Life in “lockdown light” – week 3

Be a couch potato, be a hero.

It’s week three of lockdown light and the German government, or Bundesregierung,  has come up with a new strategy to convince young people to stay at home. They are running an online campaign with a series of ironic documentary-style videos showing old people reminiscing about the winter of 2020, a time when they were young and they became heroes by simply doing nothing. In one short film, an old man shows off the medal he was awarded for his outstanding contribution in the fight against coronavirus. He was a lazy slob, who stayed at home all day playing computer games and eating junk food. His friends used to make fun of him, but due to his laziness he became a hero because he stopped the virus spreading. The final message is: “Become a hero too and stay at home”, hashtag #besonderehelden or special heroes.

If the scenes at the Mauerpark last Sunday are anything to go by, it’s likely to be an uphill struggle. Clearly Berlin is not a city of couch potatoes. Crowds gathered at the park, which, by the way, has been enlarged recently. As well as people dancing in close proximity to one another (clearly in defiance of the AHA rules), there were multi-ethnic families having barbeques, aspiring musicians trying out new beats, aspiring acrobats trying out new tricks, graffiti artists spraying on the walls and the usual boules-playing gang.

Meanwhile in a different part of Berlin, Prince Charles was giving a speech, partly in German and partly in English, at the Bundestag, the German Parliament. He was attending a ceremony to commemorate Germany's National Day of Mourning for victims of war. Actually, his German is quite impressive! I wonder if the Prince of Wales is aware that there is a nightclub in Berlin named after him. Unfortunately, the club called Prince Charles, like all other clubs (in case you didn't know, Berlin is famous for its club scene), is closed due to the current Covid restrictions. I should point out that Prince Charles and Camilla are amongst the first passengers to land at the newly opened BER airport. It was worth opening a painfully delayed airport in the middle of a global pandemic after all!

Talking of the royal family, season four of The Crown is finally available to watch on Netflix. My favourite moment so far is when a mystified Margaret Thatcher, played by Gillian Anderson, wonders why she is wasting her precious time at Balmoral, while «struggling to find any redeeming features in these people» (i.e. the royals), who her husband describes as “boorish, snobbish and rude”. Meanwhile, Earls Court, where Lady Diana lives, is a place for “prostitutes and Australians”. That is according to Princess Margaret, played by Helena Bonham Carter. If you think you come from an odd family, don’t worry you’re in good company, even though you might not live in a palace or castle.

Life in “lockdown light” – week 2

Mexico City or Berlin?

The second week of “lockdown light” is coming to an end, but you wouldn’t know it walking around the streets of Berlin. There are plenty of people out and about. At least during the daytime - I haven’t been out in the evenings. There are people inside shops (wearing masks of course) and there are queues outside fast-food and other restaurants serving takeaway. There are also plenty of bikes and cars on the streets and people waiting at tram and bus stops. I have been avoiding public transport, but I hear that S-Bahns and underground trains are pretty full. Of course, bars, cinemas, theatres, museums, fitness studios, etc. remain closed.

When the partial lockdown was announced, it was supposed to be in place for at least four weeks, but it may well last longer. We should find out more on Monday 16 November, when Angela Merkel is due to hold a meeting with regional leaders to discuss the current situation. Meanwhile, the number of Covid infections in Germany continues to rise, but at least the reproduction number (or R value) has fallen below 1 – a positive sign. However, these figures may be misleading as the testing strategy has changed since early November. Patients with colds no longer get tested, because the testing capacity is stretched, so we might be comparing apples with pears.

The Christmas season will feel very different this year. Christmas markets are one of the staples of the festive season in Germany, but many have been cancelled. In Berlin, the traditional Christmas markets at Gendarmenmarkt and Schloss Charlottenburg, as well as the Lucia-Weihnachtsmarkt and the Alt-Rixdorfer Weihnachtsmarkt, won’t be happening this year. The Christmas Garden has also been cancelled. Where will we drink our Glühwein (mulled wine) and eat our waffles with cinnamon sugar, just to mention a couple of the delicacies on sale at the markets?  The simple answer is - at home. I guess I will have to invest in a waffle-maker, or my son will be disappointed.

The most awaited news since the beginning of the pandemic came from Mainz, where the German company BioNTech is based. Together with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, they announced that their jointly developed vaccine is 90% effective in preventing people from getting Covid, according to early results from Phase 3 trials. This news was welcomed all over the world: hope is in sight! BioNTech was founded by husband-and-wife team Prof Sahin and Dr Türeci, both children of Turkish immigrants, or Gastarbeiter, as they are called in Germany (literally “guest workers”). Tell that to AfD voters! In case you don’t know, AfD is a far-right anti-immigrant party.  

If you are looking for Netflix recommendations, the series The Queen’s Gambit is one of the best I’ve seen recently. It’s about chess, but don’t be put off by that. It’s very stylish and beautifully shot. Although the action takes place in the US, Mexico City, Paris and Moscow, many of the scenes were actually filmed in Berlin. Filming locations include the Bode Museum, the Friedrichstadt-Palast (pictured), Rathaus Spandau, the Palais am Funkturm, the Berlin zoo, several locations on Karl-Marx Allee in Friedrichshain, including the bar at Kino International, and even the Humana secondhand and vintage shop at Frankfurter Tor. It might feel like Paris or Moscow in the late 1960s, but don’t be fooled, it’s Berlin!

Life in “lockdown light” – week 1

The first week of “lockdown light”, as it’s being called in Germany, is almost over. Compared with the first lockdown in the spring, when almost everything was closed, this is only a partial lockdown. Meetings are restricted to two households (a maximum of 10 people), both indoors and outdoors, and if you meet someone from a different household you must keep a distance of 1.5 m. Cafes and restaurants can only open for takeaway (thus producing more rubbish than ever, but they need our support to keep going). Bars, cinemas, theatres, operas, concert halls, museums, fitness and yoga studios, swimming pools, nail bars, beauty salons, tattoo studios, etc. have been closed since Monday 2 November. Unlike the previous lockdown, all shops and hairdressers are open, as are libraries and playgrounds, though the number of people allowed inside a shop is limited. 

Crucially schools and nurseries remain open and are not expected to close unless the situation worsens dramatically. As I mentioned before, there is a stage-plan for Berlin schools based on the Corona Ampel, or traffic-light coronavirus-warning system for the city. The Covid situation for each school and district is assessed at the end of the week and parents are informed of the required measures before the start of the following week. At the moment, face masks don’t need to be worn inside classrooms in primary schools, but if the traffic lights were to change that would be the next step. I was surprised to find out that swimming lessons will still take place, as they are part of the school curriculum in year 3, even though pools are closed to everyone else. 

Thus, this lockdown affects primarily the leisure, culture, beauty and catering sectors. Some argue that the closure of shopping malls would have been preferable to shutting down the arts and culture sector, but the government reckons that we tend to socialise more when we go out to the cinema or to the theatre than when we go shopping. The aim of the lockdown is to reduce social contacts by a significant amount to slow the spread of Covid-19. Even though it isn’t as restrictive as the previous one, the word lockdown has very negative connotations. Some of us still have nightmares from the previous lockdown. Others might have coped well the first time round but may be feeling low this time. Of course, the colder weather and shorter days don’t help, at least in the northern hemisphere. 

If you are currently living in full or partial lockdown, here are some more suggestions to help you get through these difficult times. 

Make sure you take care of both your mental and physical wellbeing. The two often go hand in hand. It’s normal to feel anxious or worried at this time. If you are experiencing severe anxiety, panic attacks, or other symptoms make sure you seek help. Talk to a friend about how you feel and consult a doctor and/or a psychologist. They can help you.

Try to get out as much as possible and exercise regularly. Walking, running or cycling are all great ways to keep active, especially in nature. Head to your local park, forest, lake, beach, hill or mountain. Even though fitness centres and swimming pools are closed, there are alternatives. For example, I’ve gone back to yoga and pilates lessons via Zoom. Although it’s not the same as exercising in a room with other people, there are significant benefits to digital exercise. 

Try to find distractions to help you switch off from all the negative and worrying news. This week the cliffhanger “US presidential election 2020” has provided a welcome source of distraction and entertainment. I can’t wait for Netflix to make the second season! What’s that? Are you seriously suggesting this is not a tv-series, it’s for real? 

Here are some other suggestions: read a book, watch a film, listen to music, bake a cake, look after your plants or buy a plant, call a friend, whatever helps you relax. 

Meanwhile, the list of recommendations to avoid the spread of Covid-19 gets longer and longer, as I discovered while cycling past this advertising board the other day. 

It used to be AHA, an abbreviation that stood for distance, hygiene and masks. Now it’s: 

• Keep a distance

• Wash your hands

• Wear a mask

• Ventilate regularly 

• Reduce contacts

• Use the app

Just to give you an idea of what they mean by “ventilate regularly”, classrooms need to be aired every half hour. That means opening all the windows, as well as the door, for five minutes every 30 minutes.  As the weather gets colder, schools and parents are considering investing in air filters for each classroom to avoid freezing when the winter really hits. Of course, the most effective air filters tend to be a lot more expensive. I’m waiting to see if they find a solution.