copy of that e-mail correspondence to a third person, three people were involved in this promise in mid-June, so I thought that surely it would get done. If it had been only one person I might have reminded him or her at some point, but THREE …… I am not used to that kind of suspicion and mistrust.
But lo and behold, it did not get done, and now the only key shop in Berlin that kan make them is on holiday. And I am in trouble because I am in breach of contract.
I am going to bed. Tomorrow, I will think hard to find just one reason why I should stay in this country. Oh, and the small matter of where else to go, of course 
. And what to do with a flat that can neither be sold nor rented out (the neighbours from Hell – remember?) But right now I just want to drop everything and run.
Trying to ignore the risk of contagion, escaping the domestic nightmares with the neighbours from Hell and nonsense with the Hausverwaltung.
A very pleasant town, only a good hour by regional train from Berlin, bigger than I thought, with lakes and canals and a river. Like in Berlin, too many private cars, also in the “no car zones”. Several churches, and towers that used to be part of the medieval wall system.
Above: “Loriot’s Dogs“. When Vicco von Bühlow died, a German satirist also known as ‘Loriot’, who was born right here in Brandenburg an der Havel, the city decided to honor him this way.
The Nazi euthanasia programme (T4) was coordinated in Berlin, in Tiergartenstraße 4, on the spot where there is now a memorial, just outside the Philharmonic, Tiergarten entrance.
More than 9.000 of the actual murders took place in Brandenburg an der Havel, where there is now a memorial/information centre.
Good feature films on the subject: Nebel im August, and Werk ohne Autor.
Museum im Freyhaus und im Steintorturm
Evangelical Rectory St. Catherine
And finally, there alledgedly also a National Archaological Museum there, but I was unable to find it (?????).
