If the airline sold the itinerary as a single ticket, it is ridiculous to to vary the allowances throughout the journey, even where there is a stop over. If the airline wants to treat different segments as individual flights within their own rules, then they should sell the tickets as individual journeys. To vary the rules mid journey is just ludicrous.
Air Berlin are a low cost operation in Europe and so have fairly strict luggage allowances. However, variations to rules can be made. For example, I am flying in July from BHX to BOS, via DUB on Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus in Europe is a low cost operation and so have strict luggage allowances. However, for long haul flights it is a normal full service operation and has larger luggage allowances. If you book the flights as a single segment, the connecting flight from BHX to DUB has the larger allowance, despite this segment being flown by the low cost element of their operations. This is not rocket science and is relatively easy to achieve.
So it is important to know if this itinerary was sold as a single ticket. I am also a bit puzzled about the length of time it has taken to make this complaint. Air Berlin are generally not too bad on customer service compared to other low cost operations in Europe.
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