I have a cousin from Arkansas who recently moved to China with her family.  I admire their adventurous spirit as I can’t imagine a much more drastic change for them. Moving from Seattle to Berlin as two footloose and fancy-free twenty-year-olds is one thing. Moving as a family to a major city in China is next level expatriation.

I have watched their journey from the comfort of social media as they encounter various triumphs and pitfalls, so I should have seen this coming. “This” being the coronavirus, or more accurately COVID-19. But it still caught me by surprise. Now that they can finally leave their apartments after just over a month of isolation, we are increasingly locked down here in Europe. My family is self-isolating with schools, KiTas, bars, and more already closed or closing and the worst may still be ahead of us.

Hyde has done an excellent job maintaining a German-Way page on the coronavirus including frequent updates – which is essential as things continue to change, and change fast. If you aren’t already following us on Facebook, I highly recommend you give a follow to catch essential news as well as travel articles for happier times. You can also ask questions and share information on our German-Way forum.

Along with this wealth of information, I wanted to add my family’s experience during this time. I don’t think what we are going through is unique as the rest of Europe is currently trying to flatten the curve as the virus races around the continent and onto the USA and elsewhere. But I do think hearing personal stories adds some first-hand context. So here is what we have seen so far in Berlin during the coronavirus outbreak.

A closed Tchibo shop in Berlin. PHOTO: Erin Porter

Berlin Closes Down

Like elsewhere, the panic set in quickly. It all seemed so very far away, even as all of Italy went into lock down, until it wasn’t.

We were dealing with garden-variety pink eye that kept my husband home from work and my baby whiny when there were the first shifts. Plans for later in the month were made with a caveat. A friend or two posted that they were keeping their kid home from school. Home offices were dusted off. That was on a Monday or Tuesday.

By Friday, all plans starting from that weekend on were cancelled. KiTa was officially closing on Tuesday as the slow wheels of legislation needed to grind everything to a halt. Schools were close behind and bars were closed (- no they aren’t! – yes, they are), restaurants had to observe extended distance between tables and scrambled to change to a take-out/delivery model. For anyone still collecting a paycheck (my family, along with countless others, has been hit with layoffs), this was an exciting time to order in as even Michelin star restaurants began to offer to-go boxes, farm-fresh vegetable boxes, and meal kits. Even more shocking is the encouragement in restaurants and grocery stores to pay with card! I never thought I would see the day.

We decided to go into isolation and did our last family grocery shop, continually reminding the 5-year-old not to touch anything and buying whatever was left on the shelves. Things were pretty picked over on Friday, and on my solo late Saturday shop absolutely every fruit and vegetable were gone and the entire grocery store looked like a scene from the Walking Dead.

Near empty grocery shelves PHOTO: Erin Porter

Today, grocery stores are still open and there is a proposal to open stores on Sunday. What is Germany coming to?! Our local Netto and Rewe seem quiet, but basically the same – sans flour and yeast which might have disappeared until the end of the crisis. Tells what Germans like to do when they have a bit of free time – bake. I have heard friends in other parts of the city report that there is a line to get in with safe distance marked between shoppers, and only a few allowed in at a time. There has also been rationing on things from butter to toilet paper, though they are available.

My husband’s whole office went to work-from-home from Monday on and we decided my daughter’s last KiTa day had been that Friday. A contested point in our house and social circle was the spielplatz (playground).  Parents in Berlin seemed quite split on the issue with some promoting hand sanitizer and keeping kids 1.5 meters apart, and the rest of us giving that thought a very skeptical look. The virus can live on surfaces for at least a few hours and have you seen kids at the playground? I understood that families were rightfully freaked out at keeping their kids inside for weeks on end, but what was the point of closing KiTas if you were just going to have them run around together at the playground? Berlin’s mayor waffled on the decision until it was finally taken out of our hands with each neighborhood deciding to cordon off the playgrounds. They now sit empty, blocked by emergency tape or with a lock on the gate.

Closed Playground in Berlin PHOTO: Erin Porter

There has actually been a lot of this hedging. As I mentioned above, places like restaurants were allowed to keep serving until recently, making the importance of social distancing a little ambiguous. Did we have to stay home all the time? How often can we go to the grocery store? Is an isolated walk in the forest or park ok? What businesses are open? Why were Friseure (hairdressers) and Buchladen (bookshops) allowed to stay open along with grocery stores and Apotheke (pharmacies)? This says something about what Berliners call vital businesses, as well as their reticence to restrict movement in any way considering their divided history.

This was alluded to in Merkel’s recent speech which added gravity to the situation, but no official declarations. Some people were disappointed that she didn’t lay out exact rules and regulations to follow (oh Germans), but I appreciated her straight-forward, empathetic, and realistic approach. It is refreshing to feel like you are getting the real story from a politician.

It may have been the change to cooler weather, but I noticed a drop in people on the street after the speech and believe it was effective. There seemed to be another drop this weekend as there was a lot of chatter that if Berlin didn’t behave by last Saturday, we would be put on a curfew like Bavaria had elected. That said, reports on social media still showed people irresponsibly gathering for beers in the park, crowded on popular streets, and even arranging house parties. There was a great rant in Exberliner that they never realized Berliners were this social.

Some Länder (states) have already enacted stronger measures with new standards recommended across the nation starting this week. Along with border controls implemented last Thursday, it is verboten for more than two people to meet-up (unless in a family unit) and you are required to carry your ID which states your address. For many of us foreigners, that means our passport with visa and anmeldung. I doubt anyone is really going to be checking my family’s papers up in Wedding, but I know most people are gathering documents to be able to comply.

What a weird time to be alive. It seems that Germany – and the world – may never be the same. But at least we are here and still kicking. Let’s stick it out, stay at home (wir bleiben zu Hause!), and slow the spread of the virus.