East Side Gallery second protest and 'The Hoff'

Two weeks ago was the first major protest against the planned removal of part of the longest remaining stretch of Berlin Wall - know as the East Side Gallery. The first planned major protest took place a couple of days after a small section of wall was removed by developers. Work had to stop as a small group of demonstrators got in the way.

We went to the first major protest on the following Sunday, 3 March 2013. There were thousands of people there and I would have thought the point was made. However, a second protest was planned and scheduled for today. To add some star power to this rally, David Hasselhoff offered / was invited to come and lend his support.

Hasselhoff is a star throughout the world from his TV roles in Knight Rider and Baywatch. In Germany he is also loved as a pop star. He famously sang on the Berlin Wall not long after it fell in 1989, singing his 'hit' song 'Looking for Freedom' in a very fetching jacket with flashing lights.

In preparation for the protest we watched this 1989 Looking for Freedom clip on the internet. This was a mistake. The song is so bad but has that horrible quality of unshakable earworming. All week we've been catching each other singing this song against our will. Watch it yourself if you dare, but be warned, you can't unlisten to it.

Back to the protest. Like the last time it was scheduled for 2pm. Social media, and Hasselhoff himself invited people to come at 2pm to walk the wall with him. Not wanting to miss anything we got there a little early.

Down at the wall it was already busy. There was a crappy blue truck with a big yellow metal cabin parked amongst the throng. This looked to be 'The Hoff's' ride. A bit less cool than KITT - his rad knight rider car.

The area where this truck was, and where we were waiting is right next to the Ostbahnhof - a big rail station. People were streaming out of there. In the other direction people were also flooding in and the crowd numbers swelled. We were soon amongst a very big crowd.

There was a reasonably subtle police presence. The cops appeared just as amped to see 'The Hoff' as everyone else.

At about 2:15pm there was movement near the shitty truck. A guy with a video camera got on top, and someone played with the on board sound system. 

Hasselhoff had just finished a press conference (I think) and made his was through the crowd of cameras to his blue and yellow noddy mobile. 

He jumped in and the thing slowly rolled through the crowd.

As the truck came towards us we could hear him talking to the crowd and then he began singing 'Looking for Freedom'. We are never going to get that song out of our heads.

The truck came by, and he kept singing and talking to the crowd about its important to keep the wall and not knock it down for the sake of apartments. He also proclaimed that he was stuck in the truck, which looked extra funny as he squeezed his head out of the side window to sing his song directly to us.

And with that he rolled on by as the crowd followed him and his truck.

The crowd was huge and we hung back to watch them march past.

We then walked around the protest area to see the truck make a very slow journey along the length of the East Side Gallery,

We later joined the crowd again and somehow Hasselhoff had disappeared from the truck, yet everyone was still following it. Maybe he had got out and was walking with the people, but we couldn't see.

It certainly was an interesting protest to attend. A different atmosphere from the more 'angry' first one. I am sure that most people however could see that while Hasselhoff provided some (mostly unrequired) public awareness, his good intentions and his involvement made the walk more of an amusing sideshow of an opportunity to see 'The Hof'. Regardless, his involvement and the huge crowd numbers will keep the profile high of the proposed wall removal as the powers that be now meet to negotiate how to proceed - which is what it was all about anyway.

I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien! - Part 2

With all of our documents in order and checked twice, we tried for an early Sunday night bedtime. Based on our experiences last time we tried to get an appointment at the Ausländerbehörde (Aliens Authority) we knew that getting there on time wasn't going to cut it. We were going to have to suck it up and get there before opening time.

Opening time on a Monday is 7am. Groan! We got up at 4:30am, had a coffee and left around 5am. We set of into the night.

The Ausländerbehörde is not a direct trip for us, requiring three trains to get there. By 5am the U-Bahn is already running regular services, we had good connections and arrived at our end destination by 5:45am.

We wondered if we were going to be early enough, I'd read reports about people shivering out in the cold from as early as 3am some days! We walked up to the still closed gates and were deflated to see a huge line already assembled.

Surely with a line this long already, we may have missed the chance to get a golden ticket to an unscheduled appointment.

We surveyed the line and took our place at the back feeling like we should have got up earlier.

We weren't really sure how long things were going to take but we were prepared for a long wait. Maybe we would be waiting three hours today? Three hours seemed like a tedious enough goal to be mentally prepared for.

At about 6:20am the guards opened the door and we filed neatly inside to the office courtyard. And then lined up again at another door. This is the one we had been at before.

Office lights started to flicker on in the main building and I wondered what was going on in there. Would we get a chance to get a number and see someone up there. Would they be sympathetic to me or bureaucratic bastards.

The office we were waiting for opened up around 6:45am and everyone happily herded themselves inside.

Last time we were in here everything proceeded painfully slow. Today is was moving really quickly as the officers just asked what the person wanted and then gave them a waiting number. No long winded advice like last time. I had counted about 60 people in front of us. We still thought we wouldn't get the waiting number for an appointment like we had hoped.

Nearing the front of the line we were getting nervous about the tickets running out. Then we heard one of the officers raise her voice to someone and bark at them 'That's your problem, not mine!'. Now we were nervous about her. Naturally we deemed her the hard-ass-bitch and hoped not to be served by her.

We were served by the bitch and she was okay with us. Abrupt but we got a number...woo hoo! First step cleared. We filed outside to another line to the main part of the building. It was daylight now and just after 7am.

We didn't have to wait in this line for long before we could go in. Things seemed to be going really smoothly, about 7:20am and we were already seated in the main waiting room.

Here we sat, watching people go in and out of the magical door 172 in front of the room and next to the number board that we all stared at in a daze. We had the number 96 but no one was getting called sequentially so we had no idea when it was our turn.

Around 8am, still in high spirits and happy we got this far. Taking in the surroundings and checking with each other 'what we would say in the interview'.

About 8:30am there was a bell ringing and a woman appeared out of nowhere with a tea and sandwich trolley. It seemed odd and very amusing. Tiredness was getting to us already.

By 9am almost everyone had gone before us. We watched as they went in room 172, came out looking happy or came out looking very disappointed. a group of Indian guys that we assume were students all seem to get rejected for whatever they came for. 

We finally got called in just after 9am. We walked into room 172 and this is a small space with a wooden counter and a glass panel that you speak to the officer through. It reminded me of cop movies when people get sent to jail and this is the area where they hand over their civilian possessions and receive their prison wardrobe.

A lady 'served' us with typical ice cold attitude we have grown accustomed to in this system. I handed over my passport first, said I wanted an extension, pointed to Nordine, this is my wife. 'What do you make here?' she said. We stuck with our rehearsed spiel and said we were looking for work but needed the visa first. She started to demand stuff from us - marriage certificate - yes, both passports - yes, passport photo - yes, finances - yes, health insurance....ummm no about that... We handed over our special letter along with the business card of the person that gave it to us. The lady shrugged and chucked all the papers together, giving the business card back to us. We didn't get a chance to explain anything at all. She told us to go and wait back out in the waiting room again and our number would be called when everything was ready.

We went back to the waiting room. Could it really be this easy?

We waited. We spied on everyone else and got the routine down. They first go into room 172. They come out and wait. Then they get called into another room. Then they come out and pay for whatever they are getting and wait again. Then they get called again, get their visa or whatever and get to go. Oh man, we were only at stage 1 of this parade.

10am came and went.

By 11am everyone that had started in the waiting room with us had come and gone. 

At 11:30 we were going loopy with delirium. This is sooooooooooooo boring. We have too much time to think about what is happening with the paperwork. We start fantasising about what they are doing. Does a long time mean good or bad? We work through all possibilities.

At around 11:45am our number finally comes up - report to room 171. We go in and officer Frau Herrgurth immediately greets us with 'What do you make here?'. We stick to the script again, looking for work, want to make a life here, need the permit to make it happen.

She listens to us flippantly and says 'There is a problem. You cannot have the residence permit. You both do not work and you do not have an income. You can have a 6 month permit and come back with a job and we can reassess the residence permit'.

Our hearts immediately sank. This is not how it is supposed to go. We are supposed to have an argument about health insurance, not about getting a job or how much money we have. For a split second we consider the 6 month thing and telepathically decide that there is no way we are going to accept this shit. If we did all our plans will be ruined.

Without skipping a beat (other than that split second) we simultaneously start barking back at the officer. This is too important for us to accept this blindly as an outcome. We protest about the work thing 'Do you think this is going to be a problem?' she said....'YES' we said. And then we protested about the money. We haven't spent the last several years saving and structuring our investments to have this glossed over. She gets the financial papers out and it is clear she hasn't understood what they are. Well they could ASK us! 

'But this is in Australian money, do you know what it is in Euros?' she said.

Luckily I had prepared a spreadsheet, clearly detailing savings and income and of course broken into what is means in Australian dollars and Euros and per month - and I had referenced it to the financial information.

The officer got a bit flustered and started to frantically flick through a reference book through these matters. She couldn't find a ruling on this and said she would need to talk to someone. She asked us to wait outside again.

We had a tense time out in the waiting room. Our future was hanging on this decision. We had decided we were not going to accept the 6 month offer at all. We would either demand to speak to someone else or have to come back on our scheduled day and argue it all again. 

We waited and waited. It felt like forever. How many people were chiming in to this situation? Why wouldn't anyone just talk to us.

Finally at around 12:30pm we were called back in. We sat down in room 171 and Frau Herrgurth said 'I have two things to tell you. 1. You can have the permit. 2. The computer has broken down so I can't print it right now'.

'Wait' we said, 'By permit do you mean the five year residence and work permit?'.

'Yes' she said, 'But the computer is broken - IT problem. Can you go outside and wait maybe 15 minutes'.

'Okay' we said to our new best friend.

We went and got a breath of air outside in the most beautiful Berlin sunny day we have had so far. We didn't stay out there for long as we didn't want to miss our number getting called again. When we came back inside we saw the number on the board so went back in her office. She looked at us as if to say 'Why are your here'. 'Our number is on the board' I said. She said that was the old number, the computer is still broken. Go and sit down.

We sit down. 15 minutes pass. half an hour pass. Our relief at the favourable decision also passes and we get super bored. I lay down and pretend to sleep. 45 minutes later the number finally comes up. We go back in and she is printing out my visa thing. She gives us a card and asks us to pay 8 Euros as the cash machine. Not really sure what the 8 Euros is for but we do it without question. We were expecting to have an argument about the usual 135 euro visa fee as this is supposed to be waived for spouses of EU citizens.

All paid up we go back to Frau Herrgurth and show our receipt. She hands over the residence visa and we check it over. There it is. Five year validity and full permission to work.

For some reason it is printed on a separate piece of paper and not stuck in my passport like my old one. We double check this and she says that's how it is. We don't argue any further. We thank her profusely, leave the room, embrace each other in a moment of relief and then get out of there!

Its about 1:30pm by the time we leave. 7.75 hours of waiting, worrying and arguing. We were so exhausted but so pleased with the result.

Whatever happened to all that worry about the health insurance. It barely cracked a mention!

I'm an alien, I'm an illegal alien! - Part 1

When immigrating to a new country to live of course a key component is making sure you are allowed to be there!

Nordine is an EU Citizen so there has never been a problem for her to live in Germany. For me there has always been a problem. Despite family heritage, a father born in Germany, ample means of financial support and no criminal record - getting a foot in the door in Germany was always a problem. My birth 'right' as the son of a German born father ceased because he became an Australian citizen long before I was born.

The family had other things on their minds in those days other than some not-yet-born-child's bohemian retirement back to the Fatherland 50 something years later.

For years I focused on trying to get a German passport. I read all I could and contacted the German embassies in Australia many times. Rules often change, but they never did in my favour. The answer was always no.

Eventually I had to abandon the idea of getting a passport. I started looking into long term visas and these all looked problematic too. I was too old for a working holiday visa, and that is just one year long anyway. Pfftt, too short! Although I am heaps clever and stuff, I don't possess any skills that Germany wants, so I am not really eligible for the skilled migrant deal. Although I am also heaps artistic, I have no portfolio worth showing and have never derived an income from art. No artists or freelancer visa for me.

So after all the researching we had to abandon the idea that we could live in Germany the way we wanted. Being married to a Dutch citizen we started to make enquiries about living in Holland on a spouse type visa. This was possible so we started making plans for Holland. Reading through the Dutch information it struck me that they always refer to EU nationals in the rules, not a 'Dutch Citizen' specifically.

So If I could be allowed to be in Holland as the spouse of an 'EU Citizen' maybe this also applied to Germany. I did some more research and found out this was the case, the spouse didn't need to be a German Citizen, just an 'EU-Burger' as they say. Okay! Germany was back on the menu.

I immediately set about organising a visa from Australia. I was told I could do it once I got to Germany, but I wanted certainty before we left. We were after all quitting our jobs, renting our place out, taking the dog with us and planning to settle in Germany big time. I made all the necessary applications and was speedily issued with just a three month temporary visa. This was a bit disappointing. 'Just go to the office in Germany when you get there, they will extend it for you no problem' they told me.

The first failed attempt to get an extension at the Ausländerbehörde (Aliens Authority) is detailed here .

After this attempt we didn't want to waste any more time lining up so we made an appointment, the earliest being 19 March. We spent the next couple of months living our Berlin lives and concurrently emailing the office trying to sort out what I should bring with me to the appointment. 

Through one of these emails they dropped a bit of a bomb - I was going to need health insurance. I was told in Australia that this wasn't a requirement for my situation and so we were going to just keep our travel insurance going to look after ourselves. Through emails with the Berlin authority I was told that travel insurance is not acceptable, I would have to get 'proper' insurance.

Getting German  Health Insurance (krankenversicherung) might not seem like a big thing and didn't dawn on me initially, but the more we looked into it the bigger the issue became. We were starting to panic as our appointment date approached and we were realising our insurance options were limited. 

To tell the whole story is long, boring and frustrating - and here I go in a slightly summarised way. There are three insurance options in Germany. The state system, the German private system and a very limited selection of international insurance options. I can't get state insurance because I don't have a visa, Nordine can't get state insurance because she is an EU Citizen but has never had European insurance (as an adult), we can't get insurance because we do not have jobs, we can't get insurance because we are not on social welfare (it was suggested we sign up), we may not be eligible for private insurance because we don't earn enough money to be in that system, if we were accepted into the private system the premiums are too high for us to consider (hello - 500 to 1,000 Euros...A MONTH!), and finally, the international insurance is expensive for FA cover, but one of them would apparently fill the visa requirement.

We visited a couple of state insurers in person and were denied because I had no visa. One company provided me with a printout which showed they could not legally insure me unless I had a visa for more than 12 months. They said that I could take the printout to my visa appointment and 'sometimes' it seems to do the trick.

The other state insurer said they would accept my application and provide me a letter to take to the visa office which would state that I had made an application and that it was conditional on my visa being granted. We thought this was a near sure fire option and after thinking about it for a couple of days we went back to the office to complete the paperwork. We made sure we had the same person again so that the story and 'slightly under the table' application could be done. It was harder than expected to get the same person, and when we finally did she reneged on what she said she would do. This was extremely disappointing.

I have also been dealing with some insurance brokers and they all told me what a nightmare this system is. We had quotes for the private insurance but couldn't justify the expense. Our only 'in the hand' option was the crappy expensive international cover that we probably would never use. We weren't happy with that.

My visa appointment was coming up in two weeks time and we didn't want to stuff it up and considered the international insurance.  On the other hand we didn't want to be forced into the inferior insurance option just for the sake of 'ticking a box'.

We decided we would try lining up again at the Ausländerbehörde (Aliens Authority) and try to get an unscheduled appointment, or at least talk to someone face to face about our options. We had the letter that one of the state insurers had given to me and we hoped to discuss this in particular with someone. We gathered all of our documents and prepared our financial information just in case. Hopefully we would get some clarity and not stuff up our scheduled appointment.

Continued in Part 2.

Pfannkuchen recipe #2 - Vagabond Burger

A while ago I brought you a recipe variation of Berlin's little old Pfannkuchen (doughnuts), you can read about the Tune Filled Pfannkuchen here.

The recipe today is a 'burger' augmentation of the Pfannkuchen.

VAGABOND BURGER
This recipe uses the Pfannkuchen as the burger bun to house a peanut butter ham cheeseburger. The burger is incredibly rich and while this recipe can make up to 4, it is recommended to only eat one per sitting!

For those regionally challenged without access to Pfannkuchen, substitutions can be made with a regular doughnut, standard burger bun or two slices of toast.

Ingredients:
4 x Pfannkuchen
1 x slice of bread (or breadcrumbs)
peanut butter
butter
mayonnaise
ham (4 slices)
200g mince meat
2 x pickles
mustard (2 teaspoons)
1 x egg
1/2 Onion
Cheese slices
Parmesan cheese (1 tablespoon)
Salt and Pepper (pinch)

Method:
Step 1 - Prepare the meat patties. In a bowl combine mince, grated pickles, mustard, finely sliced onion, and parmesan cheese. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to the mix. To make the breadcrumbs toast one slice of bread and then break up into the bowl.

Combine all ingredients and then divide into 4 patties.

 Step 2 - 

Prepare Pfannkuchen. Slice each Pfannkuchen in half and remove any filling. Butter each side of the Pfannkuchen and set aside.

Step 3 - 

Fry the burger patties. In a pan cook the meat patties on both sides, careful not to break them apart as they are flipped. To check if they are cooked, lightly press with fingers or utensils to test firmness. When the patty is no longer 'squishy' to the touch and bounces back after pressing they are near done. Don't overcook!

Step 4 - 

As the burger patties are almost cooked, finely dice the ham. Lay a slice of cheese on top of the patty and then cover the cheese with ham. Burger patties are ready when the cheese has melted - approximately 1 to 2 minutes will allow the cheese to melt.

Step 5 - 

Once the burger patties are cooked, remove from the pan and leave to rest. Get pre-prepared Pfannkuchen and place buttered side down in the still hot pan to toast for approximately 1 minute. The bun should be well toasted on the buttered side and still soft on the outside.

Step 6 - 

Remove Pfannkuchen halves from pan and prepare. Spread peanut butter copiously on the lower half and mayonnaise on the top half.

Step 7 - 

Assemble!! Lay burger patties on peanut butter and close the mayonnaise coated lid.

Step 8 - 

Eat and enjoy!