By Stephen Peter
Every year again: It’s far from Christmas, but the BZ can already tell a Christmas story! It might, of course, look a little familiar to some readers.
Because history repeats itself almost year after year. Summary: Not only can Berlin not have an airport, Berlin can also not have a Christmas tree. Too small, too bare, too ugly – there is always something wrong with the fir tree at Breitscheidplatz. This year the transport to the installation site was delayed because the tree would not have fit through the motorway tunnel. O you happy, O you blessed…
Sometimes criminal energy is to blame for the fir fiasco. Perhaps you still remember 2003 – there a muddlehead known to the police climbed into the tree at night and simply sawed off the top – two days before the fourth Advent. Incidentally, the district judge was quite mild in her judgment at the time (six months probation), gave the corpulent tree trespasser after the trial: “What you did is very annoying, but not insanely criminal.”
Perhaps the Senate should take up the matter. At Red-Green-Red there is a representative for every minority – so why not for all those who believe in Santa Claus? And for them a stately tree is part of it!
Tomorrow, children, there will (hopefully) be something – then we would like to report in the BZ that the Panne-Tanne arrived at Breitscheidplatz on the second try. Hopefully we will all hum when we see the magnificent specimen: “O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, I really like you.”
