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Christmas and the virus
We need to talk about Christmas again. Again, I know. You only had good intentions, but good intentions aren’t always well done. That realizes some of the people around Chancellor and Prime Ministerwho recently promised Germans that Christmas with family and friends would be fine. As if the redemption of the virus was related to him.
But with each day the festival approaches, it becomes clear: The Lock light it doesn’t work as expected, the number of infections remains at a high level, clinics are filling up with Covid-19 patients, the death rate is increasing.
And so the doubts grow: Can you really relax the rules at Christmas that do not have the desired effect anyway? On the contrary, shouldn’t we really keep all contacts to a minimum, forego extended family meals and services? And if we don’t, a real one threatens no later than January harter lock?
example Saxony: The seven-day incidence there continues to skyrocket, despite partial closures. Prime Minister of the CDU Michael Kretschmer threatens “tougher measures”, he recently stated: “We have underestimated this virus – everyone.”
Kretschmer is scammed of this statement on social media. Correctly. Anyone who still says today that they underestimated the virus must have spent the year in a parallel universe. So also holding “everyone together” jointly accountable is quite audacious.
As a reminder: it was Kretschmer who, in view of the low number of infections in Saxony at the time, called for a “new way of dealing with” the pandemic in spring, away from strict restrictions. That was at a time when Germany was taking a deep breath because it got through the first wave well. In which, however, virus expert Christian Drosten has already naively warned against running into a winter wave. You have to be prepared to have to enter a new blockage.
The soft version is now valid until January 10, with the known exceptions for Christmas and New Years Eve. But when the curve for the number of infections increases, neither smoothness nor exceptions are required. Not only in Saxony. too Markus Söder, The Prime Minister of Bavaria, warns: “Holidays and New Year’s Eve should not be a new risk.” From the outset, Baden-Württemberg wants to allow larger rounds for just four days, in Berlin there is no relaxation at all.
There are still almost three weeks until Christmas Eve. The chances of a little more carefree family diminish with each little door that opens on the Advent calendar. On December 15, Angela Merkel and the country’s leaders sit down together again. If a pre-Christmas viral miracle does not occur by then, the exceptions may be charged again.
Christmas wouldn’t be lost with that. The party would be smaller, maybe even smaller, than we had already planned. But more intense, as the German scholar Karl-Heinz Göttert says in the SPIEGEL interview: “Because everyone has to be aware of how important the festival is to them.”
“Chancellor Line” ended in Berlin, after only 25 years!
Which made fun of the new Berlin airport until it opened a good month ago after 14 years of construction. But this is not a joke, now a big project is being completed in the capital. This Friday, due to the pandemic without a big party, it goes Extension of metro line 5 in operation. Drive from Alexanderplatz through the Red Town Hall, the Brandenburg Gate and the Bundestag to the main train station. 25 years have passed since construction began.
The U5’s nickname comes from 1995 – “Chancellor Line”. Because the first cornerstone was made by then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl himself. The route through central Berlin was a prestigious project of the federal government during the post-reunification euphoria. When the Berlin Senate stopped construction in 2002 due to lack of funds, the federal government was not happy and wanted the funding back. The Senate continued to build, but in 2009 it only completed a 1.8-kilometer-long stretch between the Brandenburg Gate and the main train station. For years, a single train, like the U55, paced from one side to the other, almost completely empty, with no connection to the rest of the metro network.
At some point, even in the Red City Hall, it was recognized how ridiculous the capital was. In 2010, work began to bridge the gap with the Alex, including three splendid new train stations. Now the chancellor, who is still in office, can theoretically take the subway from her apartment to the seat of government.
So: The Museum Island train station, which has a »starry sky« with 6662 points of light, is not finished yet, trains are passing through here for the moment. Something happens all the time.
The SPIEGEL Chronicle is here
The time of the annual reviews begins. In reality, however, you only need this one: the SPIEGEL Chronicle 2020. The year-end issue of SPIEGEL is available from this week.
Many colleagues look back to an extraordinary year under the sign of the crown pandemic, to the presidential elections in the US, to the power struggle in the CDU, to sad, touching and entertaining things. Read for yourself!
Loser of the day …
… could be the president of the DFB, Fritz Keller. National coach Jogi Löw staggered for a few days after the 6-0 debacle against Spain. Löw’s future has become clear for now, but the coaches debate has turned into a presidential debate. Internal power struggles, lack of leadership, a violent dispute with Löw – when the Presidium of the German Football Association meets today, Fritz Keller is under massive pressure. It cannot be ruled out that his days at the top of the DFB are already numbered after just over a year.
