A warm wind is blowing through the streets of Berlin. It is still light on this Friday evening. People are drawn outside. They sit close together. You could almost forget the pandemic.
But only almost: Police patrols and the controls of the general security service keep reminding you: The corona crisis is not over yet. Amanda Groschke knows that too. The 43-year-old social scientist spends the evening with her partner and his daughter on a playground in the park at Gleisdreieck.
When asked how she is now handling private meetings after the relaxation of the infection control rules, she emphasizes: “Basically, I’ll do it as before.” Groschke says she still only meets a few friends. Both sides test each other beforehand. “This testing relaxed me, but so did my counterpart,” says the 43-year-old.
In the private sector in particular, she will “probably remain more careful”. It has become important to her to question automated gestures and “look more consciously: who are you actually hugging?”
Choose carefully who to hug
Elisabeth Peters, on the other hand, thinks that “with some people a little more closeness is good again”. The 32-year-old sits with three others on a picnic blanket in the park. “But I think that will come in time.”
Overall, make her more conscious about who to hug and who not to. She has also participated in private parties. But she wouldn’t dare to go to clubs with many strangers.
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A few hundred meters further in the park, Alexander Schulze is sitting with a friend. Like Peters, Schulze also shies away from parties in clubs. Above all, the 30-year-old sees the vaccination as a “ticket to freedom”. Thanks to the relaxation, he now leads “actually a normal life”.
Karin Hansel (last name changed) is also relieved after her vaccination “that you don’t have to be so super careful anymore.” She walks through the park at Gleisdreieck with her friend Hedwig. The 65-year-old came to visit from Bonn. When she looks at the people in the park, she is pleased “that this normal life is blossoming again”.
Mustafa Kaynak also enjoys this. The 24-year-old plays table tennis with three friends in the park at Karlsbad. He continues to meet “mostly with the same people”. He is still cautious, especially because of his parents. Otherwise, he sees the situation as relaxed.
Vacation in Berlin – despite being careful
Guido Hartmann is out and about on nearby Potsdamer Platz. The 41-year-old has come to town for a short vacation. He is pleased that vacations are now possible again, he says. “The fact that I was able to come to Berlin is important to me for my psyche,” he says. Nevertheless: The coronavirus should not be underestimated.
Matthias from Munich is out and about on Friedrichstrasse with his uncle, who lives in Berlin. There are tables in front of many bars, many people are sitting outside, the street is busy. The 42-year-old is also happy to have already been vaccinated.
Now “you don’t have to worry so much anymore”. His uncle Manfred is particularly pleased that “more is possible of freedom in life”. Nevertheless, he too remains cautious.
“We believe that the measures are unjustified.”
Meinrad and Susanne see it completely differently. The 52-year-old electrical engineer and the 53-year-old art therapist came to Berlin to demonstrate in front of the Reichstag building. You are standing in front of an ice cream parlor.
Meinrad emphasizes: “We believe that the measures are unjustified and that the population should revolt against the government,” says Meinrad. His 53-year-old companion describes herself as a conspiracy theorist. Both see the easing as only an intermediate phase to a renewed tightening of the measures. And ultimately towards a “dictatorship”, says Meinrad.
Esther Pappenberger and Paul Reichenbecher have nothing to do with such views. According to the 25-year-old, both have been very careful over the past few months and have only been in close contact with each other.
“Lax” rules in Berlin
He lives in Bavaria and is only visiting his girlfriend, who is studying in Berlin. The couple is currently on the move in Mitte. Paul recalls that both were initially overwhelmed by the easing in Berlin. In his Bavarian homeland, the rules are “not as lax” as in Berlin.
Meanwhile, however, the couple enjoy the new freedoms. Nevertheless, they remain cautious, especially “where you can still endanger others,” says Esther.
Shortly before 11 p.m., the Mauerpark is full of young people who sit and stand together in small groups. Many have a bottle in hand. Margarita is traveling alone. She comes from the Ukraine and has been working in Berlin for three and a half years.
The 29-year-old feels it is unfair that older people can travel safely again and enjoy freedom while she is not yet vaccinated. In the face of the easing, she keeps asking herself, “Is what I’m doing okay?”
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