Giffey calls on expatriate teachers to return to Berlin

Berlin's governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) has called on teachers who have migrated to return to Berlin. "Come home - it's the most beautiful place here," she said on Monday at the trade union day of the civil servants' association dbb in Berlin. Teachers would be welcomed with open arms. "In recent years we have seen a massive emigration of young, well-trained teachers." However, Berlin cannot afford them to go to other federal states because they are employed there.

After 18 years of hiatus, Berlin was the last federal state to decide to re-enlist teaching staff. This should alleviate the shortage of skilled workers.

Giffey said that until now there had been a "revolving door civil service" - if civil servants in other countries returned to Berlin, they would have had to wait five years in Berlin to be civil servants again. "It has been abolished and teachers can come back immediately."

The law is to be passed in the Berlin House of Representatives in January. According to Giffey, 220 teachers were already sworn in last summer in the capital.

Giffey promised to continue her work undisturbed until the February 12 re-run of the House of Representatives election. "Right now it is of the utmost importance to continue to do one's work, to cope with the crisis, to complete the tasks that lie ahead of us." From the last election one learned: "A referendum, three elections and a marathon at once shouldn't be done again."

Berlin's Constitutional Court had decided that the September 2021 election to the House of Representatives must be repeated in its entirety. The vote was voided due to "severe systemic flaws" and many voting errors. At the same time, one of the world's largest marathons was held in the city.