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Why are civil servants in Berlin so bad at their jobs?
You're not wrong, and the wall explanation is part of it but there's a simpler reason that predates reunification. The civil service in Berlin was historically a dumping ground for patronage hires from whichever party controlled the senate. The CDU and SPD both used these offices to reward loyal party members with secure jobs, and once someone is Beamter they are virtually impossible to remove. The city also had a massive hiring freeze in the 2000s because of the bank crisis, so nobody new came in for almost a decade and the existing staff got entrenched. You end up with a culture where the worst people never leave and the competent ones either burn out or move to Brandenburg where at least the Bürgeramt actually has appointments.
The wall thing is real, but there's also a deeper issue with how the city's been run for decades. Berlin has been broke since the 90s, so they froze hiring for years and then when they finally did hire, they had to take whoever applied because the pay is crap compared to private sector. A Sachbearbeiter at the Bürgeramt starts around 2,800 euro gross, which is barely livable in Berlin now. So you get people who couldn't find a job anywhere else, plus the ones who've been there since the 80s and know they can't be fired. The whole system is designed to protect mediocrity.
yeah the wall thing is part of it, a lot of east berlin offices basically absorbed whole teams from the ddr who had zero incentive to change. but also it's just a super safe job once you're in, so the bad ones never get fired and the good ones leave for better pay elsewhere
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What is the correct spelling for a street name that appears differently on multiple signs in Charlottenburg?
Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.
if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point
honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.