'Stress-Free': Coronavirus Aid Flows Quickly to Berlin's Self-Employed
Within days, Germany’s capital distributed money to 150,000 artists, shop owners, hairdressers and other small-business owners and freelancers to cover basic expenses.
By Melissa Eddy
April 3, 2020
BERLIN — When Germany shut down public life to halt the spread of the new coronavirus last month, Laurenz Bostedt, a freelance photographer, watched as one contract after another was canceled, until his entire expected income had disappeared.
On Tuesday, 5,000 euros, or about $5,400, landed in his bank account, just three days after he had submitted an application for immediate assistance. The city-state of Berlin had pledged on March 19 that money would be distributed quickly to self-employed people and small- business owners who were unable to cover their basic expenses.
To the shock of many Berliners, hardened by regular stacks of paperwork from the city’s bureaucracy, it was. On Thursday, just five days after the application process opened, Berlin’s government said it had already paid out more than $1.4 billion to more than 150,000 self-employed individuals or businesses with fewer than five employees.
“We are all pretty amazed,” Mr. Bostedt said in a telephone interview. “It went surprisingly fast and was all refreshingly well-organized.”
Small employers and freelancers like artists, fashion designers, computer programmers, hair stylists, web designers, coffee shop owners and club operators account for a quarter of all business in Berlin. They were too small to qualify for the initial aid from the federal government that was aimed primarily at keeping big business afloat, leading the city to set up a rescue package meant specifically for them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/world/europe/coronavirus-Berlin-self-employed.html