Asbjørn Svarstad, Berlin | Negligent mass killing of 1300 tropical fish
The comment expresses the writer’s opinions.
Just before five o’clock in the morning, there was a violent crash from the Radissons hotel on Karl Liebknechtstrasse – right by the Berliner Dom and the castle.
Furniture in small pieces and a million liters of water suddenly came through the air like a tsunami. When the silence fell again, two slightly injured hotel employees were left behind. A few minutes later, the first police cars arrived – with excited officers who initially thought that “someone” had blown up the facility.
Only after the fire brigade had been inside the building and formed a picture of what could have happened, did it become clear that this time there had been no terrorists on the way.
Asbjørn Svarstad
Asbjørn Svarstad started writing in the local newspaper Dagningen, for some years was linked to VG. From 1987 Dagbladet’s stringer in Copenhagen. Since 1996 lived permanently in Berlin where he has worked for various Scandinavian media. Works mostly with historical feature articles, political commentary and is an authorized guide in Sachsenhausen.
Berliners remember all too well how, just six years ago, an IS killer killed 13 and injured over 50 when he crashed into a Christmas market in a stolen truck.
Murphy’s Law
If anything can go wrong, it certainly will – at least in Berlin.
Because where else in the world did everything go so wrong with the construction that the opening of the new airport had to be delayed by ten to twelve years? And where else does the entire election have to be repeated because the authorities failed to present enough ballots during last year’s election?
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And if a 16 meter high container made of plastic – with a diameter of 11.5 meters and with a million liters of salt water inside, would suddenly fly into the sky, yes, it happens precisely in the German capital.
Aquadom was actually huge cylinders that were set up in the entrance to the Radissons hotel 18 years ago.
One hundred thousand liters of water came flying
The facility became a crowd magnet, attracting tourists from far and near, kindergarten groups, school classes and pensioners’ associations on a Berlin search.
Everyone had to go to the Aquadom to ride the lift which was in the middle of one cylinder – and where it was possible to admire the fish during the ten minutes the trip took.
Also on Friday morning last week, there had been dozens – if not hundreds – of small and large aquarium guests on the lift or around the facilities.
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If the fish tank had exploded at this point and sent their splintered equipment like projectiles around the building and into the streets – yes, it would certainly have cost the lives and health of many. Also for those who had to walk by or sat in a passing bus – when the furniture and several hundred thousand liters of water came flying.
Pretty much foolproof
There were half-dead and half-dead fish all around the ruins of the hotel, while parts of the stock had landed on the pavement – almost everyone found a quick cold death in minus seven degrees.
When the day was over, the experts had succeeded in saving 200 specimens that had survived the accident in small ponds of salt water. Now these fish are taken care of at the aquarium in the Zoo.
The GDR museum in the basement has been partially destroyed, and it will be many months before it can be opened again. Otherwise, all sorts of experts are trying to find out how much damage was done to the neighboring buildings. AND if the hotel itself is so badly damaged that the ruin cannot be red. In any case, we are talking about hundreds of millions of kroner in damages.
When the facility was opened in 2003, proud constructors and aquarium owners said that the layout was foolproof. The tank was built from 20 centimeter thick plastic and here – in the “world’s largest cylinder aquarium” – nothing could go wrong.
Who is to blame?
Hardly when the fire brigade had finished collecting the fish carcasses, the debate broke out about what could have triggered this misery?
Lord Mayor Franziska Giffey came by, noted that HER had really avoided a major disaster. She loves – wants to make free – that the authorities do everything to find the cause. (And with re-elections at the end of February, you must see that the state of Berlin’s political leaders may now be fiercely confronted with the question of who should have discovered the plant’s weaknesses).
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The first engineer who came forward thought that it was probably fatigue in the artificial glass that caused it to go wrong. Another wanted to know that it may have been the glue used to join the parts together that crumbled and caused the cylinder to dissolve into its individual components.
A diver who was cleaning the inside the day before, believed with certainty that he had observed a crack in the acrylic. Other experts could say that the foundations of the entire hotel building have shifted due to extensive excavation work on the neighboring property.
Someone tended more towards a theory that it was material fatigue in combination with low outside temperature and high temperature inside the tank that caused it to go wrong.
Negligent mass killing of fisherman
The wisest of them were probably experts who looked through all the theories, not upside down – and concluded that the cause may have been a combination of ALL possibilities.
In that case, we will never know what actually happened – let alone whether anyone can point out personal responsibility.
The conservationists in an association called Peta announce a lawsuit against the management of both the hotel and the operating company behind Aquadom. These must answer for the negligent mass killing of 1,300 tropical fish, a spokesman threatens.
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It is already obvious that opponents of keeping fish trapped in such facilities are now using the opportunity and the spotlight.
Gallows humor
The spokesperson for Peta believes that the private operation of aquariums has no other intention than to make money – and that while the fish suffer in captivity.
NOW we have also set which fish massacre is triggered if the tank bursts. So the argument that rare species are actually being saved in Aquadom falls on its own absurdity – now that the entire population is exterminated in a hundredth of a second.
These are Nettavisen’s columnists
The animal protectionists do not hide that the accident gives them new arguments in the fight against a larger aquarium that is planned in the district of Rummelsburg. NOW they see the chance to make so much fuss that both the new building in Rummelsburg and a rebuilding of the Aquadom in the center can be prevented.
Berliners are famous for their loud and tasteless humor. Everything that can be baptized is given a nickname. Whether there will be talk of calling the address Sushi-hjørnet, Aqua-BOM or Sildesalaten remains to be seen – the debate is running too full on all the city’s corners.