BERLIN (AP) – The coronavirus pandemic has not made life on the streets of Berlin easier for Kaspars Breidaks.
For three months, the 43-year-old Latvian has been facing shelters for homeless people operating at a reduced capacity so that people can keep a safe distance from each other. And with fewer Berliners going outdoors, it’s much harder to raise money by manipulating or collecting bottles to sell to recycle.
But on a cold winter morning this week, Breidaks found free hot food and a place to warm up, after the German capital’s largest restaurant, the Hofbraeu Berlin, closed. due to coronavirus blocking restrictions, he shifted gear to help the homeless.
“Other homeless people at the train station told me about this place,” said Breidaks, who took off a furry black hat with long ears as he sat on a bench in the warm, spacious brewery nearby. from Berlin’s famous Alexanderplatz Square. “I came here for hot soup.”
It was a restaurant employee who volunteered at a shelter who proposed opening the Bavarian-style closed beer hall, with the patron of the famous Munich establishment of the same name, to the homeless.
It was a clear win-win proposal, said Bjoern Schwarz, Hofbraeu’s manager. In addition to helping the homeless in difficult times, the city-funded project also gives employees needed work and provides the restaurant with a welcome income.
In cooperation with the city and two welfare organizations, the restaurant quickly developed a concept to accommodate up to 150 homeless people in two shifts each day through the end of winter and began serving meals on Tuesdays.
It is only a small number compared to the restaurant’s 3,000 guests, mostly tourists, who would pack the establishment during the good times. But the spacious rooms have proven to be perfectly suited to accommodate homeless people and give them ample space to prevent infections.
“Normally, during Christmas, we had a lot of groups here for Christmas parties and then we would serve pork, half duck or goose knuckles … but not for the time being,” Schwarz said. “We’re still doing the delivery, but obviously that’s just a drop in the bucket”
In addition to serving food and non-alcoholic beverages and offering the warmth of the interior, the restaurant offers its bathrooms so that the homeless can wash and GEBEWO and Berlin Kaeltehilfe relief groups have workers on hand to provide advice and new clothes. , and horse.
For its new clientele, the restaurant opened a wooden-decorated lobby on the second floor and placed 40 long tables.
“We will offer them something different from normal cooking food: real dishes in porcelain dishes, with different sides, we will try to offer Christmas-style dishes with a lot of flavors,” Schwarz said.
Breidaks arrived in Germany three months ago looking for work. But he says a job promised at the meat factory never materialized and that he ended up on the streets of Berlin asking for the money needed to replace a stolen passport and buy a bus ticket back home.
She is one of 2,000 to 12,000 people left homeless in this 3.6 million city, even after another 34,000 were housed in community shelters, hostels and apartments by social services and private groups. social assistance.
“The crown pandemic has seriously worsened the situation of the homeless, living in very precarious conditions,” said Elke Breitenbach, a senator from the Berlin state government for social issues, whose department provides financial support. in the restaurant converted into a refuge.
“They don’t have enough food and when it’s cold they have to have places to warm up,” Breitenbach added.
On Thursday, the first group to enter Hofbraeu, along with Breidaks, was served Thuringian-style bratwurst with mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and onion sauce or a vegetarian stew with potatoes, zucchini, sweet pepper and carrots. . For dessert there was an apple strudel with vanilla sauce.
For Breidaks, this was more than I expected after spending a night with sub-zero temperatures crowded next to the walls of a department store on Alexanderplatz.
“All I need is hot soup,” he said. “And, God willing, I’ll be home in January.”