Every day when the sun went down, i see the spot lights and the bright glow of the christmas market near the Frankfurter Allee. It’s like a foreign object that materialized and distorts the area and i am wondering if they chose extra spotlights just because cultural events and folk festivals have an exemption in the EnSikuMaV1. I can totally understand if people who lives directly in front of the market are upset2. Especially in the cold foggy nights it is just eerie and awfully bright. At least the spook is over at 9pm and the lights vanish again. It is a weird spectacle and i took the opportunity to make some pics of the fair between the Plattenbauten.

The local residents surely don't live in a funhouse right now
Even from the train station it feels like a foreign object
Honestly, i am wondering if the Umwelt- und Naturschutzamt, which gave the approval, considered light pollution at all. During freezing temperatures and fog, you have a layer of aerosols that thickens with the decreasing temperature and additionally scatters the artificial light. No one can tell me that this has no effect on the enviroment. Maybe it was okayish because the lights switch off at 9pm?

  1. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ensikumav/BJNR144600022.html. Or maybe the CDU had a blind eye because they are worried about the christmas lights (https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1168421.landeshaushalt-licht-an-fuer-den-nachtragshaushalt.html)? ↩︎

  2. On that area is also some interesting story with the Lichtenberger CDU and the upcoming “Van-Caem-Park”, an office complex with around 110,000 square meters of floor space (https://www.kocher-architekten.com/van-caem-park and https://www.vancaem-projects.com/van-caem-park-berlin-lichtenberg.html). Van Caem himself made headlines in 2019 with a donation of 60,000 euros to the CDU Lichtenberg (https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/recherchen/parteispenden/dubiose-firmenspenden-aus-den-niederlanden-bringen-cdu-in-erklaerungsnot) and the CDU Lichtenberg pledged for immediate building rights during the BVV. Another burn: the complex was named “Coppi-Park” but the descendant asked the rightfully question why “the name of two murdered resistance fighters should decorate a modern office complex” (https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1111837.hans-coppi-kein-kommerz-mit-dem-widerstand.html). I can imagine the local residents are and will not be that happy about it either, but at least there will be no more spotlights that shine into the windows. ↩︎