Mass Transit Strike Hits Berlin

It pulses through the city, pushing people from the outer suburbs to the heart of Mitte, from home to work, to school, to concerts and exhibits, to friends’ houses, to sports events, to anywhere you might want to go. In the winter cold and wet, Berlin’s public transit network is a warm way across town. And this week, it isn’t running.

The tunnels are silent, the gates are locked, and the interiors beyond them are so still and so quiet that it’s difficult to believe so many travel through them every day. ver.di, the union governing 1.3 million public workers including Berlin’s public transit service (BVG), is striking, fighting for a 12% salary increase for BVG employees, forcing locals and visitors alike to find a new way across town.

Don’t cancel your plans for a visit to Berlin yet; there’s always another way to get around. zitty’s staff are hitchhiking to work, my colleagues are relieved they have their cars, and I’ve finally got around to doing the bike maintenance that I’ve been putting off all winter. The S-bahn, the speedy over-ground train which circles the city – cutting it into quarters – is governed by a different union, and between it and my clattering two-wheeler, I’m deepening my feeling for the city’s rhythms.

On foot or by bike, I have time to notice details which flew past moving tram windows, to share the determination of a woman walking into a strong March wind, her arms laden with groceries, to hear fragments of conversations, the roar of engines, and the clatter of Berlin’s eternal reconstruction.

My favourite budget burger joint, Burgermeister, is located in an ornate men’s privy under the subway bridge at Schlesisches Tor in Kreuzberg. When the transit services are running, the most challenging part of the journey is crossing the maze of traffic to get to the island under the bridge, where the Imbiss is located. This week, instead, I get off the S-bahn at Warschauer Strasse in Friedrichshain on the opposite side of the river, and hike across the historic Oberbaumbrücke.

The Bridge itself is a landmark, built in 1896, marking the historical city boundary. It’s beautiful from far away, but underneath it, I discover decorative mosaics, commemorating the history of the bridge, and the view of Treptow’s Molecule Man is stunning. On the other side, I discover a sculpture garden, notice a painted façade I’d never seen before, and come to realize how two neighbourhoods, separated by a river, once separated by a heavily guarded wall, are connected. It isn’t far between the two districts.

The burger tastes even better after the hike.

My internet is running as well as the BVG, but just as ver.di can’t quite manage to shut down the city, it isn’t so easy to disconnect me from my electronic pulse. St. Oberholz in Rosenthaler Platz, a popular hang-out among Berlin’s freelancers, students and language-learners, where the mint tea is fresh, the Wifi is free, and the chairs are comfortable, has become my Berlin office. It’s on my tram route, just a short jump from door to door, but this week, the distances are stretched, and each day, I bike here along a different route, taking in new aspects of the city. The cold is brutal, and the wind, enough to propel me down the sidewalk, but my eyes are keen, and my mental list of things to check out grows longer and longer.

Biking to St. Oberholz, I’ve discovered interesting parks with sculptures, the Umsonstladen, a controversial Berlin squat which remains in this area of rapidly gentrifying former east. I’ve stopped to wander through a gorgeous bookstore with a great children’s collection, and discovered sculptures and memorials too humble to make it into a guidebook, but too lovely and touching to ignore.

It’s Amanda’s really slow travel, courtesy of the BVG, the rushing city moving at a human pace. It’s an argument for slowing down, for taking in the city on foot. It’s Berlin from a new angle, a whole new city I can’t wait to explore.

When the weather improves.