“I’m Not Hoarding, I’m Archiving,” Says Man With 10,317 U-Bahn Tickets Found in Wedding Basement
Neighbors on Malplaquetstraße reported a “paper humidity” at 6:12 a.m. Tuesday; police say the collection is not illegal, just “emotionally aggressive.”
Public Order & Petty Enforcement Reporter
On Tuesday morning at 6:12 a.m., residents of Malplaquetstraße 17 in Wedding called police after what one tenant described as “a sour, wet-paper smell” seeped through the stairwell like a bad memory. By 7:05 a.m., officers from Abschnitt 35 had entered the building’s basement storage area and found 10,317 used U‑Bahn tickets stacked in labeled shoeboxes, vacuum bags, and—according to the incident log—“one suspiciously intimate satin pillowcase.”
The tickets belonged to Björn Wawrzyniak, 44, a night-shift security guard and self-described “public transport historian,” who rents a one-room apartment on the third floor. Wawrzyniak told The Wedding Times he began collecting tickets in 2016 “after a breakup and a zone change,” initially keeping a handful “for the dates.”
“Then BVG switched designs, and I realized I was witnessing history,” he said at 8:28 a.m., standing in the courtyard beside a Turkish grocery on nearby Nazarethkirchstraße. “People throw away their proof of movement like it means nothing. I keep it. I hold onto it. Some of us still like things you can actually touch.”
A ‘Crime’ With No Victim, Except Everyone’s Nose
Police confirmed no charges have been filed. “Possession of used tickets is not a criminal offense,” said police spokesperson Anja Riemer, who added that officers did, however, request that Wawrzyniak stop “harvesting” tickets from station trash cans during peak hours. “There was stiff resistance from other passengers who wanted to use the bins for their own… refuse,” Riemer said.
A neighbor, Necla Yılmaz, 61, who has lived in the building since 1998, said the collection had altered the basement’s atmosphere. “It’s like living under a library that sweats,” she said. “My pickles started tasting like paper.”
Another tenant, Oliver Brandt, 29, who recently moved from London and described himself as “post-minimalist,” was less sympathetic. “He’s basically doing Walter Benjamin’s ‘Arcades Project,’ but with compostable pulp,” Brandt said. “Also, he keeps asking if I have a ‘fresh one.’”
Market Value: Somewhere Between Art and Evidence
Two BVG fare inspectors interviewed outside the U6 station at Seestraße at 9:14 a.m. said the discovery “raises questions.” One, who identified himself only as Marcel, suggested the cache could be used to practice forgery.
Wawrzyniak denied any intent to counterfeit. “If I wanted to fake tickets, I wouldn’t keep the ones with coffee stains and shame,” he said. He admitted, however, that he sometimes organizes the tickets by “texture and emotional weight,” and called the 2019 heatwave batch “hard to swallow.”
By late morning, building management had issued a letter requesting the basement be “de-papered” within 14 days to prevent mold and “romantic misunderstandings about storage limits.” Wawrzyniak said he is considering a public exhibition in a friend’s renovated former repair shop, now a coworking studio with English signage and a rent that “feels like a threat.”
“If they can call a room full of beanbags an ‘innovation hub,’” he said, “I can call my tickets an archive. At least mine came from people going somewhere.