Car Wild West in Kreuzberg

Traffic bollard hit on the bend at Oranienplatz
Traffic bollard hit on the bend at Oranienplatz

Waldemarstraße and Legien-und-Leuschnerdamm, with their cobblestones, are used by north–south through traffic at excessive speeds. Drivers don’t care about the speed limit signs of 10, 20, and 30. This creates noise and danger! Crashes happen frequently at the intersections. For example, the bollards in front of the Wirtshaus Henne and at Oranienplatz are regularly knocked down due to excessive speeding. Reporting this to the police via their online portal doesn’t do much. Even when they do carry out speed checks, traffic is back to speeding after just three days.

We are residents with windows facing cobblestone streets, we have children, three daycare centers in the neighborhood, and the social project for people with disabilities.
As residents, we want safety, peace, quality of life, and climate adaptation!

2026: As residents, we don’t want to wait any longer for the approved diagonal filters to be implemented as part of a Kiezblock on both sides of the Waldemar Bridge. With the current capacity of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district office, the current plan for 2026 will take another 10 years.

The newly replaced historic bollard by
The newly replaced historic bollard by “Henne”
Bollards in front of the
Bollards in front of the “Henne” tavern. After the historic bollards on the right were knocked over several times, the district office installed these massive ones. The one on the left has already clearly been hit again.

Berlin’s Senate, previously led by the CDU, does not want any Kiezblocks and is giving the districts too little money for bollards and staff to install them.

2025: Residents of Waldemarstrasse are fighting back with a petition. 

Now, ahead of the election for the Berlin House of Representatives on September 20, 2026, it would be a good idea to ask the candidates about their support for Kiezblocks. We could also borrow devices that measure noise, speed, and the number of vehicles—such as Telraam—to document our problem!

We founded a residents’ initiative “Waldebrücke Speeders Out!” on Fri, March 6, 2026, at 7 PM. If you’re interested in joining, please contact: kontakt[at]tomalbrechtart[dot]de,
Tom Albrecht, 0306154749

This is how OpenAI’s AI imagines our future:

Diagonal barrier, Waldemarstrasse corner Leuschnerdamm, AI-generated with OpenAI
Diagonal barrier, Waldemarstrasse corner Leuschnerdamm, AI-generated with OpenAI