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No driver’s license at the moment: Driving schools are holding loops in lockdown – Berlin

Consoling yourself, that can be a lot of work too. “They call here nonstop.” Driving school entrepreneur André Wittek from Oberschöneweide is mainly busy explaining to his learner drivers that he cannot tell them anything.

Especially not when the theory and driving lessons will start again. All Berlin driving schools had to close on January 10th.

The ordinance came a few weeks late – “we were forgotten”.

Driving schools do not fall under “body-hugging services” like hairdressers. You could see them as vocational schools, but the administration doesn’t want that, says the chairman of the Berlin Driving Instructors Association, Peter Glowalla.

At times they were subsumed under the event industry, but that didn’t catch on either. The current ordinance expressly states: “Driving schools, boat schools, flight schools and similar institutions may neither be opened to the public nor offer their services.” The Senate grants its own departments or companies such as the police or BVG an exception: “Driving licenses from members of municipal companies or government agencies for official purposes. “

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According to Wittek, learner drivers supported by the job center who need a driver’s license for an application are still affected by the lockdown decree. “There really are jobs attached to it.”

An affected learner driver once gave him an extension number in the State Chancellery, he just called and a woman sounded very puzzled – “It wasn’t even thought that way”.

The frustration of Wittek and his colleagues – according to the association, there are around 1,400 driving instructors in Berlin – is mainly inflamed by the fact that the neighboring state of Brandenburg is leaving its driving schools open.

Some driving instructors who were trained by him as Dekra experts have already emigrated. During the first lockdown it was temporarily the other way round:

The driving schools were closed in Brandenburg and opened in Berlin.

Wittek has sent its 16 employees on short-time work

But after a week, the Senate made readjustments. “Completely insane,” says Peter Glowalla.

In the spring you would have asked yourself whether you could still make overland trips in Brandenburg.

Wittek has sent its 16 driving instructors and four office employees completely on short-time work. His tax office is now handling the application for the third package of state bridging aid.

For the entrepreneur it is the first major turning point in his economic existence since the fall of the Wall. “Back then, we were one of the first to open, still with a GDR trade license.”

That was in March 1990, in an apartment in Oberschöneweide. “When I went to the balcony, I could see the end of the line”. Those were the driving school candidates who were hoping for a training position.

“Currently around 800 to 1000 schoolchildren are on hold,” says Wittek, many are slowly losing their driving experience or their theory. Or both.

Many people are slowly losing their driving experience

The theoretical exams would still be taken face-to-face, but the lessons were missing.

“There is now talk of online lessons”, but Wittek is not really a fan of it.

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Face-to-face teaching cannot be replaced. March 7th, the end of the current lockdown, has been marked in red in the association’s calendar, but Glowalla is skeptical whether the 500 Berlin driving schools will be part of the first wave of opening. “We’re not fantasies.” But they would like a little more respect for their industry.

“We need a bit of planning security”, maybe two weeks in advance. Similar to the hairdressers. They know that they can open on March 1st.

But hairdressers are in a better position in politics, after all, everyone goes there and talks to them. “We would be happy about an approximate mark.”

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