Berlin has discovered a new political trend a while ago- the so called “Volksentscheid”, or referendum, to use the more global term.
It seems as though the truly conservative (and often wealthier) inhabitants of our capital have had it with the irreligious, liberal (and often not so wealthy) majority. Even though the “poor but sexy” Berlin liberal population has moved from the former east of Berlin and spread towards the middle and even the west of Berlin, it sometimes seems like our city is more divided than ever.
It all started with the unsuccessful referendum about a year ago, where we had to vote on whether the airport in Tempelhof should remain an airport or be used otherwise in the future. The senate wanted to close down the airport for several financial reasons, but before we knew it, someone had to say something against it. The campaign to keep Tempelhof as it was, unsurprisingly, was started by the wealthier population of Berlin, which mostly used this “elite airport” for their private planes. Of course, this attitude ended up not becoming very popular with the rest of the people, and the necessary “yes” votes were not reached in the ultimate referendum. Also, only 36,1% of all elective inhabitants cared enough about this topic to go to the polling booth at all.
Even though this was quite a loss for the wealthy conservatives, they tried again this year, with an apparently much more provocative and touchy subject- the status of religion class next to ethical science class in Berlin’s schools. Of course, this was also a hot topic for the churches, which were more than happy to publicly support the “Pro Reli” campaign, which aimed at making religion and ethical science compulsory optional subjects again. This means that every student in Berlin could decide to take EITHER Ethical Science OR religion class.
This was originally changed three years ago, when Berlin’s government decided that it was best for the diverse and multi-religious students in Berlin to have one common class where they talk about morals and democratic values together instead of being divided up when visiting their own religion class suiting their personal confession only. Thus, it became compulsory for all Berlin students to go to the Ethical science class, and everyone could do religion class on top of that.
In the last few weeks, a heated debate about values outside the church and other accusations has started to evolve in Berlin. But what was all the fuzz really about?
Even though this referendum has been about such an important, and truly touchy, personal subject, the turnouts today revealed that the Berliners are still a rather indifferent lot.
So, if you did go vote (like me), there are a few things that are likely:
1) If you are from the east of Berlin, you voted NO.
2) If you are from the west of Berlin, you voted YES.
3) If you are from Marzahn-Hellersdorf, your polling booth was empty.
4) If you are from Zehlendorf, you had to stand in line to vote.
But, generally, if you are a typical Berliner:
5) You didn’t really care, and thus didn’t go vote at all – AGAIN.
Because of this, the Pro Reli Volksentscheid was doomed to fail. The participation in this election was even below the one from the Tempelhof referendum, at a rate of 29,2 %. Also, taking all votes into account, more people voted against the “PRO Reli” campaign than for it. This, in a sense, is a double loss for the initiators. However, if one looks at the demographic spread of “yes” and “no” votes in Berlin, it appears that our mindset from the Cold war times still hasn’t changed much- it still is the religious, wealthy west, and the poor, irreligious east:
www.tagesspiegel.de/medien/hermes/cme1,272352.html
So what is the true, political moral of the story? Well, first of all- our population finally needs to start mixing up more, as the current trend towards an everlasting east-west division in Berlin is worrying. I would prefer a “melting pot” Berlin with heated discussion more than a Berlin that has cultural ghettos, and no broad placed where we can all unite, whether we are poor, rich, liberal or conservative, German or immigrant. And second, I would suggest to the wealthy conservatives in Berlin to stop initiating referendums- it seems like they will always be doomed to lose in our “poor, but sexy” home.
Sincerely, Laura
