Berlin-Brandenburg airport faces delays

German news agency DPA reports that the opening of the €2.5 billion Berlin-Brandenburg International (BBI) airport could be delayed by a year because of the financial collapse of a major contactor. The new airport will replace Tegel airport in former...

Etsy opens in Berlin

American craft and vintage online trading site Etsy has opened its first international headquarters in Berlin. Founded in 2005 by Robert Kalin as an online marketplace for sellers of handmade and vintage items, such as furniture, jewellery and clothing, Etsy...

Berlin’s Nikolaikirche opens after restoration

The oldest church in Berlin, the 800-year old Nikolaikirche, has reopened after two years of restoration work. Heavily bombed during world war two the church – which lay in the former East Germany after Berlin’s partition – was rebuilt in...

Sandemans Berlin uses unpaid guides

Sandemans New Europe city tours have once again been blasted for alleged illegal employment practices, this time in Berlin. Undercover reporters for ZDF’s Frontal21 programme highlighted the company’s practice of charging its unpaid guides €3 for each person in every...

Preserving the Berlin Wall

Director of the Berliner Mauer Foundation, Axel Klausmeier, has announced that a committee of specialist restorers and engineers is being set up to preserve the remains of the Berlin Wall and its remaining watchtowers, says The Local online. The group’s...

Stasi had keys to West Berlin

Weekly newspaper Die Zeit has revealed that East German secret security force the Stasi was given access to buildings in West Berlin for almost two decades by a West German locksmith. The Local online reports that copies of special security...

Berlin hotels get top prizes

Berlin’s hotels had a boost after dominating the rankings of Germany’s top 25 hotels in American travel website Tripadvisor’s Travelers Choice Awards, in all taking 14 out of the 25 places. Voted by members of the public, the awards placed...

Deutsche Bahn loses S-Bahn monopoly

National rail operator Deutsche Bahn is to lose its monopoly on Berlin’s suburban S-Bahn train network when its current contract ends in 2017. According to The Local Deutsche Bahn has been branded “incapable” by city transport head Ingeborg Junge-Reyer of...

Berlin film festivals screens The Ghost Writer

Berlin is to screen the premier of controversial director Roman Polanski’s film The Ghost Writer at next February’s Berlin International Film Festival in its Competition section. Polanski is currently awaiting extradition to the United States from Switzerland on charges related...

Berliners on welfare benefits

Almost 20 per cent of Berlin residents were claiming state benefits at the end of 2007. The latest figures released by Destatis, the government statistics office show that Berlin was well above the German national average, at 19.9 per cent,...