That's for sure 3rd world mentality. Later on, declare the project as a bad investment and try to sell it for couple of bucks or even for free. Big congratulations for tax payers.
As a non Italian, and non German, i really like the chill attitude Italians have. My fav holiday place. They have rules, yes, but italians know when to exercise a little discretion. That is the whole beauty of it. I am not condoning corruption but italians dont follow rules hard and fast like other europeans. They take the rules as some sort of guidance but apply the human touch to it. This is what i like.
Highly inaccurate observation based on an ignorance of facts. Check out the the Global corruption index.Certain countries are traditionally much more honest, stats don't lie.
Germany is well known amongst insiders to have the worst rates of corruption amongst western nations - just look at Diesel Gate and all the big German car manufacturers and suppliers. Never mind the EU not having its accounts signed off for over 5 years.
Not exactly. While Bermuda triangle is a natural phenomenon, these projects and financial disasters are man made. lol Hubris par excellence. I like to call it the Trump-mindset. But i think it already has a term called Dunning-Kruger effect.
@@halphantom2274 dude stop trying to act smart and read his comment fully. What he actually said was “the Bermuda Triangle of taxpayers money”. We don’t need a semantics lesson for every TH-cam comment.
actually, that's technically true, the first plans for the airport were drawn up in 1996, Germany did not adopt the euro entirely as it's official currency till 2002.
"twelve years and ten times the original budget". I, as a Brazilian, truly didn't understood what is the matter here. It was cheaper and faster than lots of subway stations here in São Paulo!
They have been talking about it in Germany all the time haha 😂😂 It became a joke. ..... like.. See u when the BER is ready. When u wanted to come to work !? When the BER is ready !? U will never ask me to marry u !!!!’ I will darling when the BER is finished. !!! So finally the day came ........😂😂😂
"Human-machine-interface" - is amazingly fancy name to call guys sitting on a chair all the time around the terminal and waiting for fire to happen to press an alarm button...
Im my country we have the "solidarity tax". Basically any operation with foreign exchange cost 30% more, and that money is used by the government to fix their own incompetence handling our money. Half of our country support this cause they bought the lie that "its solidarity, its for the poor!" So yeah, names work, and yeah, people can be THAT dumb.
@@christopherczajasager9030 Not especially, actually. Corruption in the EU manifests itself on a national level. One could say that corruption is an age-old tradition in the nations affected. It's a local problem that needs local solutions.
@@avigator But you expect more passengers if you build for a hub (because of connecting flights). The only airline that was based in Berlin was Air Berlin
I gotta admit it, Frankfurt airport is the best one ever I've seen till now followed by Paris CDG then Madrid- Spain. Lisbon- Portugal and Manchester - UK are both a total trash and one has to avoid them by all possible means. Miami airport needs lot of improvement as it looks so old.
@@abdokl6828 ok if u travel other airports in asia for example or middle east you will see what a proper airport is, everything nice clean like dubai, singapore, shangai, seoul
I have to disagree with you on the conclusion. The problem here was that all deciding power was held by politicians that wanted to build a monument for themselves instead of relying on the experts. A good example for this is the failed fire suppression system, which was originally designed to extract smoke through the roof of the building (the way it normally is done) until Wowereit decided that he did not like the look of the extraction machines on the roof because you could see them when landing in your plane. So a new system had to be designed that was suppossed to draw out smoke through the cellar of the building, which of course was a complete failure. This incompetency was coupled with strict regulations for government building contracts, which in most cases only allowed them to choose the company offering the cheapest price for a construction job. The building companies knew this and so some of them offered their services for very cheap prices to make sure they would get chosen, even though they knew that they could never deliver their work for that price or they could only deliver it in bad quality. Another reason why so many building errors where found afterwards.
Frankly, it is much more excusable in the case of such countries, they're poorer and with a failed educational system. It's hard to find enough good people to manage these things. properly. Not ok, but explanable, obvious issues that will take time to fix. Problems Germany shouldn't have for large scale projects at least. Also, large scale corruption from these richer countries has a way of fueling criminality in poorer countries - so again, they need to do a much better job at containing this BS,
@@g0lanu Sorry but corruption means just that, and it's even more terrible when it happens to a poorer nation, as the tax dollars are harder to come by.
@@jamesjames3525 Did I say it's ok? No, I made a point to already refute that, if you'd have bothered to read it. But in those countries, it will take a long time to fix such issues. Germany, on the other hand, has absolutely NO excuse for letting this get out of hand. And corruption in Germany also fuels corruption and other types of criminality in countries like Brazil and many other - this makes it much more problematic, even if not as widespread as in those countries. Where do you think the money stolen in countries like Germany goes to? Do you think it stays in banks in western countries where it can be tracked and seized or in 3rd world countries, off-shore accounts, etc? This is what I'm saying, when you look at this issue in Germany it brings into a completely different light the issues in countries like Brazil... 10 billion dollars over budget on a single project (6 times over-priced), Brazilian corruption cases don't even come close, the worst I found was an overpricing of 30% on a large scale project. But I'm not even sure that you can get a project within budget in such a country, even if the intentions weren't criminal because the people involved don't have the necessary skills and training to deal with such complex issues.
@@g0lanu Good points you make. As to where the stolen money goes, well not very far as you probably already know. It ends up in sealed accounts in a Swiss bank, nearby.😠😡🤬🤫🤔
@@jamesjames3525 Switzerland hasn't been an option for more than a decade now. It's what Iranians and Russian moghuls found out in recent years, the Americans had the tools to block their swiss accounts. The Swiss cooperated with criminal investigations from before that..
The difference is that in Romania this would have opened long time ago and the inconsistencies would only have been exposed with the first catastrophy.
In Poland the airport would be moderately over budget, somewhat late, look reasonable... and built in a town which size clearly does not justify such white elephant. :D
@@hermenegildoc3933 In morocco it would cost nothing as long passengers will land in the poor quality spanish airport and it is your choice either you can come to morocco by swimming or by a ferry.
Tbh anyone who has lived in Germany, even German themselves, would know that German efficiency is nothing more than a myth. Vaseline to my German comrades and cheers to DW for being so savage.
@@pyroakakohleblock584 das habe ich mich auch schon gefragt. Ist es wirklich möglich den Mist noch zu toppen, den wir so tagtäglich in der BRD anstellen?
@@pyroakakohleblock584 ha ha super noch ein Deutscher........ ja und ich glaube und sehe imernoch in einigen Bereichen die Deutsche Genauigkeit...... ist natuerlich viel ....sehr viel Buerokratie...aber am Ende kann man doch erfolgreich sein......
I am a dual citizen Spanish-American who works international business, currently living in Germany. I can fully vouch with what you are saying. Everything from the monthly bills/invoicing is frequently messed up by various companies. The service industry is an absolute disaster getting simple orders wrong across multiple cities. Getting your order properly is a more surprising occurrence than a common one here. Technology or integration issues are abundant. Not just with other countries, but even locally. Laws and regulations that although sometimes protect the individual instead of corporations (which is a refreshing change from the US), can get in the way of life instead of facilitating or improving it. I see interpersonal communication as one of the core issues, but cannot really determine the exact source. Great country and lovely people though! Ich Liebe Deutschland
@@rext8949 It doesn't seem functional. One has to take an escalator to reach the check-in counters. Once demand for travel increases, what happens if people have a cart full of luggage? There could be long waits for the elevators. There also isn't room for any future expansion.
@@elfulano5884 Seriously if that's your beef you haven't seen some of the other top airports. Hong Kong checkin operates on multiple levels and you have to take two trains after checkin to reach the boarding gates. As for baggage you use the elevators in most airports.
@@elfulano5884 Well i dont think using the escalator or the elevator is a problem, there aren't actually more of them at other airports... But it's weird that most of the time there are only escalators leading up but few leading down... of course there are still elevators but that is some weird decision they made back then to only install ascending escalators...
Like the opera theater in Hamburg. It took almost 30 years to be finished. We had two good working airports in Berlin:Tegel and Tempelhof. We closed both. And we built an airport that is a complete failure. A shame for a European capital.
Looking forward to the Stuttgart 21 coverage :) .....and of course to its completion :) ....in the end, speaking as a designer, I think BER sounds like bad politics happening.
This airport is an emblem of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, but this state-sponsored news organization holding its government accountable is a beacon of democracy. Cheers from the US ✌️
Hard disagreement on the conclusion. The reason this is possible is because we don't hold accountable those in power. Many of the problems should have resulted in extended jail time for those that led the project and allowed those companies to extort the taxpayers.
I agree with you, there should be an investigation into this. The fact there isn't a highly visible investigation suggests this corruption goes pretty high. The politicians here are working very hard to paint this as just a bunch of innocent mistakes and it is not good look.
@@vulc1 no the problem was that politicians thought they could build it without a general company. Then they demanded changes while everything was already building. So many pieces like the fire safety systems had to be restructured over and over again. In the end nobody was understanding what was what. The company was not the Problem.
@@vulc1 the original incredibly complex fire safety system was designed by a draftsman for an engineering company and not a real engineer. That’s what led to the original idea for BER to open with hundreds of fire spotters. the opening was instead delayed until it became the poster child for how not to do project management.
At the very first specified 'error', the discussion veered into the stratosphere. A real journalist would have explained WHY the worst of seven possible sites was chosen, and who made the decision. This was not an honest look at the problem, despite its claims; it was a point-and-sputter complaint.
Sad that they closed Tempelhof to begin with, and BER isn´t even good looking. For the amount of money wasted they could have a Singaopre Changi type airport. Berlins former major Klaus Wowereit is the worst figure in this tragedy.
Tempelhof airport was an entirely military compound....and def not suited as an international city airport.....right in the middle of the city. I used to grow in West Berlin just beside the Tempelhof airport...and was always joyful to catch some american TV shows on tv with my rabbit ears......my first experience watching GROWING PAINS the tv show i the original in West B|erlin during the the late 80s....... watching the plaes take of just about 10 feet away....and then there was and still is the famous Columbiastrasse theater...a movie theater and event parlor from and for the american allies
Compared to the world Germany is far superior. Just look around and you will see corruption and inefficiency on a much greater scale in other countries even in Europe.
@@rext8949 Its a world problematic and thats the german case. To say we have non, because we are always honest and incorrupt would be a big false statement. If we start overlooking these things, there is no possiblity for a change to a better. I am thankful for a media, which tries to not biased. (Btw., I dont say, media is unbiased.)
I've read a book of Stuttgart 21 in Uni Bibliothek, which published in 1990s, when I was studying there. Then I went back to China and finished several projects including Shanghai Disney Resort. and then I got a daughter. and she is going to school this year. so...will she be able to see the brand opening of Stuttgart 21 when she goes to uni Stuttgart some day?
As a Dutch engineer who's had to work with German companies, I don't think Germans are particularly efficient at all. Companies there are just very much about rules, chain of command, and formality. If any unforseen circumstance disturbs their flow, entire projects will just grind to a halt. No flexibility whatsoever. This is only further exacerbated by rigid hierarchy. Even within departments, there's often a strict chain of command, and notable disdain for "underlings". Per example, one German engineer I had to work with wouldn't even answer my emails until (after advice from my boss) I started signing off with my full academic title to "prove" I was actually worthy of his time. This sort of attitude makes it difficult for signals to travel up the chain of command and often leads to projects failing.
For a reporter that has followed the construction since the beginning 7 min is a bit short. When will there be a full documentary that interviews the responsible parties and so?
@ That was actually my first question too! How could the capital of a developed country decide to build its main airport in an area where night flights aren't allowed and room for future expansion is limited? It is incredible that all the people in charge actually agreed to that!
@@javisjavis2071 That is a very uneducated comment. The shops are what keeps the money coming in to support these airports. Do you want to fly out of an airport that does not have the money to keep up on maintenance? If people want to buy some duty free items, who are you to judge them?
@@jaklg7905 So, you accused people uneducated but you didn't reply to my question. Did you family/ teachers educate you to be polite to answer? Now, who is the uneducated? :)
@@javisjavis2071 What question is that? I do not see any question posed by you other then the one rhetorical "question" in your post about consumerism.
Then there is the fact that the Airport was designed to Host as a Airline Hub, but the copany who had their hub in Berlin, airberlin, went bankrupt a few years ago
Yeah, but they've built the new airport in 42 months. I'm sure a lot of corruption went down obviously (and it's on a horrible location) but for the biggest airport in the world, that's an extremely short time. I have been there, there is even a hotel inside.
Istanbul already had a big enough airport at the time, so completing it fast was just a investment for the closing elections and because of that they opened it in hurry when it wasn't completed and with almost no means of transportation.No need to say that, the chosen location was highly criticized by the scientists at the time for crossing the migration route of birds and possiblity of strong winds above the area. But the most disturbing part is, a profit guarantee (6.3 billion Euros for 12 years) was given to the constructors (Euros ,not turkish liras) and when the profit falls below that gurantee, the difference will be paid from our taxes. Total cost of building such an airport is said to be around 1 billion to 2 billion dolars. By the way, 1 euro is around 9.7 turkish liras as of today. So do the math yourself.
"So how did it all go so wrong?" Well, it was started by a politician, not engineer or architect who at least know better about what to do. And it was led by politician, the imfamous corruptor breeding ground.
Do not fear Berlin, you're not alone. Here in Finland, we have this thing called Olkiluoto 3. The third reactor of the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant. Construction began in 2005 and the reactor was meant to be operational in 2009. The latest pushback in opening happened in August 2020 and according to that announcement the reactor would be working in February 2022.
@@matof1428 I would be really eager to throw the French (Areva, to be more precise) under proverbial bus because they've had the same problems with their own reactor of the same design in Flamanville. Over budget and delayed by a decade.
In Ireland there is a hospital that is on course to costing an absolute fortune. Most of the cost relates to putting in under foundations to nearby buildings. It is a farce.
@@themsmloveswar3985 In 2018 they completed the brand new children's hospital in Helsinki. Immediately reports came in about poor quality and water damages which the hospital adminstration dismissed, saying that "that the faults were small and completely normal for a new building".
Actually Germany is full on corruption but very good at playing it clean and "efficient*. Dieselgate, wirecard,, the VW Porsche merge are just some recent examples.
You know what's refreshing though? To see that DW did a short program on this. It's not like RT would do something like that about a failed Putin project.
@Galactic Minds Brilliant. So why has the lira collapsed and the Turkish economy is in the doldrums ? That's called a real Turkey ! Maybe you should check the stats for Germany.
@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE One of their mistakes was their divided the airport into many small parts and gave the parts to different small local companies in Berlin and Brandenburg that'd no experience in building airport. There were no coordination between those companies and the politicians who were in charge of the project didn't know how to monitor them.
Yes S21 will probably be around 3-4 times it's original budget when it's finally finished. When you play with taxpayers money it clearly doesn't matter how much things cost.
@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE Projects like these are all about responsibility. Or at least they should be. The top government officials who were involved with this project along the way have all moved on to bigger and better paid things or retired with massive pensions. Others came and went and made a fortune, now nobody actually remembers who did what, who promised whatever, who said what to whom... It doesn't seem to matter how big you ballsed up. Tbere's always a golden handshake at the end of the line.
"The total cost will be 6.5 Billion Euros". Just ridiculous for what it looks like, for 6.5B I'd except it to put Singapore's airport to shame (which cost only 1.3B USD).
@TheWelshy83 How about all our Bureaucracy (Registering a car is a horrible task in my region) or our infrastructure^^ I think the problem is many of our politicians have no idea of what they're doing but they know exactly what they want (what the lobbyists tell them lul)
Diese "wirtschaftspraxis" in Berlin ist doch in Grundzügen bekannt. Naja, Ich bin kein Berliner. Man hätte diese Gülle auch schon vor zehn Jahren abwählen können.
This airports is riddled with some laughable events. It's so expensive it can build 5 airports that would look and operate better. How could they choose to build a airport in the least favorable place and construct a small airport to serve at least two states. The airport is already too smal and oldl before it becomes fully operational....😁😁😁😁😁😁
Love how the Germans make a nationwide fuss about it while in Italy we have plenty of this overly expensive projects often resulting in abandoned concrete monsters. We have also a locution to describe grand stuff where it's not needed or simply too expensive, we call them desert cathedrals
@@BlauesRauschen Tegel's main drawback is its cramped terminal building and lack of U-Bahn, both of which can be fixed with investments. It is capable of handling all of Berlin's air traffic.
As a Canadian who just left Hamburg after a 4 year stay, still confused why people call Germany efficient. Other than their manufacturing industries, I found pretty much everything else to be HIGHLY inefficient for a 1st world country.
Have you tried the security check?It is a really nightmare. I was there on January 8 at 4.30 am and looks like this was the 1st day of operation. Too many people with just few check point opened. People were very slow, not interested to speed up the process, very anfriendly. Airport is fast place and you need to have process that work to make sure people can take the flights and not making them to loose their flight how happen to me but also other dozen of people. Thanks a lot to make my return in Italy a nightmare and with nobody really try to find a solution. I have travelled in different part of the world and taken hundreds of flights but this is the first time that I missed a flight and the first time I see a so poor organization with people blaming other organizations (Securitas responsible for the security ckeck, Swissport for the services in the airport) and nobody really try to help. Typical example of perfect surgery but the patiend died. A new airport to poorly managed! I hope this help to improve for the future passengers. Unfortunately there is no other option!
Do you know what has happened to the World One project? I follow Skyscrapercity to see what are the tallest buildings in the world being constructed. That project was supposed to be India's first building with more than 100 floors. At some point, there stopped being any updates. I assume it's delayed (by years) or called off. It had been progressing very slowly even before that (in comparison with similar supertalls constructed in China).
To be fair, Berlin is one of the very few socialist regions of Germany. We Indians are hard-core socialists and socialism destroyed even German efficiency.
@@sahilrazarizvi8266 The statue was made by a trustee, the money was crowdfunded and the government had little share in it. That's the reason why it was so quick. Government control could easily extend that to 330 months.
@@arvedludwig3584 I just know that China bought 65.000 flats in Berlin to rent it to Germans. And China bought the Bionics-Manufacturer KuKa to get access to the patents... and then "rent" patents back to German industry. Both things happened with the OKAY of our government. What attack on chem are you talking about? Did I miss something?
@@ankanmaiti9864 delays, overbudgets and corruption are not a socialist specific, these occur everywhere, the problem here were rather meddling politicians :(
It depends on the people and the situation. I am paid hourly as a contractor and they do it gladly, as I work efficiently every hour I bill to them and do not even think about cheating in any way.
Living in Germany for some time I feel comfortable to say that there are many advantages in terms of living efficiently, especially when compared to my country of origin, but the daily bureaucracy (still very much based on the postal service), medical care, and railway transport are far from efficient. There is always a problem, there is always something defective. I think the myth of efficiency and the "made in Germany" quality are important for the country to sell its products within and abroad.
Nevertheless... Simfiropol airport Rostov airport Saratov airport Saransk airport Volgograd airport N.Novgorod airport all in 2018 upgraded or built as new
I have been to Germany numerous times. Its vaunted efficiency and orderliness is actually a mixed bag. Compared with countries like Italy, sure, Germany is far ahead in efficiency, punctuality, etc. But you'll be surprised how often trains are late. I have talked to Germans asking for their opinion about comparison between themselves and the Japanese, where trains are always punctual to the exact minute (I read drivers were punished if they are 45 seconds off schedule on the JR, as delays can propagate further down the line and screw up the whole system). Even the Germans acknowledged the Japanese (and nowadays the Chinese) are actually way ahead of them in organisation and other things ascribed to the Germans. Still, Germany does extremely well for a Western country. In the current Covid pandemic, I am not surprised to see Germany, Austria, Denmark and other Germanic countries doing far better than countries like UK, France, Italy, Spain and the US. I love Germany and its great music (Bach, Händel, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, etc.)
English are as Teutonic race as German, English language itself is Germanic though many invasions and their colonial empire gave them a distinct characteristics, it is a mixed bag. Italy is far ahead to Germany in cleanliness and way they treat tourists beside most of the trains are on time there as well, they solved problem of criminal harassing tourists to great extent. Spain is terrible as usual because of high corruption and rampant criminals on the streets, I never saw a country infested with criminals as Spain. France is opposite of Italy to be honest.
@@nitinkumar29 Have you visited Naples and Rome? Nothing clean about those cities, rubbish, graffiti all over the city. It was truly eye opening and shocking.
@@EinkOLED No idea of Naples but I have been to Rome, it is ancient city and for that it is far better maintained compared to other ancient city around the world or some of the modern cities such as France which was pile of garbage even before strike. Berlin is another example if you in the inner city. Graffiti is all over Germany too, even on Trains, building and houses....every kind of structure you see may have it, quite a horrible view for people like me who doesn't like it. Italian trains came on time and left on time, quite a opposite of Deutsche bahn, though German transport system has better connectivity in my experience.
To be fair, many 'star' projects have a similar fate. - the millenium dome in London - the opera in Copenhagen, by one of Denmark's most famous architects ( Henning Larsen ) - the tv broadcasting house, Copenhagen, by a star French French architect ( I don't remember his name momentarily ). -:many of Frank Gehry's curvy buildings have water leakage problems, due to the curvy surfaces letting in water - both the tunnel under the English Channel and Öresund were talked about for almost a 100 years before started and realised. - etc. The moral of the story is to keep projects small and well defined ( also in terms of leadership) so they can still be managed well :)
The millennium dome's construction wasn't a failure, but Blair's vision for the dome was. However it has been a success ever since it turned into a concert venue. So your comparison to Berlin's airport is simply wrong. And so was your comparison with the channel tunnel-the construction and subsequent use was a success!
But again, if they were done without such errors it'd have been a greater achievement compared to those lesser projects. If, somehow, we are able to manage it...
Putting aside the silly meaningless stereotypes for the simple minded click bait types of German efficiency, French laziness or Japanese reliability which are all ridiculous as they are countries with great, good and poorly managed projects. I do feel for people of Berlin as this does seem like an epic fail but I’m sure they’ll end up with a decent airport in the end (albeit way overpriced). Airports always seem to be such a nightmare, Spain building a fancy new airport that sits empty because nobody bothered to find out if anyone even wanted/needed it or London and it’s 6 airports - yet the one that has been in desperate need of expansion for decades still sits there because of endless environmental studies and nimby w londoners. Democracy may be the best form of government but it clearly doesn’t mix well with airports- Asians always manage to build them, of course they don’t tolerate any descent so I guess I’ll take our over-funded under-built airports.
But surely it's the corruption level that I find truly shocking, not perhaps the mismanagement as such, although that's bad enough. I've always thought such levels of corruption in Western Europe is only prevelant in countries like Greece or Italy or maybe even Spain.
I can't believe it's actually finished! After living in Berlin for many years I finally left in 2012 and at that point nobody thought it would ever be done. Tempelhof was never an option to keep as it's in the middle of the city and runways were too small with no hope of expansion. Tegel on the other hand was situated with ample land to expand and still very close to the city. I once timed from my door to arriving at TXL - 15 mins thanks to ubahn and bus connection. The new airport isn't actually in Berlin either, that's how far out it is. They should have extended TXL but I suppose the project got 'too big to fail' and many a public official had to think about the bribes they were getting from contractors.
Not sure where the ample room to expand was at Tegel? You might have got an extra 500m on 08R/26L and 200m on 08L/26R, but there is nowhere for a new terminal, the runways are too close together to operate in parallel (the same problem we in the UK have at Gatwick), and the noise would've been unbearable for local people. It's just as unsuitable as Schonefeld.
As a German, I find it hilarious how anyone in the world would consider us exemplary when it comes to efficient bureaucracy. For as long as I can remember, there was litterally not a single large construction project in the whole damn country that finished in time and within the original budget. We are mandated to take the cheapest offer irrespective of the experience of the company and the quality of their calculations, and most plans are already outdated regarding the actual needs at the point when construction begins. Jobs are out-sourced to shady sub-contractors immediately, and in the end nobody knows who has even built what. At the same time our laws require high standards regarding documentation and dictate a hundred thousand different codes to adhere to, so much so that even years after finishing a building you could find out that you violated one of them without anyone realizing so far. BER was not a susprise to anyone here in Germany, and there are hundreds of other projects that failed equally miserably.
WHen you have 3,500 people living on an island in the Atlantic and the only way in or out other wise is a 2 week sea journey, in an emergency or natural disaster, St Helena airport is certainly not useless.
No, the incompetence and corruption was just implemented with legendary German efficiency. If not for that, the level of incompetence and corruption would have been a whole lot less.
From the best (TXL) to the worst (BER). Every country builds beautiful airports except Berlin. Talking about politics, everything is done late or too late.
No. The mistake was our politicions have had a too big selve confidence in themselves. They wanted to doing all alone without any help. And with the fact that politions are not any engineers or somerhing else you need to build up such kind of building, they were doomed to fail. Many small companys were included. They even did not have a (in Germany so-called) Bauleiter who could had overview that. So Germany is still a Country of innovation. The bigger problem is that politicions have impair our reputation. And i Need to now that. I only living 10km away from this Peace of c...
the point of pubilc spending so the local had job.. however.. changing thing and risk people life is not acceptble... this happen around the world since goerment are law...
There are no night flights because of protests. Of course it was planned to have night flights because this makes no sense economically. Airplanes are loud but that comes with living in a big city... a lot of people from the former DDR still are big antics.
DW made a program on this project about 10 years back, if I remember correctly. That program was an eye opener on why such projects take so long. It's the same story all over the world. Thanks for the upload.
Fun fact: In the industry I used to be in (band instrument repair) "B.E.R." stands for :"Beyond Economic Repair". A fitting abbreviation for this airport.
You guys are still way better off than many countries. In your case, a bureaucrat refused to sign off for safety and bigwigs backed off. In 'bad' countries, such folks would be 'clipped' one way or the other instead of fixing safety. But it is still nice to note that Germans are self-critical.
That's because they haven't lived in Germany. In just a few years, I saw so much corruption. "Efficiency" is just a fad. Actually followed by like 20% of the country. The rest is pretty bureaucratic / corrupted for a 'developed' country. Don't believe me? Go live there. Not visit. But live.
A similar situation happened in my state in the US. The capitol city decided they wanted a minor league baseball stadium as part of a redevelopment area. They "stole" a team from a nearby city, promising a new stadium. Then they hired a construction company with no prior experience building stadiums. Needless to say, they fell well behind schedule, got fired, lawsuits abound. The city found major issues with construction, and the new contractor had to rebuild much of it. In the end, the whole thing cost $60 million, which is like 4 times as much as a typical small baseball stadium costs in the US.
I worked for BMW and I know how efficient Germans can be. Imagine Germans dealing with such inefficiency and corruption, what should I as a Nigerian be complaining of?
![Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous (and they're everywhere) [ST05]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ORzNZUeUHAM/mqdefault.jpg)
Imagine building a airport, get delayed for years just so you can open in the corona-year where no one flies.
Dunno. Maybe they should call some shaman or exorcist to lift the curse.
That's for sure 3rd world mentality. Later on, declare the project as a bad investment and try to sell it for couple of bucks or even for free.
Big congratulations for tax payers.
Well at least that way they won't be overrun with flights and passengers 😂
it just a airport.. it would need to funcation for years to come...
Beijing new airport took 4 years to build, Berlin airport took 12 years to build. German efficiency is really a joke!
As an Italian living in Germany, this really makes me feel at home!
Makes sense how like 1/2 of Italians are fondly reminiscent of the days of Mussolini now. The man made the trains run on time, as they famously say.
Germans take great care to make Italians feel at home :D
😁
grüsse aus Deutschland 😌
As a non Italian, and non German, i really like the chill attitude Italians have. My fav holiday place. They have rules, yes, but italians know when to exercise a little discretion. That is the whole beauty of it. I am not condoning corruption but italians dont follow rules hard and fast like other europeans. They take the rules as some sort of guidance but apply the human touch to it. This is what i like.
Incompetency and corruption have no nationality. Both can be found anywhere.
Well, whenever you find it in Germany, it is very likely that it is with a Social Democratic politician.
Or Philipp Amthor :D
Highly inaccurate observation based on an ignorance of facts. Check out the the Global corruption index.Certain countries are traditionally much more honest, stats don't lie.
Yet here it doesn’t get investigated by the government
Germany is well known amongst insiders to have the worst rates of corruption amongst western nations - just look at Diesel Gate and all the big German car manufacturers and suppliers. Never mind the EU not having its accounts signed off for over 5 years.
But if it is in a Brown -skin country, you guys will "tut-tut"
The Bermuda Triangle of German tax payer money: Berlin airport, Stuttgart train station and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie
Don't get it, please explain
@@marcin959 all of these three construction projects are/were delayed and are costing a lot more than originally budgeted
Not exactly. While Bermuda triangle is a natural phenomenon, these projects and financial disasters are man made. lol
Hubris par excellence. I like to call it the Trump-mindset. But i think it already has a term called Dunning-Kruger effect.
@@halphantom2274 dude stop trying to act smart and read his comment fully.
What he actually said was “the Bermuda Triangle of taxpayers money”.
We don’t need a semantics lesson for every TH-cam comment.
+one pipeline now
Took so long to build the airport, the original cost was quoted in Deutschemarks. 😋
which was the last time germany was actually efficient at anything... something about a final solution
@@CBielski87 You are thinking of Reichsmarks.
actually, that's technically true, the first plans for the airport were drawn up in 1996, Germany did not adopt the euro entirely as it's official currency till 2002.
@@dreamdiction Reichsmarks, deutschemarks... lets call the whole thing off
@Spastic Quadriplegic olololollolololololololol
"twelve years and ten times the original budget". I, as a Brazilian, truly didn't understood what is the matter here. It was cheaper and faster than lots of subway stations here in São Paulo!
This sounds like a thursday in Brazil.
or Friday in Indonésia
Or a Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in iran. Friday is the weekend 😄
Yeah, but 6,5 billion euros....42 billion reais...I dont think even our politicians could pull this off in a single building
Wednesday in South Africa
An annual event in America
Finally someone is talking about this airport now...
They have been talking about it in Germany all the time haha 😂😂
It became a joke. ..... like..
See u when the BER is ready.
When u wanted to come to work !? When the BER is ready !?
U will never ask me to marry u !!!!’ I will darling when the BER is finished. !!!
So finally the day came ........😂😂😂
Airport so off on completion that the original cost was quoted in deutschmarks. 😋
It only took 12 billion euros in someone's pocket 😂😂😂
There is an super documentary en ARTE about this airport, but idk if there is subtitle in engliqh
😂😂😂
"Human-machine-interface" - is amazingly fancy name to call guys sitting on a chair all the time around the terminal and waiting for fire to happen to press an alarm button...
Maybe they listened to Kraftwerk "Mensch-Maschine" too much
There are weirder jobs in Japan, like people holding up signs in Government buildings. Don't know if they do anything else.
One could call them... "Biorobots".
In Marine Corps boot camp we called it standing firewatch.
Im my country we have the "solidarity tax". Basically any operation with foreign exchange cost 30% more, and that money is used by the government to fix their own incompetence handling our money. Half of our country support this cause they bought the lie that "its solidarity, its for the poor!" So yeah, names work, and yeah, people can be THAT dumb.
"Most passengers have no desire to buy anything." Well, he's not wrong.
True, but most passengers do because they lose or forget to pack a charging cable etc. So you spend $40 on $10 cable. Those shops make a lot of money.
@@trishayamada807 and pay the bills
Many people love duty free shopping in airports.
I wish I could pay the proper price instead of making me waste my time at the airport, on the airplane in order to make me buy something from them.
Perhaps most people don't buy. However, some do.
Corruption, greed, and incompetence are universal problems not just German problems.
True, but in other countries they are the norm.
WWI and WWII,' German Catholics. history of BAD.
Especially in the EU
@@christopherczajasager9030 Not especially, actually. Corruption in the EU manifests itself on a national level. One could say that corruption is an age-old tradition in the nations affected. It's a local problem that needs local solutions.
@@peabase slowly it becomes the norm.in de too.. wirecard this and watch for more coming real soon
There is another big issue that air Berlin is no longer exists. This airport is planned as hub for air Berlin, but it no longer exists!
Nope. An airport is never built for a specific airline, but for the number of passengers one expects.
Eaven better Air Berlin got bankrupped because the BER opend to late xD
This is something that is always overlooked.
@@avigator But you expect more passengers if you build for a hub (because of connecting flights). The only airline that was based in Berlin was Air Berlin
I am sure the LH group will figure out how to use it.
As a German, this airport is a utter embarrassment. As a Frankfurt resident, I am glad that Fraport exists.
I gotta admit it, Frankfurt airport is the best one ever I've seen till now followed by Paris CDG then Madrid- Spain.
Lisbon- Portugal and Manchester - UK are both a total trash and one has to avoid them by all possible means.
Miami airport needs lot of improvement as it looks so old.
@@abdokl6828 Are u really saying Paris CDG is in your top list??? Man u probably have never seens a proper airport
@@giannidc1207 I'm talking from one time experience when I had 3 hours layover.
Maybe you were there many times. So, you probably know better.
Love the airport in Frankfurt!
@@abdokl6828 ok if u travel other airports in asia for example or middle east you will see what a proper airport is, everything nice clean like dubai, singapore, shangai, seoul
Long story short: the politicians messed everything up.
@grfdgd gdfgdfgd
That was a capitalist competition. It just companies just cheated.
@grfdgd gdfgdfgd
Did you actually watch the whole video?
This was a complex problem from snowballing factors.
Almost like politicians are not engineers
@grfdgd gdfgdfgd
You still haven’t answer my question. Do you actually watched the whole video?
@@ahmedt3807 yes XD. But well, the problem is that they behave as if they are
Should've been titled "so much for german bureaucracy".
"so much for German government bureaucracy", corruption and waste is endemic to every project funded by other people's money
That's far more accurate
I have to disagree with you on the conclusion. The problem here was that all deciding power was held by politicians that wanted to build a monument for themselves instead of relying on the experts. A good example for this is the failed fire suppression system, which was originally designed to extract smoke through the roof of the building (the way it normally is done) until Wowereit decided that he did not like the look of the extraction machines on the roof because you could see them when landing in your plane. So a new system had to be designed that was suppossed to draw out smoke through the cellar of the building, which of course was a complete failure.
This incompetency was coupled with strict regulations for government building contracts, which in most cases only allowed them to choose the company offering the cheapest price for a construction job. The building companies knew this and so some of them offered their services for very cheap prices to make sure they would get chosen, even though they knew that they could never deliver their work for that price or they could only deliver it in bad quality. Another reason why so many building errors where found afterwards.
I know, I'm terrible, but I couldn't stop laughing at this. I'm sorry Germany, I love you but It's nice to know we in the US are not alone.
Wikipedia has a funny article about the origins of "Made in Germany" expression, and how it was supposed to mean "poor quality". :))
@Engineer Markos Mataas well see when it collapses
I am German. This projects cracks me up everytime
@Engineer Markos Mataas damn, one question tho...who asked?
I swear people who tender for government contracts are scammers
LOL... now, imagine this happening in a daily basis... It is the Brazilian government.
Frankly, it is much more excusable in the case of such countries, they're poorer and with a failed educational system. It's hard to find enough good people to manage these things. properly. Not ok, but explanable, obvious issues that will take time to fix. Problems Germany shouldn't have for large scale projects at least. Also, large scale corruption from these richer countries has a way of fueling criminality in poorer countries - so again, they need to do a much better job at containing this BS,
@@g0lanu Sorry but corruption means just that, and it's even more terrible when it happens to a poorer nation, as the tax dollars are harder to come by.
@@jamesjames3525 Did I say it's ok? No, I made a point to already refute that, if you'd have bothered to read it. But in those countries, it will take a long time to fix such issues. Germany, on the other hand, has absolutely NO excuse for letting this get out of hand. And corruption in Germany also fuels corruption and other types of criminality in countries like Brazil and many other - this makes it much more problematic, even if not as widespread as in those countries. Where do you think the money stolen in countries like Germany goes to? Do you think it stays in banks in western countries where it can be tracked and seized or in 3rd world countries, off-shore accounts, etc? This is what I'm saying, when you look at this issue in Germany it brings into a completely different light the issues in countries like Brazil... 10 billion dollars over budget on a single project (6 times over-priced), Brazilian corruption cases don't even come close, the worst I found was an overpricing of 30% on a large scale project. But I'm not even sure that you can get a project within budget in such a country, even if the intentions weren't criminal because the people involved don't have the necessary skills and training to deal with such complex issues.
@@g0lanu Good points you make. As to where the stolen money goes, well not very far as you probably already know. It ends up in sealed accounts in a Swiss bank, nearby.😠😡🤬🤫🤔
@@jamesjames3525 Switzerland hasn't been an option for more than a decade now. It's what Iranians and Russian moghuls found out in recent years, the Americans had the tools to block their swiss accounts. The Swiss cooperated with criminal investigations from before that..
The difference is that in Romania this would have opened long time ago and the inconsistencies would only have been exposed with the first catastrophy.
In Poland the airport would be moderately over budget, somewhat late, look reasonable... and built in a town which size clearly does not justify such white elephant. :D
@@useodyseeorbitchute9450 In Spain it would cost over a billion and be from poor quality
Ejem ejem Ciudad Real
@@hermenegildoc3933 In morocco it would cost nothing as long passengers will land in the poor quality spanish airport and it is your choice either you can come to morocco by swimming or by a ferry.
"If you wanted to do nothing, it was relatively easy"…OMG I could never have imagined it would apply to Germany!
Haha exactly. I was thinking this is a problem only in India 😂
@@hegdevishwa you are not alone in your struggle 😂😂
Ist our communism North
Famed for efficiency....efficient corruption
🤭🤔😆🤣👍
So where does it sit when it comes to global ranking. Anywhere near your country ?
@Teringventje Exactly. Success breeds envy of course. I'm from a less developed country btw.
Tbh anyone who has lived in Germany, even German themselves, would know that German efficiency is nothing more than a myth. Vaseline to my German comrades and cheers to DW for being so savage.
ich glaube dir ist einfach nur nicht klar wie uneffizient die anderen länder im vergleich mit deutschland sind
@@pyroakakohleblock584 das habe ich mich auch schon gefragt. Ist es wirklich möglich den Mist noch zu toppen, den wir so tagtäglich in der BRD anstellen?
@@pyroakakohleblock584 ha ha super noch ein Deutscher........
ja und ich glaube und sehe imernoch in einigen Bereichen die Deutsche Genauigkeit......
ist natuerlich viel ....sehr viel Buerokratie...aber am Ende kann man doch erfolgreich sein......
@Teringventje Can you give an example? I am German. But I can no longer believe in our own capacity to get things done.
I am a dual citizen Spanish-American who works international business, currently living in Germany.
I can fully vouch with what you are saying. Everything from the monthly bills/invoicing is frequently messed up by various companies. The service industry is an absolute disaster getting simple orders wrong across multiple cities. Getting your order properly is a more surprising occurrence than a common one here.
Technology or integration issues are abundant. Not just with other countries, but even locally.
Laws and regulations that although sometimes protect the individual instead of corporations (which is a refreshing change from the US), can get in the way of life instead of facilitating or improving it.
I see interpersonal communication as one of the core issues, but cannot really determine the exact source.
Great country and lovely people though! Ich Liebe Deutschland
That terminal looks more like an oversized library than an airport.
Shouldn't you be concentrating on functionality ? After all looks are deceptive.
@@rext8949 It doesn't seem functional. One has to take an escalator to reach the check-in counters. Once demand for travel increases, what happens if people have a cart full of luggage? There could be long waits for the elevators. There also isn't room for any future expansion.
@@elfulano5884 Seriously if that's your beef you haven't seen some of the other top airports. Hong Kong checkin operates on multiple levels and you have to take two trains after checkin to reach the boarding gates. As for baggage you use the elevators in most airports.
@@elfulano5884 Well i dont think using the escalator or the elevator is a problem, there aren't actually more of them at other airports... But it's weird that most of the time there are only escalators leading up but few leading down... of course there are still elevators but that is some weird decision they made back then to only install ascending escalators...
@@rext8949 There's only one monorail and most check-in counters are on the same floor in the main terminal.
Like the opera theater in Hamburg. It took almost 30 years to be finished.
We had two good working airports in Berlin:Tegel and Tempelhof. We closed both. And we built an airport that is a complete failure. A shame for a European capital.
T H E symbol of the EU
Rest of the EU doesn't agree with "European Capital".
@@JR-vc4gm is Berlin actually in Asia or in Australia? Correct me if I am wrong.
@@JR-vc4gm Why? It's a capital city, which it's located in Europe. Maybe the rest of the EU could learn proper english, before they disagree.
Looking forward to the Stuttgart 21 coverage :)
.....and of course to its completion :)
....in the end, speaking as a designer, I think BER sounds like bad politics happening.
This airport is an emblem of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, but this state-sponsored news organization holding its government accountable is a beacon of democracy. Cheers from the US ✌️
How is that an example of democracy? I beg to differ.
Our government us not held accountable. Never will.
@@Wookierabbit If something likes this happened in a more Authoritarian country, there's likely not gonna be reporting about it at all
@@siangchengpang772 exactly.
And what difference does that make? Welcome to the brainwashed world.
Hard disagreement on the conclusion. The reason this is possible is because we don't hold accountable those in power. Many of the problems should have resulted in extended jail time for those that led the project and allowed those companies to extort the taxpayers.
I agree with you, there should be an investigation into this. The fact there isn't a highly visible investigation suggests this corruption goes pretty high. The politicians here are working very hard to paint this as just a bunch of innocent mistakes and it is not good look.
Wasn't the failed fire safety system outsourced from an Italian company? So I would call out the modern outsourcing model instead
@@vulc1 no the problem was that politicians thought they could build it without a general company.
Then they demanded changes while everything was already building. So many pieces like the fire safety systems had to be restructured over and over again.
In the end nobody was understanding what was what.
The company was not the Problem.
@@vulc1 the original incredibly complex fire safety system was designed by a draftsman for an engineering company and not a real engineer. That’s what led to the original idea for BER to open with hundreds of fire spotters. the opening was instead delayed until it became the poster child for how not to do project management.
At the very first specified 'error', the discussion veered into the stratosphere. A real journalist would have explained WHY the worst of seven possible sites was chosen, and who made the decision. This was not an honest look at the problem, despite its claims; it was a point-and-sputter complaint.
Sad that they closed Tempelhof to begin with, and BER isn´t even good looking. For the amount of money wasted they could have a Singaopre Changi type airport. Berlins former major Klaus Wowereit is the worst figure in this tragedy.
Leftist of course. Southgermans should pay so he can spend.
Are you sugesting having an airport in the middle of the city? That would be utter nonsense.
@@splittin2atoms London City Airport opened 1987.
Tempelhof airport was an entirely military compound....and def not suited as an international city airport.....right in the middle of the city.
I used to grow in West Berlin just beside the Tempelhof airport...and was always joyful to catch some american TV shows on tv with my rabbit ears......my first experience watching GROWING PAINS the tv show i the original in West B|erlin during the the late 80s.......
watching the plaes take of just about 10 feet away....and then there was and still is the famous
Columbiastrasse theater...a movie theater and event parlor from and for the american allies
Tempelhof was to small, and the Runways were to Short, thats one reason it closed
As a person from Stuttgart, I can say, proudless:
"Berlin, you are not alone."
\_0.o_/
Compared to the world Germany is far superior. Just look around and you will see corruption and inefficiency on a much greater scale in other countries even in Europe.
@@rext8949 Its a world problematic and thats the german case. To say we have non, because we are always honest and incorrupt would be a big false statement. If we start overlooking these things, there is no possiblity for a change to a better.
I am thankful for a media, which tries to not biased. (Btw., I dont say, media is unbiased.)
BER: normal office buildings anyone can build.
Stuttgart 21: demanding civil engineering project.
The only thing these projects have in common are that they are payed by us Southgermans.
With Stuttgart 21 we get something at least.
I've read a book of Stuttgart 21 in Uni Bibliothek, which published in 1990s, when I was studying there. Then I went back to China and finished several projects including Shanghai Disney Resort. and then I got a daughter. and she is going to school this year.
so...will she be able to see the brand opening of Stuttgart 21 when she goes to uni Stuttgart some day?
As a Dutch engineer who's had to work with German companies, I don't think Germans are particularly efficient at all. Companies there are just very much about rules, chain of command, and formality. If any unforseen circumstance disturbs their flow, entire projects will just grind to a halt. No flexibility whatsoever.
This is only further exacerbated by rigid hierarchy. Even within departments, there's often a strict chain of command, and notable disdain for "underlings". Per example, one German engineer I had to work with wouldn't even answer my emails until (after advice from my boss) I started signing off with my full academic title to "prove" I was actually worthy of his time. This sort of attitude makes it difficult for signals to travel up the chain of command and often leads to projects failing.
For a reporter that has followed the construction since the beginning 7 min is a bit short. When will there be a full documentary that interviews the responsible parties and so?
Would love to hear the answer to that too.
There’s a dock,Mersey out there, it’s in German tho.
I want to know who decided on the location and why.
@ That was actually my first question too! How could the capital of a developed country decide to build its main airport in an area where night flights aren't allowed and room for future expansion is limited? It is incredible that all the people in charge actually agreed to that!
They did an exemplary job of converting energy into solid waste.
"Politicians decided", decicions are not made by Architects and Engineers?!
Oh our tax money.
Well in America the the virology expert for the Corona virus is Trump. So... Yea politicians are "experts" in everything.
That's why it went so bad. Arrogance of politicians and their "yes"-sayer.
@@miguellira9903 isn't the US run by corporation?
@@miguellira9903 Who said the Trump was a politician?
@@harrynking777 oh sorry i didn't realize being a president isn't a political job. It's totally not. At alll. Ty for making me a bit smarter i owe u.
Can't believe the person who designed this airport was so childish
As soon as he said that he was not designing shops, he should have been fired.
So, you are so proud of yourself of being brainwashed by the consumerism?
@@javisjavis2071 That is a very uneducated comment. The shops are what keeps the money coming in to support these airports. Do you want to fly out of an airport that does not have the money to keep up on maintenance? If people want to buy some duty free items, who are you to judge them?
@@jaklg7905 So, you accused people uneducated but you didn't reply to my question. Did you family/ teachers educate you to be polite to answer? Now, who is the uneducated? :)
@@javisjavis2071 What question is that? I do not see any question posed by you other then the one rhetorical "question" in your post about consumerism.
Then there is the fact that the Airport was designed to Host as a Airline Hub, but the copany who had their hub in Berlin, airberlin, went bankrupt a few years ago
Still sad about Airberlin.
“By now everyone’s heard about Berlin’s disastrous airport.”
Not here, we’re Americans. We can barely tell you where Canada is.
that's embarrassing....
I met some teachers from the Us that don't know wich Us state they're living in.
@@swededude1992 I met one who thought every country had their own moon.
I knew about BER when it failed to open in 2008 or 2009. For the record.
I'm European and I can name and point out all 50 US states on the map. You should learn more about the world around you.
Well, in Turkey, we call this business as usual, thanks to our government.
Yeah, but they've built the new airport in 42 months. I'm sure a lot of corruption went down obviously (and it's on a horrible location) but for the biggest airport in the world, that's an extremely short time. I have been there, there is even a hotel inside.
Istanbul already had a big enough airport at the time, so completing it fast was just a investment for the closing elections and because of that they opened it in hurry when it wasn't completed and with almost no means of transportation.No need to say that, the chosen location was highly criticized by the scientists at the time for crossing the migration route of birds and possiblity of strong winds above the area. But the most disturbing part is, a profit guarantee (6.3 billion Euros for 12 years) was given to the constructors (Euros ,not turkish liras) and when the profit falls below that gurantee, the difference will be paid from our taxes. Total cost of building such an airport is said to be around 1 billion to 2 billion dolars. By the way, 1 euro is around 9.7 turkish liras as of today. So do the math yourself.
"So how did it all go so wrong?"
Well, it was started by a politician, not engineer or architect who at least know better about what to do. And it was led by politician, the imfamous corruptor breeding ground.
Well the architect that planned BER had gone mad or just old and out of touch
That is just politicians being politicians. They are more or less same everywhere.
Not like workers stealing materials were any better. Corruption tends to spread at all levels.
unions as well
No you do not have politicians with the sole competence of beeing gay everywhere.
Wow. It is interesting to know that German was also capable in building expensive monument.
Monument to stupidity and corruption
BIJB Kertajati came to mind lol
Do not fear Berlin, you're not alone. Here in Finland, we have this thing called Olkiluoto 3.
The third reactor of the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant. Construction began in 2005 and the reactor was meant to be operational in 2009. The latest pushback in opening happened in August 2020 and according to that announcement the reactor would be working in February 2022.
Ooh...
That looks worst than Mochovce NPP construction in Slovakia. And we have already to arrest manager guy from italian ENEL...
@@matof1428 I would be really eager to throw the French (Areva, to be more precise) under proverbial bus because they've had the same problems with their own reactor of the same design in Flamanville. Over budget and delayed by a decade.
In Ireland there is a hospital that is on course to costing an absolute fortune.
Most of the cost relates to putting in under foundations to nearby buildings. It is a farce.
@@themsmloveswar3985 In 2018 they completed the brand new children's hospital in Helsinki. Immediately reports came in about poor quality and water damages which the hospital adminstration dismissed, saying that "that the faults were small and completely normal for a new building".
Still better than I believe in Austria where a complete reactor was built and just never turned on.
Come to India... we have the kings of corruption in this subject of airports...
Oi our politicians can built anything within a month it's just occurs in season times
this sounds like the kind of airport that would be built in Russia, where corruption, delays and bribes are common, not Germany. This is embarrassing.
Actually Germany is full on corruption but very good at playing it clean and "efficient*. Dieselgate, wirecard,, the VW Porsche merge are just some recent examples.
Hello from Somalia, the most corrupt country on Earth.
As a German that hurts. Lol
You know what's refreshing though? To see that DW did a short program on this. It's not like RT would do something like that about a failed Putin project.
@@Eusantdac That's what I love about DW, they're a bit less clinging onto mainstream reporting.
@Galactic Minds Brilliant. So why has the lira collapsed and the Turkish economy is in the doldrums ? That's called a real Turkey ! Maybe you should check the stats for Germany.
Reality check for Germans who are 'very proud' of their heritage.
@@Artnotforthesakeofart Now that's refreshing considering that in many other countries if you tried to do this sort of reporting you would go missing.
Seems like BS is everywhere in the world because of politicians
What happens when you give a few people too much power over major decision.
Should also cover Stuttgart 21... how long has that been going on?
@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE What company , German or Foreigners ?
@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE One of their mistakes was their divided the airport into many small parts and gave the parts to different small local companies in Berlin and Brandenburg that'd no experience in building airport. There were no coordination between those companies and the politicians who were in charge of the project didn't know how to monitor them.
Yes S21 will probably be around 3-4 times it's original budget when it's finally finished. When you play with taxpayers money it clearly doesn't matter how much things cost.
@JONATHAN SUTCLIFFE Projects like these are all about responsibility. Or at least they should be. The top government officials who were involved with this project along the way have all moved on to bigger and better paid things or retired with massive pensions. Others came and went and made a fortune, now nobody actually remembers who did what, who promised whatever, who said what to whom...
It doesn't seem to matter how big you ballsed up. Tbere's always a golden handshake at the end of the line.
"The total cost will be 6.5 Billion Euros". Just ridiculous for what it looks like, for 6.5B I'd except it to put Singapore's airport to shame (which cost only 1.3B USD).
their first mistake was letting politicians run the whole thing.
their second was choosing the wrong ones for the job.
The myth of German efficiency. The reality however is very, very different.
Well politics did the job of the engineers soo what should have we expected
No germans dont make mistakes.
Germany let so many people from different nations in its country. 70% of those airports workers were Immigrants.
@TheWelshy83 How about all our Bureaucracy (Registering a car is a horrible task in my region) or our infrastructure^^ I think the problem is many of our politicians have no idea of what they're doing but they know exactly what they want (what the lobbyists tell them lul)
@@youssefelhenawy4060 hence it sucks nowadays, German greatness is gone
Me: ugh I hate having to pay taxes here in Brazil, it’s such an inefficient corrupt country
Me: ✈️ moves to Germany ✈️
Germany:
Gross incompetence...
Den Bericht hätte man ja auch schon zehn Jahre vorher ausstrahlen können.
Diese "wirtschaftspraxis" in Berlin ist doch in Grundzügen bekannt. Naja, Ich bin kein Berliner. Man hätte diese Gülle auch schon vor zehn Jahren abwählen können.
Here in brazil, any work is like this, at any time, with any government
This airports is riddled with some laughable events. It's so expensive it can build 5 airports that would look and operate better. How could they choose to build a airport in the least favorable place and construct a small airport to serve at least two states. The airport is already too smal and oldl before it becomes fully operational....😁😁😁😁😁😁
At least 40 or so countries around the world don't even have a GDP of 5 Billion Euros
Hello. I have been waiting at my gate since 2011 for my flight to Munich and it still hasn't been called
Mensch-Maschine-Kopplung??? What a beautifully constructed word to replace/hide incompetence.
As a resident of Berlin, I am very disappointed that the BER opened. RIP all the jokes collected over the years.
Didn't that bring up questions (not only jokes)? I mean, that project is madness.
German efficiency is like german reliability in cars, often spoken of, never actually existing
Go Japanese if you want reliable cars.
Love how the Germans make a nationwide fuss about it while in Italy we have plenty of this overly expensive projects often resulting in abandoned concrete monsters. We have also a locution to describe grand stuff where it's not needed or simply too expensive, we call them desert cathedrals
Germany is a country in decline but the people still believe they are always right
without manufactor company.. they would not be rich...
they are biggest economy in europe how its on down?
Sounds like what is exactly going on in New Orleans Louis Armstrong new airport build. It's a boondoggle as well.
BER is the German copy of such crooked American " endeavors "....
@@christopherczajasager9030 i can't argue with that. Our largest cities are run by the corupt leftist, including NO.
@@SMichaelDeHart Russian cities are WORST
@@SMichaelDeHart Russian cities are WORST
@@francoislechanceux5818 I'm sure that nothing to be proud of. As the saying goes..."Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely"!!
They could have renovated Tegel airport for a tenth of the price... poor Tegel still waiting for a metro station!
Tegel is to tiny and lies in the middle of berlin. Renovating is absolutly useless in this case.
@@BlauesRauschen Tegel's main drawback is its cramped terminal building and lack of U-Bahn, both of which can be fixed with investments. It is capable of handling all of Berlin's air traffic.
As a Canadian who just left Hamburg after a 4 year stay, still confused why people call Germany efficient. Other than their manufacturing industries, I found pretty much everything else to be HIGHLY inefficient for a 1st world country.
Take policy making decisions off the hands of good for nothing politicians.
Have you tried the security check?It is a really nightmare. I was there on January 8 at 4.30 am and looks like this was the 1st day of operation. Too many people with just few check point opened. People were very slow, not interested to speed up the process, very anfriendly. Airport is fast place and you need to have process that work to make sure people can take the flights and not making them to loose their flight how happen to me but also other dozen of people. Thanks a lot to make my return in Italy a nightmare and with nobody really try to find a solution. I have travelled in different part of the world and taken hundreds of flights but this is the first time that I missed a flight and the first time I see a so poor organization with people blaming other organizations (Securitas responsible for the security ckeck, Swissport for the services in the airport) and nobody really try to help. Typical example of perfect surgery but the patiend died. A new airport to poorly managed! I hope this help to improve for the future passengers. Unfortunately there is no other option!
10 years is 'efficiency', in india most 'efficient' projects take atleast 13 years
Pakistan project takes atleast 30 years🤣
Do you know what has happened to the World One project? I follow Skyscrapercity to see what are the tallest buildings in the world being constructed. That project was supposed to be India's first building with more than 100 floors. At some point, there stopped being any updates. I assume it's delayed (by years) or called off. It had been progressing very slowly even before that (in comparison with similar supertalls constructed in China).
To be fair, Berlin is one of the very few socialist regions of Germany. We Indians are hard-core socialists and socialism destroyed even German efficiency.
@@sahilrazarizvi8266 The statue was made by a trustee, the money was crowdfunded and the government had little share in it. That's the reason why it was so quick. Government control could easily extend that to 330 months.
@Charles Lim We don't have free Uyghur labour and free talent from Hong Kong who can be persecuted as much as Pooh wants
Made in Germany has no meaning anymore. Only outside of Germany, some still fall for it.
This was a public project -- little to do with the many private factories.
You have never worked in german mechanical enginnering or alloy science, have you?
@@arvedludwig3584 I just know that China bought 65.000 flats in Berlin to rent it to Germans. And China bought the Bionics-Manufacturer KuKa to get access to the patents... and then "rent" patents back to German industry. Both things happened with the OKAY of our government.
What attack on chem are you talking about? Did I miss something?
BER: Late, over budget, corrupt.
Crossrail: Hold my beer...
All of them getting destroyed by Socialism
BER: normal office buildings anyone can build.
Crossrail: demanding civil engineering project.
@@ankanmaiti9864 delays, overbudgets and corruption are not a socialist specific, these occur everywhere, the problem here were rather meddling politicians :(
Who pays contractors by the hour? It's probably the 1st time i heard of such a thing.
the corruption is thick on this one..
Leftist politicians.
@@abalada corrupt politics you should call it
It doesn't need to be left or right
It depends on the people and the situation.
I am paid hourly as a contractor and they do it gladly, as I work efficiently every hour I bill to them and do not even think about cheating in any way.
Somehow "human machine interface" reminds me of Homer Simpson delegating his drinking bird doodad to stop the nuclear plant from melting down XD
Gawd we were so close to an airport without shops, so close!!!
Living in Germany for some time I feel comfortable to say that there are many advantages in terms of living efficiently, especially when compared to my country of origin, but the daily bureaucracy (still very much based on the postal service), medical care, and railway transport are far from efficient. There is always a problem, there is always something defective. I think the myth of efficiency and the "made in Germany" quality are important for the country to sell its products within and abroad.
It's still vastly better than southern europe in general. Try living in Portugal, beautiful weather but an economic wasteland.
Half a €million bribe on airport construction? Show this Russian official if you want him to die of laugh
Nevertheless...
Simfiropol airport
Rostov airport
Saratov airport
Saransk airport
Volgograd airport
N.Novgorod airport
all in 2018 upgraded or built as new
I have been to Germany numerous times. Its vaunted efficiency and orderliness is actually a mixed bag. Compared with countries like Italy, sure, Germany is far ahead in efficiency, punctuality, etc. But you'll be surprised how often trains are late. I have talked to Germans asking for their opinion about comparison between themselves and the Japanese, where trains are always punctual to the exact minute (I read drivers were punished if they are 45 seconds off schedule on the JR, as delays can propagate further down the line and screw up the whole system). Even the Germans acknowledged the Japanese (and nowadays the Chinese) are actually way ahead of them in organisation and other things ascribed to the Germans. Still, Germany does extremely well for a Western country. In the current Covid pandemic, I am not surprised to see Germany, Austria, Denmark and other Germanic countries doing far better than countries like UK, France, Italy, Spain and the US. I love Germany and its great music (Bach, Händel, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, etc.)
English are as Teutonic race as German, English language itself is Germanic though many invasions and their colonial empire gave them a distinct characteristics, it is a mixed bag. Italy is far ahead to Germany in cleanliness and way they treat tourists beside most of the trains are on time there as well, they solved problem of criminal harassing tourists to great extent. Spain is terrible as usual because of high corruption and rampant criminals on the streets, I never saw a country infested with criminals as Spain. France is opposite of Italy to be honest.
Trains are a absolutest disaster here in Germany, lol
@@nitinkumar29 Have you visited Naples and Rome? Nothing clean about those cities, rubbish, graffiti all over the city. It was truly eye opening and shocking.
@@EinkOLED No idea of Naples but I have been to Rome, it is ancient city and for that it is far better maintained compared to other ancient city around the world or some of the modern cities such as France which was pile of garbage even before strike. Berlin is another example if you in the inner city. Graffiti is all over Germany too, even on Trains, building and houses....every kind of structure you see may have it, quite a horrible view for people like me who doesn't like it. Italian trains came on time and left on time, quite a opposite of Deutsche bahn, though German transport system has better connectivity in my experience.
To be fair, many 'star' projects have a similar fate.
- the millenium dome in London
- the opera in Copenhagen, by one of Denmark's most famous architects ( Henning Larsen )
- the tv broadcasting house, Copenhagen, by a star French French architect ( I don't remember his name momentarily ).
-:many of Frank Gehry's curvy buildings have water leakage problems, due to the curvy surfaces letting in water
- both the tunnel under the English Channel and Öresund were talked about for almost a 100 years before started and realised.
- etc.
The moral of the story is to keep projects small and well defined ( also in terms of leadership) so they can still be managed well :)
Thanks for helping to put it all into perspective, Miska. Let's not forget the Montreal Olympics
The millennium dome's construction wasn't a failure, but Blair's vision for the dome was. However it has been a success ever since it turned into a concert venue. So your comparison to Berlin's airport is simply wrong. And so was your comparison with the channel tunnel-the construction and subsequent use was a success!
But again, if they were done without such errors it'd have been a greater achievement compared to those lesser projects. If, somehow, we are able to manage it...
And don’t forget pretty much everything Calatrava has done around Europe and the world....
Boston’s John Hancock tower, by I.M. Pei, a.k.a. “The Plywood Palace”.
Is this happening in land of respected engineers and architects?
Yesssssss!!!!!!!!🤫👍
Putting aside the silly meaningless stereotypes for the simple minded click bait types of German efficiency, French laziness or Japanese reliability which are all ridiculous as they are countries with great, good and poorly managed projects. I do feel for people of Berlin as this does seem like an epic fail but I’m sure they’ll end up with a decent airport in the end (albeit way overpriced). Airports always seem to be such a nightmare, Spain building a fancy new airport that sits empty because nobody bothered to find out if anyone even wanted/needed it or London and it’s 6 airports - yet the one that has been in desperate need of expansion for decades still sits there because of endless environmental studies and nimby w londoners. Democracy may be the best form of government but it clearly doesn’t mix well with airports- Asians always manage to build them, of course they don’t tolerate any descent so I guess I’ll take our over-funded under-built airports.
But surely it's the corruption level that I find truly shocking, not perhaps the mismanagement as such, although that's bad enough. I've always thought such levels of corruption in Western Europe is only prevelant in countries like Greece or Italy or maybe even Spain.
Asians? Come and see the problems with India's high speed rail project.
There's no perfect state. It could happen to anyone,but with crucial difference for Germans. They incorporate such a things in collective memory
I can't believe it's actually finished! After living in Berlin for many years I finally left in 2012 and at that point nobody thought it would ever be done. Tempelhof was never an option to keep as it's in the middle of the city and runways were too small with no hope of expansion. Tegel on the other hand was situated with ample land to expand and still very close to the city. I once timed from my door to arriving at TXL - 15 mins thanks to ubahn and bus connection. The new airport isn't actually in Berlin either, that's how far out it is. They should have extended TXL but I suppose the project got 'too big to fail' and many a public official had to think about the bribes they were getting from contractors.
Not sure where the ample room to expand was at Tegel? You might have got an extra 500m on 08R/26L and 200m on 08L/26R, but there is nowhere for a new terminal, the runways are too close together to operate in parallel (the same problem we in the UK have at Gatwick), and the noise would've been unbearable for local people. It's just as unsuitable as Schonefeld.
A large population of senior citizens and fewer younger people appears to be the reason of dwindling german efficiency.
and it starts at the top with that childless old bag in charge
Get your facts right. It's still one of the top countries in the world. What about your young country ? Colourful man...
@@AlonsoRules How many children you got ? In case you don't know she's still the most effective and popular politician in Germany and the world.
What i pointed out was one of the possible reasons .if you have the facts about the problem at airport please help DW and your govt.
@@rangilalal8029 Merely compare the facts of Germany with other countries including yours. You don't need to be a genius.
As a German, I find it hilarious how anyone in the world would consider us exemplary when it comes to efficient bureaucracy. For as long as I can remember, there was litterally not a single large construction project in the whole damn country that finished in time and within the original budget. We are mandated to take the cheapest offer irrespective of the experience of the company and the quality of their calculations, and most plans are already outdated regarding the actual needs at the point when construction begins. Jobs are out-sourced to shady sub-contractors immediately, and in the end nobody knows who has even built what. At the same time our laws require high standards regarding documentation and dictate a hundred thousand different codes to adhere to, so much so that even years after finishing a building you could find out that you violated one of them without anyone realizing so far. BER was not a susprise to anyone here in Germany, and there are hundreds of other projects that failed equally miserably.
And they said St Helena Island Airport "world most useless" airport
WHen you have 3,500 people living on an island in the Atlantic and the only way in or out other wise is a 2 week sea journey, in an emergency or natural disaster, St Helena airport is certainly not useless.
@@xr6lad They get regular flights there now and the numbers should increase over the next few years.
No, the incompetence and corruption was just implemented with legendary German efficiency. If not for that, the level of incompetence and corruption would have been a whole lot less.
Greetings from South Korea.
"You are not alone."
“You are always in my heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrt” 🎶
From the best (TXL) to the worst (BER). Every country builds beautiful airports except Berlin. Talking about politics, everything is done late or too late.
I don’t think Germans are famous for their efficiency ( if not the opposite) but for their quality. 😂
That is correct. The main advantage of Germany is quality and the brand credibility.
The mistake was “the unquestioning believe in the myth of German efficiency”. I could not agree more, really!!!
No. The mistake was our politicions have had a too big selve confidence in themselves. They wanted to doing all alone without any help. And with the fact that politions are not any engineers or somerhing else you need to build up such kind of building, they were doomed to fail. Many small companys were included. They even did not have a (in Germany so-called) Bauleiter who could had overview that.
So Germany is still a Country of innovation. The bigger problem is that politicions have impair our reputation.
And i Need to now that. I only living 10km away from this Peace of c...
Well at least they manage to get it open by October 2020. Many thought that date was a fantasy.
Singapore Airport cost $1.25 billion
Berlin Airport cost $8.billion
And Singapore Airport looks better than Berlin airport as well, plus it has space for expansion.
"No night flights are allowed here and there's no room for expansion"
Then what was the bloody point?
the point of pubilc spending so the local had job.. however.. changing thing and risk people life is not acceptble... this happen around the world since goerment are law...
There are no night flights because of protests. Of course it was planned to have night flights because this makes no sense economically. Airplanes are loud but that comes with living in a big city... a lot of people from the former DDR still are big antics.
DW made a program on this project about 10 years back, if I remember correctly. That program was an eye opener on why such projects take so long. It's the same story all over the world. Thanks for the upload.
Berlin is NOT Germany. In fact, give the city back to the Red Army. For free.
@97RAVINEAVE Just the city. Dude, that's the whole point.
Does it include woman and personal valuable for "socialising" and "borrowing" ?
@@MyH3ntaiGirl Of course, the whole lot.
I'm sorry for this Latin American country with such a corrupt government.
Oh wait.
Well this isn't Germany. Ditt is Berlin.
Fun fact: In the industry I used to be in (band instrument repair) "B.E.R." stands for :"Beyond Economic Repair". A fitting abbreviation for this airport.
Now imagine that's the case for everything in a country. Welcome to Brazil.
You guys are still way better off than many countries. In your case, a bureaucrat refused to sign off for safety and bigwigs backed off. In 'bad' countries, such folks would be 'clipped' one way or the other instead of fixing safety.
But it is still nice to note that Germans are self-critical.
The world doesn't expect that from Germany.
That's because they haven't lived in Germany. In just a few years, I saw so much corruption. "Efficiency" is just a fad. Actually followed by like 20% of the country. The rest is pretty bureaucratic / corrupted for a 'developed' country. Don't believe me? Go live there. Not visit. But live.
A similar situation happened in my state in the US. The capitol city decided they wanted a minor league baseball stadium as part of a redevelopment area. They "stole" a team from a nearby city, promising a new stadium. Then they hired a construction company with no prior experience building stadiums. Needless to say, they fell well behind schedule, got fired, lawsuits abound. The city found major issues with construction, and the new contractor had to rebuild much of it. In the end, the whole thing cost $60 million, which is like 4 times as much as a typical small baseball stadium costs in the US.
At least they think of the residents when building a airport. In the USA your just screwed.
I worked for BMW and I know how efficient Germans can be. Imagine Germans dealing with such inefficiency and corruption, what should I as a Nigerian be complaining of?