Berlin
The bohemian Berlin neighborhood of Kreuzberg is trying to block McDonald’s from opening a restaurant. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the quarter was known as West Berlin’s coolest address, home to punks, pacifists, anarchists, and artists. It’s now less radical, but still edgy, and residents have formed a group called McWiderstand, or McResistance. “Kreuzberg is a very alternative neighborhood with a lot of small businesses,” said group leader Philipp Raschdorff. “There is no Burger King, and no Ikea. This is what distinguishes the area.” The quarter’s representative in parliament, Hans-Christian Ströbele, has joined the campaign. “I fear that with all its media power,” Ströbele said, “McDonald’s will tempt pupils and stop them eating their usual sandwich and apple for lunch.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked againFeature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBIFeature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him
-
The all-seeing tech giantFeature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
