Over in Berlin-City.....on the eastern and south-eastern section of town, is the neighborhood of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. It's made of about 290k resident, and what you'd call a serious mix of counter-culture individuals. Some lean to the Green doctrine....some lean to the Marxist routine....some are just plain working-class Germans.
In this period of Covid-19, this region of Berlin has been hit pretty hard, and the leadership authority will admit that they need some 'help' in terms of health-management and testing.
So the Defense Minister and Health Minister (federal level) offered up Bundeswehr (German Army) help.
The Borough Council (made up mostly of 57 members....said 'NO'. They would accept regular help or non-military help, but Bundeswehr help was declined. For the record....32 members of the Borough Council are either Green Party or Linke Party members.
RBB (the Berlin City public TV folks) told the basic story, which is kinda interesting.
The comment....."This is not a domestic combat-mission" was uttered, but it didn't really change any perceptions.
So are data collections, testing and contact tracing taking place? No one is real clear about this. My humble guess is that the Borough has just enough people to support a bare minimum situation, and will just continue 'as is'.
The question....is this type of behavior going on across Germany? I would suggest that in the bulk of rural regions....you can't find this anti-Bundeswehr attitude. Even in most medium-sized urban towns....it's hard to find this attitude.
But when you get to cities like Hamburg, Dresden or Berlin....you've got neighborhoods which attracted a certain philosophy and even if you had flood action or a earthquake....they might not be willing to allow German Army help to proceed into their territory.
It's a bit silly, but that's the modern situation that you see in Germany.
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