GA English on Sunday News in Brief from Bonn and the region

Bonn/Region. · Several removal orders and referrals were made after police control the Rhine area in Bonn and Beuel, the comet Neowise can be seen particularly well this weekend in the night sky over Bonn and the region, insects reconquer nature at the Südfriedhof in Bonn and the municipal housing association Vebowag is implementing several projects in Bad Godesberg – here is our news in brief on Sunday.

GA English on Sunday: News in Brief from Bonn and the region
Foto: Nicolas Ottersbach

Several removal orders and referrals were made after police control the Rhine area in Bonn and Beuel

Bonn. On Saturday night, the Bonn police and public order office once again carried out checks on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn and Beuel, and in the city centre and on Poppelsdorfer Allee. As on previous weekends, the police paid attention to the Brassertufer and Erzbergerufer, where increasingly more young people and adolescents celebrate loudly into the night in the summer months.

While checking a young man on the Erzbergerufer, officers of the riot police seized a forbidden flick-knife. At Hans-Steger-Ufer in Beuel, a 23-year-old man was taken into custody shortly before midnight because he had failed to comply with a removal order. An hour later, officers encountered several groups of people in Poppelsdorfer Allee, who had congregated on the meadows. Here, however, the security service and the police only had to intervene sporadically because most of the people left voluntarily.

Police officers also controlled the area around the Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz, where predominantly young men, who with high-powered cars were attracting attention by their offensive driving. In one case, a preliminary drugs test was positive and a preliminary investigation was initiated against the driver. In total, 22 removals were made, three criminal charges were filed and several misdemeanours were reported.

Early on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m., a police patrol stopped a car whose driver had attracted attention due to his driving style. During the check, the officers noticed the smell of marijuana and they became suspicious when they noticed that one of the passengers carried a knife in a plastic sheath around his neck. During the inspection, the officers found a small amount of marijuana in the centre console of the rental car. The 27-year-old driver was carrying several thousand euros in cash and there was an axe in the boot. Based on the circumstances and the suspicion of a crime under the narcotics law, the illegal drugs, the cash and the axe were seized and preliminary proceedings were initiated.

(Orignal text; Michael Wrobel)

The comet Neowise can be seen particularly well this weekend in the night sky over Bonn and the region

Bonn/Bornheim. During the short nights at the beginning of July, two phenomena are visible in the night sky over Bonn and the region: glowing clouds and the comet Neowise, which is visible to observers at night due to its descending flight. The weather conditions this weekend with mild temperatures and at times cloudless skies promise to provide good conditions for observing this natural phenomenon. The comet is also circumpolar, which means that it does not sink below the horizon at night. From Bonn, the comet should therefore now be observable in the early hours. Observers must look to the northeast. It is advisable to use using binoculars for optimal viewing, even if the comet is now even visible to the naked eye. Neowise or C/2020 F3 orbits the sun once in 7,000 years. From Earth, about 30 comets are observed each year and from the middle of July, C/2020 F3 will have moved on and can be expected in the night sky between the constellation of the lynx and the big bear.

Before the sun rises, clouds appear to currently shine over Bonn and the region at night. Brandt, the managing director of the Bonn weather service Donnerwetter.de says that it is not really clouds that appear in the night sky at high altitudes. About 80 to 85 kilometres above the Earth's surface in the mesosphere, ice crystals provide the effect of the glowing noctilucent clouds, where the temperature can be minus 100 degrees Celsius. When the sun is at a certain angle to the earth, it illuminates these ice crystals and this is what causes the glow, says Brandt. The glow can take on different colours, but sometimes these glowing noctilucent clouds also look like cirrus clouds to the layman, only much higher in the sky. They can mainly be seen in summer, because only in these weeks the sun stands in the appropriate angle over the region.

To observe both phenomena, it is important to find a dark place. The city lights make it difficult to observe the sky, says Brandt: “Light pollution is also a form of environmental pollution”. That is why observers from the Siebengebirge mountains can probably see the comet better than observers in Bonn.

(Orignal text: Anja Wollschlaeger)

Insects reconquer nature at the Südfriedhof in Bonn

Bonn. On a part of the Südfriedhof (The southern cemetery) in Bonn, insects and micro-organisms are reclaiming nature. Sometimes even the bleating of sheep penetrates the silence. Life and death exist side by side in the Südfriedhof cemetery: on the one hand, mostly well-tended gravesites line the paths between the magnificent trees, on the other hand, nature is allowed to reclaim its own territory. For the last two years, a green oasis has been carefully created in the city’s second-largest cemetery. Many native insect and reptile species have again settled in the area between the railway tracks and Servatiusstraße. Thus, not only is a real biotope gradually being created on the converted meadows, but also a learning and experience space for kindergartens and schools. At the heart of the concept at Südfriedhof are various fields of flowers. On larger areas with expired usage rights, gravestones and borders were removed and flowering meadows were planted instead. There are now areas of mustard and buckwheat over more than 5,000 square metres, as well as plots of bee pasture, rape, poppy and sunflowers. Butterflies, reptiles, amphibians and hedgehogs also find a haven and sufficient food in the tall grasses. Between dead wood and stone walls live stag and musk beetles, wood wasps, tree fungi, woodlice, earwigs, millipedes and spiders. There are also 82 nesting boxes for small birds, tawny owls and bats.

The southern cemetery lies between Dottendorf and Friesdorf and is the second-largest cemetery in Bonn. It is listed and was given its name in 1910 to mark the boundaries of the northern cemetery, which was initially called "Neuer Friedhof" (New Cemetery). It is bordered in the east by the railway line Bonn-Koblenz and in the west by Servatiusstraße, where the main entrance is located. Because of its proximity to the former government quarter, personalities from the fields of business and science are buried there in addition to some politicians from the founding years of the Federal Republic. For example Erich Ollenhauer, Annemarie Renger, Heinrich Krone as well as Hans Riegel, Alexander Koenig, Alfred Bucherer, Theodor Litt and Heinrich Lützeler.

(Orignal text; Gabriele Immenkeppel)

The municipal housing association Vebowag is implementing several projects in Bad Godesberg

Bad Godesberg. Work on the Vebowag house on Brunhildstraße in Mehlem, which began in July 2019, has now been completed. The building, built in 1969, now has a new façade, a new intercom system and new thermal insulation. In addition, the balconies have been transformed into small conservatories, with a window that can be pushed to the side. Vebowag is also active on Dietrichstraße in Godesberg-Nord: a new building with 44 apartments: Next to it, Vebowag has been constructing another new building with 36 subsidised rental apartments since spring. In addition, measures are planned for the Plittersdorfer Stein-Straße (a new building with 31 publicly funded units and access for the handicapped) and Saint-Cloud-Straße in Pennenfeld. Vebowag is also responsible for the construction of the day-care centre in the former American settlement. The municipal housing association had demolished the listed building from the 1950s, which formerly housed the Montessori kindergarten, and replaced it with a new one. The facility will care for 75 children from four months of age in four groups.

According to CEO Michael Kleine-Hartlage, Vebowag invests several million euros annually in new buildings throughout the city; in 2019 the total was 26 million. In addition, 11 to 12 million euros are available for smaller projects. Smaller apartments are easy to market. But: “We definitely need more, because the demand for affordable living space has long been at the same high level.” According to Kleine-Hartlage’s prognosis, the demand will even tend to increase. The reason is that “baby boomers are now reaching retirement age, and since the average pension is 900 euros, we need more subsidised housing”.

The Vereinigte Bonner Wohnungsbau (Vebowag) is a municipal real estate company. To realise affordable housing construction in Bonn is the motto of the municipal construction company. It currently has about 6,300 apartments of its own, of which more than three quarters are subject to rent or occupancy restrictions. The team can still be found at Baunscheidtstraße 15, info@vebowag.de, 0228/91 58 0. The new company headquarters are currently being built on the B 9, shortly before the Godesberg road tunnel.

(Original text; Ayla Jacob)

(Translations John Chandler)

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