Four new citizens' offices planned for Berlin

Berlin is to get more citizens' offices (Bürgerämter) in the next two years.

A new one on Klosterstraße in Mitte has already opened, and four are expected to be added in 2024 and 2025, State Secretary for Digitalization and Administrative Modernization Martina Klement said on Friday. They are planned in Spandau, Marzahn-Hellersdorf, Treptow-Köpenick and Pankow because, according to Klement, the need is greatest in these four districts.

Two new citizens' office to open in 2024

Klement expects the first two in Spandau and Marzahn-Hellersdorf to go into operation next year. Possible locations are already being considered. In Pankow, no location has been determined yet, meaning that the opening of the new citizens' office there will probably not be possible until 2025. In Köpenick, the old city hall is currently being rebuilt. "The entire district office has moved to Adlershof and put a citizens' office into operation there," Klement said. The idea, Klement said, is that this citizens' office will remain there when the district office moves back to Köpenick City Hall. In this case, too, implementation is more likely for 2025.

100 new jobs planned

100 additional positions will be created for the other citizens' offices, 20 of which are reserved for the citizens' office in Mitte. The distribution of these new positions has been clarified, a process that had been quite controversial, Klement said. It had to be decided, for example, whether they should only go to districts that open new locations or be distributed to all districts. It has now been agreed that the districts of Mahrzahn-Hellersdorf and Spandau will each receive twelve posts and the rest will initially be distributed among the other nine districts. Pankow and Treptow-Köpenick are also to receive twelve positions each. The positions needed there are then to be handed over to the two districts when the new citizens' offices will open.

Pool of up to 20 people to absorb peak workloads

It is important to the Senate that the additional positions actually benefit citizens directly: "We have agreed that the employees will be deployed exclusively in the front offices," said Klement. "In addition to the 100 positions, we will set up a pool of up to 20 people with whom we want to absorb peak workloads in the citizens' offices."