By Stefan Peter and Oliver Ohmann
The red-green-red Senate and its fight against the expensive energy crisis in winter.
It’s a small comeback of the historic warming room…
Human warmth against the biting cold – this is how Red-Green-Red wants to score points with needy Berliners in times of the energy crisis. The “Network of Heat” project started on Friday.
The governing Franziska Giffey (44, SPD) and Senator for Social Affairs Katja Kipping (44, Left) and 20 representatives of clubs, business and culture signed the “Charter of Heat” in the Coat of Arms Hall of the Red City Hall.
In the cold season, rooms should be open for warming up and for encounters. The (free) offer includes coffee, tea and soup. A comeback of the well-known heat rooms, so to speak.
Caritas has been running a warming room on Bundesplatz for 20 years, serving coffee, tea and sandwiches Photo: Stephanie von Becker
However, the facilities will differ from the historical models of 100 years ago. There are no large ovens or even open fireplaces to warm up clammy fingers. “No burning garbage cans,” said Giffey to the BZ “It’s meant symbolically, it’s about human warmth!”
The head of the town hall promises: “The energy supply is guaranteed, now the relief is coming.” Then why the network? “You can tell that there are uncertainties and that people are worried. We want to counter that. Places where you can socialize, where you can have a good time.”
The governing Franziska Giffey (left) and Senator for Social Affairs Katja Kipping (right) with the signatories of the “Charter of Heat” Photo: Britta Pedersen/dpa
Clubs, churches, social institutions and even the Museum of Technology and the New National Gallery participate in the “Network of Warmth”. However, so far these have mostly been declarations of intent: at the start of the campaign yesterday only libraries and neighborhood meet-ups were listed.
Reason: The Senate is making eleven million euros available for the project, but the supplementary budget must first be approved by the House of Representatives…
The New National Gallery also wants to take part in the heat campaign Photo: Siegfried Purschke
Criticism comes from the opposition. “To belittle these facilities as ‘meeting places’ is bad cynicism,” said AfD MP Jeannette Auricht (52).
Tobias Bauschke (35, FDP): “There is a massive impression that the whole project is planned more as a PR show by the Senator for Social Affairs than as an actual offer of help.”
The first warming room was built in 1891
Warming rooms have been part of the welfare of the poor in Berlin since the imperial era, like people’s kitchens or night shelters for the homeless. 100 years ago there were around 60 in the city.
On May 27, 1891, the board of directors of the Central Association for Proof of Employment decided in a meeting to set up warming rooms for the coming winter.
The first was opened on Alex and had room for 500 people. Men and women were spatially separated.
Warming rooms followed in the Stadtbahn arches on Dircksenstraße. There was room for 1250 people in the winter months, daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. They were only “meeting places” to a limited extent. One encountered stuffy air, tobacco smoke, the smell of sweat and all kinds of germs in the crowd.
On the other hand, anyone without identity papers or a residence permit could visit the warming halls and there was a hot soup.
Not to be forgotten: In Berlin, classic warming rooms have always been pubs and coffee houses. For a few pennies you could warm up with Molle or coffee at the Boller stove.