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WEATHER

Fierce storms batter northern Germany

Terrific thunderstorms late on Monday left emergency services overstretched in parts of Germany, as phone calls flooded fire departments. Hamburg was especially hard hit.

Published: 7 June 2011 08:59 CEST
Fierce storms batter northern Germany
Photo: DPA

A powerful storm front hit the northern port city about 5 pm, dumping 50 litres of rain per square metre, including hail stones. Thunder and lighting tore across the sky.

Streets and building basements were flooded and Hamburg U-Bahn entrances inundated.

One man was hospitalised after lighting struck close to where he was sitting in his office, daily Bild reported.

“He was sitting in his office on the seventh floor and a window was damaged by an electro-magnetic impulse,” a Hamburg fire department spokesman said.

More than 1,000 emergency services workers were deployed. The Hamburg fire department was called out 1,500 times in three hours. Normally they would be called out 630 times in a whole day.

“The whole city is affected. We are having a state of emergency,” the fire spokesman told Bild.

Click here to see pictures of the nasty weather

Parts of Hamburg’s main train station had to be closed as commuters waded through knee-deep water. Firemen were called out to the City Hall, the Interior Ministry and the US Consulate.

“There was water in basements all over the place,” the spokesman said.

The state opera house was also affected. Planes at Hamburg airport had to be grounded for about 30 minutes until the worst of the storm passed. Some S-Bahn train stations were closed for hours.

In Berlin, the fire department received about 80 call-outs in two hours, with the Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg districts especially hard hit by the torrential rain. Rain, hail and fierce squalls forced eight flights to divert from Tegel Airport in the northwest of the city to Schönefeld in the southeast.

The south of the country did not escape the brutal weather, with heavy rain and hail pounding parts of Bavaria in the districts of Kelheim, Landshut and Rottal-Inn.

Lightning caused several fires in the northeast of Germany. A 65-year-old woman in Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania died after being hit by lightning.

And a herd of 30 deer were killed in a nature park in the northwestern state of North Rhine-Westphalia after a lightning bolt struck.

“They were completely roasted and had blue phosphor eyes,” said Albert Stobbe, the owner of the park in Mechernich. “Most of the animals were dead on the spot.”

Click here for The Local’s weather forecast

The Local/DPA/djw

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BERLIN

Anmeldung: Berlin to re-launch online housing registration in October

Finding an appointment at the Bürgeramt to register an address has long been an unwanted chore for new arrivals in Berlin - but from October, this gruelling ritual will be a thing of the past.

Published: 19 September 2024 13:51 CEST
Anmeldung: Berlin to re-launch online housing registration in October

Every foreigner who’s lived in the German capital has experienced the stress of trying to find an appointment at the Bürgeramt, or citizens’ office. 

In order to register an address – a process known as the Anmeldung in German – residents generally have to scour a list of available appointments, sometimes waiting weeks for a spot or travelling to a far-flung part of the city to complete the process. 

From mid-October, however, the city has announced that people will be able to register and deregister their place of residence online. The Local has contacted officials to ask for the specific date in October that this is happening and will update this story when we receive the information. 

According to the Senate, the move will free up around 500,000 appointments that would ordinarily have been taken by the hundreds of thousands who move into and around the city each year.

Berlin had briefly offered online registrations during the Covid-19 pandemic, but removed the service once social restrictions were lifted. 

How will the new system work?

The online registration system is apparently based on Hamburg’s system, which was developed under the so-called ‘one-for-all’ (EfA) principle. This means that other states around Germany can adopt the same software as part of their digitalisation efforts.

People who want to register address will need to fill in an online form, provide proof of their new residence and also identify themselves using their electronic ID, which will either be an electronic residence permit or a German or EU ID card. 

READ ALSO: What is Germany’s electronic ID card and how do you use it?

After the process has been completed, a sticker for the ID card will be sent out via post.

Aufenthaltstitel

A German residence permit or ‘Aufenthaltstitel’ with an electronic ID function. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Karmann

This can then be used to update the information on a residents’ eID card and access the registration confirmation digitally.

Those who don’t have access to a validated electronic ID will need to either activate their eID function at the immigration office or Bürgeramt or register their address in person.  

In 2024, the service will only be available for single residents, but online registration for families is also in the pipeline.

Is Berlin making progress with digitalisation?

It certainly seems like it. This latest move is part of a larger push to complete digitalise Berlin’s creaking services and move to a faster, more efficient online system.

At the start of the year, the capital centralised its naturalisation office in the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA) and moved all citizenship applications online. 

Since then, citizenship applications have been completed around ten times faster than previously – though tens of thousands of applicants are still waiting for a response on their paper applications.

More recently, the LEA also announced that it had moved to a new appointment-booking system designed to end the predatory practice of appointment touting, or selling appointments for a fee.

Under the new system, many residents permits – including EU Blue Cards – can be directly applied for online, with in-person appointments reserved for collecting the new (or renewed) permit.

READ ALSO: What to know about the new appointments system at Berlin immigration office

Meanwhile, those who can’t apply online yet can access appointments by filling in the contact form, with the LEA hoping that this will deter people from booking appointments with the intention to sell them on. 

In another move to speed up bureaucracy, Berlin also opened a new Bürgeramt in the district of Spandau this September, with the governing CDU announcing on X that more new offices would follow in the near future. 

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