Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

WEATHER

Two killed as storm front batters Germany

Two people were killed, several people injured and thousands more had their electricity cut after a storm front causing hundreds of thousands of euros of damage battered Germany on Wednesday night.

Published: 23 June 2011 08:49 CEST
Two killed as storm front batters Germany
Photo: DPA

A 57-year-old woman drowned when her canoe overturned on Lake Constance near Radolfzell in the storm, while a 77-year-old woman was crushed to death by a strawberry stand which collapsed on top of her. A five-year-old girl was also seriously hurt when a branch torn from a tree smashed into her family’s car in Heidenheim.

Roofs were torn up and cellars were flooded with rainwater as drains were blocked by leaves and other debris while winds ripped up trees and pushed them over.

In the Rhine-Main area, traffic ground to a halt because of the heavy rain, with drivers stuck on the A5 motorway for 25 kilometres near Bad Homburg. The fire department in Frankfurt was called out around 30 times to pump out flooded cellars.

Bavaria was hit with hail storms which caused further damage. One man was seriously hurt after a tree crashed down on a garden hut in Riedering. He was taken to hospital by helicopter.

Click here for The Local’s weather forecast.

Several boats ended up floating around on the Chiemsee after being torn from their moorings. One farmer in Bamberg had terrible luck with the roof of a machine hall being torn off by the wind, which destroyed his newly installed solar electricity generation system worth around €200,000.

The Berlin fire department declared an emergency for around 90 minutes, putting 23 volunteer fire services on alert, as more than 130 weather-related calls were answered. These included fallen trees blocking train lines and electricity cables resulting in disruption on the connections to Dresden and Frankfurt an der Oder.

Around 50,000 households were cut off from electricity in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Brandenburg after a number of pylons were brought down by the storm. Even late into the night around 21,000 houses were still blacked out, while it remained uncertain when supply might be restored.

The A4 motorway near Schorba in Thuringia was closed in both directions due to fallen trees while the heavy rainfall made driving treacherous. One woman was seriously injured in Baden-Württemberg when a silo collapsed in the storm and hit her.

DAPD/hc

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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. 

SHOW COMMENTS