Germany travel restrictions: Welcome to Corona-Babylon!

Good morning dear readers

I am very happy to receive you here today! Here’s the annotated overview of the day’s topics:

WAS THE WAR?

In Berlin, the autumn holidays start on Monday. I know many friends and colleagues who wanted to travel with their families for the next two weeks. The overwhelming majority followed the recommendation of the Minister of Health Jens spahnrefrain from traveling abroad due to the pandemic and instead “enjoy the beauty of Germany.” But yesterday the holiday plans of many Berliners were jettisoned.

Four districts of the capital (Mitte, Neukölln, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Schöneberg-Tempelhof) are considered corona risk areas. There were more than 50 new infections per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. At the beginning of the week, some federal states had imposed strict requirements for tourists from these districts: in Schleswig-Holstein and Rhineland-Palatinate, they must go into quarantine for two weeks, or show a negative corona test.

Yesterday, representatives of all state governments agreed to an even stricter approach: Travelers from virus hot spots in Germany who have not been tested negative, They are no longer allowed to stay in hotels and guesthouses across the country. In addition to the aforementioned Berlin districts, the cities of Hamm and Remscheid and the Vechta district are currently among the risk areas (as of Wednesday evening). More than 2.3 million people are affected by the ban.

But the supposedly uniform rule was quickly resolved: Shortly after the announcement, the first countries left again. Thuringia announced that it did not want to participate. Berlin also refused and also asked to be seen as a whole. (The new infection values ​​for the entire city are below the hotspot threshold.) Lower Saxony and Bremen still want to examine the measure. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania initially quarantines him.

And even the strict Bavarians announced an extra sausage with the accommodation ban: People from the Vechta district are excluded. After all, the Free State has its own criteria for the classification of hot spots, which also include other aspects in addition to the new infection values, it was said to justify from Munich.

Can you still go on? I do not. Anyone who had hoped that countries could agree on a common line was disappointed again yesterday. It remains: In Germany, there is a confusion of the Babylonian language with the rules of Corona.

It is not surprising that many citizens no longer understand this mosaic of measures. This is also the case with t-online user Michael G. from Berlin. He wanted to go to the North Sea with his wife and daughter. Alone: ​​while he lives at the Schöneberg-Tempelhof hotspot, his daughter lives a few blocks away in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district. Currently, Mr. G. should not start his journey, but his daughter is. “We are three kilometers apart,” he writes. You can find more reader opinions on crown restrictions here.

It is doubtful that German national travel restrictions will lead to success. After all, it is very likely that the current risk areas only anticipate developments in the rest of the country. If the number of new infections continues to increase at this rate, there will soon be many more hot spots in Germany. This development can already be observed, especially in large cities: Frankfurt am Main is about to cross the threshold. And the more access points there are, the more difficult it becomes to know who can travel where.

To successfully contain the second wave, Germany needs two things above all: Understandable and understandable rules, and the understanding of as many citizens as possible that it is probably best to voluntarily give up unnecessary travel this year. Otherwise, the fight against Corona threatens to end as the Tower of Babel: in disaster.

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Mike Pence and Kamala Harris (Source: Collage: t-online / MediaPunch / ZUMA Wire / imago images)

Despite his corona infection, Donald Trump continues to campaign. Then Triumphantly organized return from the hospital it had become relatively quiet around the president of the United States for a day. On Wednesday Trump later broke quarantine rules, left his home in the White House and recorded a video in the garden of the government headquarters. In it he announced his “cure” and promised all American citizens suffering from Covid the same miracle cure that had helped him. It was “a blessing from God” that he got infected, Trump said. Because that was the only way he could test the experimental antibody drug. Trump as a man of sorrows who sacrifices himself to redeem his people: If a US president uses such exaggerated religious comparisons, then the election campaign situation is dire.

During the night, for once, the spotlight did not belong to Trump or his Democratic adversary Joe Biden. Known in the Mormon metropolis of Salt Lake City The vice presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris for their only television matchup. In my colleagues Fabian Reinbold and Johannes Bebermeier’s analysis on t-online, you can read how the often unemotional and ultra-conservative Pence and the aggressive Democrat Harris fared. Why the debate between the two could already give a preview of the presidential elections of 2024, my colleague Camilla Kohrs scored beforehand.

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WHAT HAPPENS?

In Berlin, Health Minister Jens Spahn and RKI chief Lothar Wieler spoke in the morning about the “Corona situation in autumn”. If you agree with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s assessment that she could be in Germany until Christmas 19,200 new cases of corona every day give? How realistic is your setting? They have checked the companions of “Zeit”. They have added an interactive calculator that, after entering the current breeding value, shows the possible increase in infections through the end of the year.

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The Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced in Stockholm around noon. Will the award attract as much attention as it did last year? At that time, the Swedish Academy selected two awardees for the first time: Olga Tokarczuk from Poland and Peter handke from Austria. Handke’s election had sparked heated controversy over his stance on the Yugoslavian war: My Former Colleague Ana Grujić found for writer clear words in your video comment.

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In the Bundestag, the Investigative Commission of the Wirecard scandal begins work in the afternoon. The focus is on two questions: Did the federal government and tax authorities mistakenly touch the former Dax group with child gloves? And with that he favored the gigantic fraud of the founders of the company by billions?

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READ WHAT

Before the trial begins, the police officers enter the Berlin-Moabit Criminal Court. (Source: Fabian Sommer / dpa)

This murder is a matter of state: On behalf of Russia, Vadim K. is said to have shot a former Chechen fighter in the middle of Berlin last year. The process of the so-called zoo murder began yesterday under special auspices and under massive police protection. Much was unusual in the courtroom, as my colleague Jonas Mueller-Töwe reports on the spot, and that started with the name of the defendant.

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He was in an artificial coma for five weeks.when he woke up again, he no longer recognized his daughter. Joachim Huber fell ill with Covid-19 in March. The disease took a severe course: pulmonary embolism, total kidney failure, heart attack. The 62-year-old journalist barely survived, and the consequences of the virus disease still bother him today. What the fight with the coronavirus meant for him and his family, he tells in a moving interview with “Tagesspiegel”.

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What amuses me?

Harald Schmidt and Herbert Feuerstein in November 1990 (Source: teutopress / imago images)

Thirty years agoShortly after reunification, a native Austrian confused German television: “Schmidtanders” was practically the most anarchic program aired on a public service channel at the time. Herbert Feuerstein wrote the trained gags in American stand-up comedy. In front of the camera he was satisfied with the role of partner of Harald Schmidt. That he was at least as funny as the later TV superstar, shows the best of the show’s “official jokes”. Feuerstein died Tuesday at the age of 83. how did you meet yesterday.

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Oh, and by the way: Of the Yogi think you can bend the rules a bit for a good cause …

(Source: Mario Lars)

I wish you an optimistic day! Tomorrow you will receive the rest of the day from my colleague Florian Wichert.

Sincerely,

you

Daniel fersch
Shift manager t-online
Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @danielfersch

With dpa material.

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