House of Representatives election in Berlin | At home and in kindergarten

With only twelve percent for the SPD in the polls, top candidate Steffen Krach is lagging behind his competitors. Photo: dpa/Sebastian Christoph Gollnow A handful of young and old comrades have positioned themselves at Berlin's Elsterwerdaer Platz subway station to campaign for votes for The Left. It's nothing special, just a traditional information stand that has been used in election campaigns for decades. The area here is not a trendy district in the city center, but rather belongs to the East Berlin outskirts of Marzahn-Hellersdorf and almost feels like a Brandenburg province. Suddenly, a young man in a colorful T-shirt and a baseball cap casually pedals past on his bike - a cool guy who waves in a friendly manner, gives an appreciative thumbs up and shouts: "You're cool!"

It is encounters like these that months ago led top candidate Elif Eralp to no longer react with surprise when her party was once again at the top of one of the many opinion polls. You can feel the party's upswing in the mood everywhere in the city, explained Eralp. She should become governing mayor if the Socialists actually win the Berlin House of Representatives election for the first time on September 20th.

The comrades also experienced similar enthusiasm as at Elsterwerdaer Platz when they drove to the Rollbergviertel in West Berlin's Neukölln district on a red cargo bike. They are immediately surrounded by a group of teenage boys who are really excited. »The left is good. We want the left to win the election,” says the biggest of them again and again.

The Berlin Left Elections research group predicts a victory with 23 percent of the vote, while the Insa Institute predicts a neck-and-neck race with the CDU of the outgoing mayor Kai Wegner. The Left recently won the previous U16 test election for children and young people with 32.8 percent, and in Neukölln it even achieved an incredible 51.3 percent among adolescents.

In the Rollbergkiez, the socialists earned such a desire to live by, among other things, working hard to address the tenants' problems. This time, Philipp Dehne, direct candidate in the local constituency, brought in Niklas Schenker, the rent expert from the House of Representatives faction, for a meeting in the neighborhood. Together they visit the apartment of a shift worker. In particular, mold is spreading in almost unimaginable ways in your children's bedrooms and also in the kitchen. When it comes to mold infestation, landlords often think and say that the residents probably didn't ventilate properly and are themselves to blame. But here on this sunny evening a window is open. The problem is obviously of a different nature. The windows are no longer tight and when it rains, water gets in and runs down the wall over the window sills, explains the tenant. She reported the damage seven months ago, but it is not and will not be repaired.

Your children pull the mattresses from the bed frames to sleep and drag them to another room, or they don't come home at all and spend the night with friends. The woman, already burdened by hard work in two shifts, is completely desperate. “This is no longer life,” she complains. "I'm exhausted." But moving isn't an option. There is a housing shortage in Berlin. There is no affordable alternative for the family. That's why the woman didn't think about reducing the rent. She doesn't want to risk being thrown out because of it.

Representative Schenker is shocked at the sight of the mold. “This is definitely a health risk.” He has no doubt about that. Schenker promises to write to the property management that same evening. A few days later, he still hasn't received an answer. When asked by nd, the responsible housing company cannot assign the case to any process known to it and says that it has not received a request from MP Schenker. “Of course, we investigate every report of mold that comes to our attention and carefully examine each individual case in order to take the necessary measures,” assured the housing company on Thursday and now wants to contact Schenker.

The deputy is surprised. Almost all apartments in the Rollbergkiez, including this one, belong to the state-owned housing company Stadt und Land. It's actually not that bad, in fact it's actually exemplary. The tenants were always satisfied in the Rollbergkiez too. Residents report that the difficulties, for example with seemingly high additional demands when billing operating costs, only began with the corona pandemic.

Schenker is looking for an explanation. Perhaps the state-owned housing companies are simply overwhelmed by what the Senate, made up of the CDU and SPD, is demanding of them, the opposition politician thinks. The state-owned housing companies should renovate their portfolios, keep rents reasonably affordable and build large amounts of new quarters. But construction costs have literally exploded since the Corona crisis.

“We on the left are the biggest fans of municipal housing,” admits Niklas Schenker. His heart bleeds when there are difficulties with them of all people. Schenker presents possible solutions, for example separating management and new construction. Candidate Philipp Dehne clarifies the ownership situation as it appears to him: "The city and the country belong 100 percent to us and belong to the state of Berlin."

“The city and the country belong 100 percent to us and belong to the state of Berlin.”

A leaflet from candidate Büsra Karadag (CDU) lies carelessly discarded in a stairwell in Rollbergkiez. Karadag demands less garbage on the streets and more police officers. “Drug crime and violence must not remain part of everyday life in Neukölln,” demands the woman who grew up in the district. Not a word about rising rents and food prices. Instead: “For our children: A safe and clean Neukölln.”

Meanwhile, the country's most radical drop in birth rates since 1945 has reached the capital's daycare centers. Only 149 children currently attend the municipal daycare center Teltower Damm in Zehlendorf. The staff would allow 165 children and with more teachers, even 200 children could be looked after in this building, as manager Catrin Strobel explains.

SPD leading candidate Steffen Krach did a kind of internship in this daycare center on Monday. He was there in the circle of chairs in the “elephant group,” which Krach later accidentally called the elephant group. He is too much in the middle of a grueling election campaign. The conversation with the top politicians of the major parties that is broadcast on television on election evening is called the elephant round. “Nonsense elephant group – group of elephants,” Krach corrects himself. He's stressed about corruption allegations, which he denies, but still found time to do a bit of puzzles with the daycare children.

It wasn't all that new to him. Krach says that just three years ago he accompanied his son for four weeks as he settled into a daycare center. He almost took up a teaching career himself. In 2000 Krach wanted to start studying to be a teacher. But during this time he was advised against it on the grounds that there was no need. Today, Berlin and Brandenburg suffer from a shortage of teachers, have already placed many lateral entrants in front of school classes and continue to do so.

Krach therefore warns against closing daycare centers and laying off educators now in view of the drop in birth rates and, in a few years, abandoning schools and training massively fewer teachers. Berlin should not repeat these mistakes from the beginning of the millennium. Steffen Krach agrees with Thuy Linh Pham from the Verdi service union. Daycare director Strobel and Pham handed the SPD politician his eleven promises for the first 100 days as governing mayor - with a handwritten point added. Krach's actual promises include submitting Berlin's application for the world exhibition Expo and sending out the rent police to punish rent usury. As added point twelve, he now reads that he will not only ensure traffic safety in front of the daycare centers with 30 km/h zones, but also: "I am committed to a sensible and scientifically based skilled worker-child ratio in reality, not just on paper."

Reducing the number of children per teacher would be helpful for early childhood education and would take away the fear of colleagues losing their jobs because of the drop in births, explains daycare manager Strobel. This was done for those under three years old. Otherwise, 2,500 educators would be surplus, Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) justified the measure. But the Verdi union would like the staffing ratio to also be adjusted for older daycare children. Otherwise you would inevitably be in the social selection in February 2026, Strobel explains why this is necessary. It wouldn't be about layoffs, but about transferring colleagues to other facilities. But that is not the only reason. “This demand is so elementary because we have more and more children in need of support,” says Strobel, justifying the request.

Steffen Krach is at least half in agreement with the addition to his 100-day program that has been foisted on him. “I think it’s great,” he says. "I just don't know whether we can do it in 100 days." SPD posters present Krach as the next governing mayor. But with poll numbers of ten to twelve percent for his party, that's unlikely to happen.

A squirrel runs along a fence in Neukölln's Rollbergkiez. His red fur shines in the evening light. The red cargo bike rolls away. But the comrades want to come back and take care of things.

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