The city of Berlin has announced plans to open two new Bürgerämter in 2024 and another two in 2025. Meanwhile, a high-tech Bürgeramt is being trialled in the neighbourhood of Kreuzberg.
In a recently published press release, the city of Berlin announced that four new Bürgerämter will open in the capital within the next two years. The first two, which will open in Spandau and Marzahn-Hellersdorf are slated to begin operations in 2024, though Berlin is not known for meeting deadlines.
Berlin, and almost all other German cities for that matter, is in desperate need of more citizens’ offices. The current state of affairs means that it is nigh impossible to get an appointment for Anmeldung, to change your driving licence, or to register your new passport with your existing residence permit.
Plans for the two offices which will follow in 2025 have not yet been set in stone, but Pankow and Köpenick have been suggested as locations in need of a new Amt.
While Berlin makes plans to open four more analogue Ämter, locals in Kreuzberg are getting a taste of what the distant future looks like in Germany - full of free WIFI and USB charging ports.
The new office also has terminals where arrivals can check in so that whoever awaits them in that maze of corridors knows that they have actually arrived on time and aren’t sitting in the waiting area expecting that their name might be called. Only a fool would do that.
It may also be the case that you don’t have to wait around at all in the futuristic Bürgeramt, that you can just pop in and use the terminals to settle administrative matters at your convenience. But as of yet there has been little talk of transferring the processes available on these terminals of the future to the internet, where people would be able to settle affairs from their very own kitchen table.
Thumb image credit: Mo Photography Berlin / Shutterstock.com