20 Percent Berlin

And save this date: Wednesday, June 24. Yes, it’s one more 20% Berlin News Quiz before Maurice’s summer holiday in July.

#501: New Goebbels villa owner, Müggelsee island for sale, driverless cars

Andrew Bulkeley — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:06:00 GMT

Where they make new Germans: The Ausländerbehörde on Sellerstr. Photo: Landesamt für Einwanderung

Hey 20 Percent,

And in the end it all went very fast — I am now German.

I sent in the extra documents (and paid my accountant for producing them) on June 2 and woke up Monday, June 8, to an invite to my naturalization yesterday, June 11.

Compared to most Ausländerbehörde interactions, the naturalization was very pleasant and was held in a renovated factory in Wedding.

It felt a little like when I got married at city hall. My wife was there both times but I didn’t wear socks with Birkenstocks at my wedding.

We then celebrated last night with a concert at a venue I didn’t even know existed (Hole 44) — thanks for the tix FluxFM!

The whole process took 8 months and 4 weeks and a little over €1,000. Thanks for accompanying me on this frustrating trip! Looking forward to voting in September!

Have a good weekend.

Andrew

PS: Please come celebrate with me at 100% Funny, the 20% Berlin comedy night at Downstairs Comedy Club June 18! Some of the best comedians from the German and English scenes in one of the few air conditioned venues in Berlin. Tix here.

from our sponsor

Waiting on your residence permit or citizenship application?

You don’t have to.

Get a free case assessment and find out what your options are.

Check out LegalWeg

It will always be the Goebbels villa

A villa that was built for Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels will become a new center for the New York-based Counter Extremism Project, according to RBB24. Star architect Daniel Libeskind, who built the Jewish Museum, will help with the renovations. Several buildings were constructed near the villa north of Berlin near Wandlitz by East Germany and the campus was run as a college and training center for the Communist party. The site has been empty since 2000 and the city-state of Berlin, as the owner, was willing to hand it to the right potential owner. The German army is likely to take over the remaining buildings as part of its expansion following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For sale: Müggelsee island

While the Goebbels villa may finally have a new owner, Treptow-Köpenick is worried what the new owner of a 16,000 square meter island in Müggelsee might build. Germany currently owns Müggelwerder, as the island is known, and is seeking bids, according to RBB24. It was home to a hotel in pre-war Germany and later became home to East German scientific institutions but is now a protected preserve and is being slowly absorbed by nature. Treptow-Köpenick mayor Oliver Igel (SPD) said his government would do all it could to prohibit large-scale construction by any new owners.

Driverless cars? On our Straßen?

The Technical University of Munich early this month ran three tests of its autonomous Edgar vehicle in Berlin in hopes of introducing driverless cars to the Hauptstadt’s busy streets, according to T-Online. BVG and VW unit Moia hope to soon introduce driverless vehicles to Berlin, though experts say it isn’t likely until 2028 at the earliest. The BVG tested autonomous buses in Tegel but it was quicker to walk. TUM’s Edgar drove from the Federal transport ministry on Invalidenstrasse in Mitte to Radialsystem in Friedrichshain along the Spree three times without incident.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

✈️ France and Germany ground joint fighter

🍕 Ludwigshafen baker takes pizza crown

💩 Neo-Nazi loses election, but only just

Factoid

But will they like Club Mate? Photo: Fischereiamt Berlin

Berlin releases up to 1 million eels in local waterways each year to counteract global poaching operations. 200,000 young eels were relased early this month in the Havel and just as many elsewhere at a cost of €138,000 — they’ll live here for up to 14 years before heading out to the Sargasso Sea to reproduce. Asian poachers have fished the slimy sea creatures nearly into extinction as diners clamor for their meat.

📯📯Postkutsche 📯 📯

Reader Andrew writes:

The World Cup is coming up, and people are pretty annoyed with everything around it right now - the politics, the money, the general bullshit. As a kind of opposition, we’ve put together a collective football festival which is putting on stage people who are actually doing interesting things in football in Berlin and around Europe: people who do it out of passion, for good reasons, but also combine the grassroots work with creativity and culture in mind. Link to the project here.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

🎙️ Episode 35 of the 20% Berlin Podcast just dropped. Andrew and I discuss Björn Höcke, NIUS ads, Görli, Hermannplatz and the Mietspiegel.

#500: Uber, BVG, NIUS, raves, podcast

Maurice Frank — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:04:47 GMT

The elevators in the chamber of industry and commerce’s armadillo-shaped building. Photo: IHK Berlin

Dear 20 Percent,

We did it. 500 issues of this newsletter. Thanks to our readers, paid subscribers and many loyal sponsors. And to my co-founder, co-writer Andrew Bulkeley aka Drew Portnoy, who had the idea when we lost our jobs as English editors at Berliner Zeitung nearly 5 years ago.

❤️ Please like, comment, share. Or visit our sponsors. Or upgrade to paid. It all helps. And maybe we’ll reach 1,000 issues without burning out! ❤️

News below!

Maurice

sponsored

Having a sense of community in Berlin is difficult.

Especially for internationals in their 20s to 40s.

No close friends that you can trust and no group that has your back.

That’s why we created Inner Circle.

A curated group of 8 expats who meet regularly.

You meet the same people and have deep conversations, over time, they become people you can rely on.

This is the final call for the June cohort. There are 3 spots left.

Apply now to join.

Uber loses in court

Uber drivers in Berlin will have to return to their home bases in Brandenburg (where most of their vehicles are registered) after each ride unless they get a new booking en route. In a fresh decision, the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) upheld the "obligation to return” for ride-hailing services like Uber and Bolt. The law aims to protect the taxi industry from unfair competition. Over the last few years, Uber sub-contractors moved most of their fleets to Brandenburg to avoid Berlin inspectors who had found numerous violations of labour and tax regulations in the business. However, the “obligation to return” clause seems like a lot of unnessary driving and pollution, and I’m sure the algorithms will find a way around it.

BVG axes far-right media ads

Earlier this month, BVG passengers understandably began complaining that Germany’s version of Fox News, NIUS (pronounced “news”), had begun advertising in the U-Bahn. BVG said the ads were booked by an external agency and that it had to accept all ads that weren’t illegal. On Friday, BVG changed course after NIUS editor-in-chief Julian Riechelt posted the phrase, “We are becoming increasingly popular with both of the sexes” in the style of the aforementioned ad campaign. BVG saw the reference to “both of the sexes” as “unlawful” and ordered the agency to end the campaign. I fear that the whole affair has generated more attention for NIUS than just letting them run their ads.

Parks trashed by May Day raves

Large parties in Hasenheide, Görlitzer Park and Treptower Park on May 1 inflicted serious damage upon the green spaces, according to a statement by the city government in reponse to a question submitted by the Greens. In Hasenheide, a lawn that was redone in 2025 was thoroughly trampled and trashed by a rave that was registered as a political event. Berzirksamt Neukölln estimates it would cost €35,000 to repair the damage but that money isn’t in the budget right now. Then there’s next year.

sponsored

Flat hunting season is picking up — competition included.

With more people searching, speed and consistency matter more than ever. Get The Flat applies to listings for you, increasing your chances while saving you time.

79€ / month, 7-day money-back guarantee.

Get started >>

Wedding club given a lifeline

I have a soft spot for Humboldthain Club since I once threw an Exberliner party there. Housed in the bowels of Humboldthain S-Bahn station, with a garden right next to the tracks, it’s the kind of interesting space that makes Berlin what it is. A hotel project planned a few metres away could threaten the venue because guests would complain about the noise. Now Mitte’s district council (Bezirksverordnetenversammlung) has passed a resolution that requires the developer to sufficiently soundproof the yet-to-be-built hotel’s walls to prevent noise complaints that could threaten the club. With stagnant tourist numbers, why not just slow down new hotel construction?

Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin

🐦‍⬛ Kyiv Biennial: A Bird That Cannot Land
Opening: Wednesday, from 7 pm · Exhibion runs until 13.09 · KW, Auguststraße 69 · Wed–Mon 11am–7pm · €10/6
The tenth Kyiv Biennial fills the entire KW with work made under wartime conditions - exile, migrant memory, coloniality. Hatoum, Steyerl, Samia Halaby, Hiwa K. Live program runs opening weekend.

🔉 Berlin Beats: Kikelomo
Thursday 11.06 · 7 pm · Hamburger Bahnhof garden, Invalidenstraße 50–51 · free Kikelomo opens Berlin Beats' summer season in a free open-air DJ series in the museum garden. Bar, street food, no door.

🎭 MEXA: Reality Show
Friday–Saturday 12 and 13.06 · 7 pm · Sophiensaele, Sophienstraße 18 · €10-25
German premiere of a live elimination game: the audience votes characters out one by one until only one remains. MEXA builds a piece about participation, complicity and how quickly collective logic overrides individual judgment. One of the most discussed theater pieces in Berlin this month, according to everyone who's seen it elsewhere

🎹 Adam Winchester (live)
Sunday 14.06 · 8:30 pm · Donau115, Donaustraße 115 · donation-based
Winchester uses the mixer as an instrument - applying dub techniques to experimental electronics, modular synthesis, and manipulated samples in real time. Roots in Bristol dubstep (Wedge), collaborations with Amon Düül II and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

✈️ Germany pulls the plug on French-German fighter project

🎙️ Podcast: The jailing of Germany’s most wanted woman

🚘 Germany’s toxic car culture

🛣️ Hitler’s 70 km ghost motorway

Factoid

While optimism lives on in the city’s flourishing start-up scene, the wider business community is not happy right now, according to a new survey of 830 companies carried out by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK). The organisation’s Business Climate Index sank to 100, down from 105 last year. The report notes that, “This number only fell lower during the 2009 financial crisis, the 2020 Covid crisis and the 2022 energy crisis.” IHK boss Manja Schreiner commented: “Rather than a temporary infection that can be quickly overcome, Berlin’s economy now appears to be grappling with a long-term illness. The combination of weak demand, high costs and declining investment is undermining the city’s long-term competitiveness.” How can Berlin get back on track? “Politicians must finally get serious about cutting red tape,” Schreiner said.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

🎤 Andrew’s 100% funny English comedy night at Downstairs Comedy on June 18th

#35: Björn Höcke is a West German and Görli is open around-the-clock

Andrew Bulkeley — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:54:35 GMT

We’ve decided to start talking a little about national news as well as Berlin happenings. So we did.

Our cover picture today is from Tim Reckmann via Creative Commons.

#499: Another BVG accident, lesbian housing project, Covid aid repayment, Apple dev center

Maurice Frank — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 11:13:02 GMT

Every June since 1976, cyclists have taken over the autobahns in the Sternfahrt. Photo: ADFC

Dear 20 Percent,

Andrew’s in Amsterdam so I’ve taken on the Friday shift here at the 20% Berlin newsroom.

Late May, early June is allergy time for me. I’ve been sneezing for a week now.

According to Berlin’s pollen count page, it’s grasses that are causing havoc in my respiratory system right now.

The ratiopharm Pollen-Radar mobile app is more detailed. There, I learned that Ampfer (sorrel), Eibe (yew), Eiche (oak), and Esche (ash) are also blooming in Berlin. Unfortunately, it’s only in German but a brief lesson in German botanical terms never hurt anyone.

Photo: RJA Meijer, CC-by-SA GFDL

Apropos nature in our midst, tis the season of the Eichenprozessionsspinner, (oak processionary), a moth species whose larvae are poisonous. Right now you’ll see their webs crawling with critters spun in trees and bushes throughout Berlin. Thanks to climate change, populations are migrating northwards. Achtung, the older, hairier caterpillars can cause rashes, eye irritations, sore throats and breathing difficulties in people and animals. The threat should end in about two weeks, experts say.

News below.

Maurice

Join us at this upcoming 20% Berlin events:

🧠 I’m hosting one more 20% Berlin News Quiz before my summer break (really) on June 24th.

from our partner

Having a sense of community in Berlin is difficult.

Especially for internationals in their 20s to 40s.

No close friends that you can trust and no group that has your back.

That’s why we created Inner Circle.

A curated group of 8 expats who meet regularly.

You meet the same people and have deep conversations, over time, they become people you can rely on.

The next cohort launches at the end of June and there are limited spots available.

Apply now to join.

Bus accident

Not a great week for BVG safety. On Tuesday, a tram derailment in Hohenschönhausen resulted in 20 injuries. On Thursday, 16 people were injured when a BVG bus driver slammed on the brakes in response to a 63-year-old in a car changing lanes on Johannisthaler Chaussee. The car driver is suspected to have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In other transport news: Don’t bother driving anywhere Sunday morning. It’s the Sternfahrt (above). And this: On June 15, the S15 line will begin shuttling passengers between Gesundbrunnen and Hauptbahnhof via Wedding. Nine years later then planned.

Lesbian housing project opening soon

The paint is drying at “Germany’s first lesbian housing project” behind Kino International in Mitte, reports taz. Rat und Tat, the non-profit behind the building, says it is renting out 74 apartments out to queer and lesbian people. Residents move in this month and all units are rented. The first floor will house Berlin’s “first lesbian assisted living flat share”. The ground floor has a cafe and culture centre. The organisers have launched a Go Fund Me to pay for equipment they still need. I think we need thousands of more inter-generational projects like this that address both the housing and maybe loneliness crises in one swoop.

Covid emergency aid must be repaid

The self-employed who spent the pandemic in Germany might remember the emergency aid payments that pretty much anyone could get by filling out a simple online form. Now the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg (OVG) has ruled that the Investment Bank of Brandenburg (ILB) was justified in demanding the repayment of emergency aid from three businesspeople. They had applied for the aid in early 2020, expecting it to be a one-time, non-repayable grant. However, the aid was granted under a new directive that included a repayment clause. The recipients accuse the ILB of poor communication about the new directive, which sounds about right to me. The decision provides legal certainty for about 70 ongoing similar cases. The court also has jurisdiction over Berlin and could affect disputes over repayments in the city.

Apple dev center

A little boost for the Berlin tech scene: Apple’s opening up its first European developer center in Mitte. It will “offer developers throughout Europe even greater access to Apple experts and events, and a more direct way to learn about the latest Apple tools, technologies, and resources”.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🤦‍♂️ Germany fails in its bid for a seat on the UN Security Council

🤔 Former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Moscow?

👛 German asylum benefits cuts violate EU law, top court rules

⚽ Germany World Cup team guide

Factoid

Neukölln’s new Hindu temple dedicated to Ganesha opened at Hasenheide on Sunday. The project began in 2005 and cost €1.1 million, which was raised entirely through donations.

🪶🪶🪶Please visit our sponsor🪶🪶🪶

🚗 Accidents don’t just happen to “bad drivers”

Even the most careful drivers face risks every day. Hit-and-runs. Hailstorms. A deer on a country road. Someone crashing into your parked car.

That’s why the right car insurance matters.

With Feather, you can get cover that meets the legal requirements to register your car in Germany and gives you support when things don’t go to plan.

Why choose Feather car insurance?

✓ Bring your driving history with you. We recognize no-claims histories from many countries. And if you don’t have driving history from within Europe, we can still apply a claims-free discount equivalent to three years.

✓ Start with a better SF no-claims class. Many expats can begin at SF3 instead of SF0, which could lower premiums by 40–50% compared to other insurance companies.

✓ Travel with confidence. Your cover goes with you throughout the European Union.

✓ Need to register your car soon? We’ll send your eVB number electronically after signup, so you can move forward straight away instead of waiting for documents to arrive by post.

✓ Everything in English. From signup to claims, every step is in a language you understand.

A small collision can still cost thousands in repairs.

👉 Drive with more peace of mind. Get a non-binding quote with Feather today.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

📉Why is Poland booming and Eastern Germany falling behind?

#498: Tram accident, Görli open at night, poverty up

Maurice Frank — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:54:36 GMT

Photo: me

Dear 20 Percent,

The southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg has passed new restrictions on outdoor smoking. No more lighting up or vaping at pools, zoos, transport stops and, er, playgrounds.

Germany is ridiculously behind in the smoking debate. And Berlin’s attempts to cut down on public smoking are lacklustre at best. At my S-Bahn stop a sign at the entrance announces, “This is a non-smoking station” in very small lettering but then offers a demarcated smoking area on the platform over which a small “no smoking” sign hangs.

So which is it? Why no clarity? Of course, this being Berlin, people smoke everywhere on the platform anyway, even if my small kids are right next to them. Why? Because of many Berliners’ who-gives-a-shit attitude. But also because (like the new €250 fine for dropping a cigarette butt on the ground) no one is going to enforce these rules.

Germany, land of rules. Berlin, city of ignoring them.

Which I guess this is something I also kinda like about Berlin, but not in this case.

Tram accident

Around 9:30am on Tuesday morning a tram went off the tracks in the eastern neighbourhood of Hohenschönhausen, according to the Morgenpost. Twenty people were injured. Three suffered “serious injuries”. Twelve people including the driver were treated in hospital. According to initial reports from the fire department, the tram collided with an overhead line pole whilst negotiating a bend. The right-hand side of the vehicle was ripped open and the rear section derailed. Something’s definitely missing from the story. How does a tram just crash into a electricity pole?

Görli gates open for now

On Monday, the Berlin Administrative Court ruled that Görlitzer Park must remain open around the clock, and the park did in fact remain open Monday night. The court granted an injunction filed by five local residents who challenged mayor Kai Wegner’s (CDU) administration’s order to lock the park gates at night on security grounds. The ruling technically applies only to the five plaintiffs, but their lawyer argued it would be impractical to open the park only for them. Area residents say closing the park at night only shifts the drug dealing and associated crime to nearby streets. The judge said the city government, the Senat, didn’t have the authority to close a park since the management of green spaces falls under the responsibility of the districts. The court will deliver a binding verdict later in the trial — and this “emergency” decision is already being challenged by the Senat.

Another big exit

On Monday, local content management company Contentful announced it was being acquired by US software giant Salesforce for an undisclosed amount. Contentful was valued at €3 billion in 2021 so you can imagine the price tag. Salesforce exec Jujhar Singh said: “With Contentful, we complete that picture by adding a native, headless, composable content layer that lets Agentforce dynamically assemble and deliver personalised experiences across every channel, at the speed and scale the AI era demands.” Can somebody translate? Say what you want about 20% Berlin, but we’re not “headless”. North American tech has been shopping around in Berlin this year: Uber nabbed chaffeur app Blacklane in April, medical marijuana startup Sanity was acquired by a Canadian company in March.

Meanwhile, in the world of normal people

Tech bros aside, inequality continues to grow in the capital, reports Tagesspiegel. According to a new report by NGO Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband, the percentage of Berliners who are “at risk of poverty” rose to 18.7% in 2025 from 16.5% in 2024. People whose income is less than 60 per cent of the median income are considered to be “at risk of poverty”. Among the 16 federal states, Bavaria has the lowest poverty rate (12.6%) while in Bremen it’s a whopping 27.5%. We Berliners love to trash the Bavarians but it seems they’re doing something right.

Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin

🎤 Tricky
Thursday 04.06 · 8 pm · Huxleys Neue Welt, Hasenheide 107–113 · €40–50
The Bristol voice that spent thirty years rejecting the trip-hop label he helped create. A Tricky show is always a surprise, sometimes a bad one. Worth the risk. 🎧 Different When It's Silent

🎺 Museum Island Festival Fri–Sun 05–07.06 · from 2 pm · Museumsinsel · €16/day Three days of music, theatre, jazz and performances celebrating 150 years of Alte Nationalgalerie. Mousse T closes Sunday.

🪩 The Continuous Present w/ Objekt
Friday 05.06 · 11 pm · Tresor / Globus, Köpenicker Straße 70 · €22
Tresor's quarterly series devoted to artists working in the now, not as a trend. Objekt, Selessa T and Radart live in the Globus; OCCA, LDS, AMORAL, KUSS and dérive in the Tresor.

🎻 Candice Breitz: A Song for Esther
Sat–Sun 06–07.06 · 7:30 pm · HAU1, Stresemannstraße 29 · €17–29 · EN with DE surtitles
Candice Breitz's tribute to Esther Bejarano, the Auschwitz orchestra survivor who turned the song forced on her into seventy years of anti-fascist hip-hop. Peaches, Rasha Nahas and Aeham Ahmad among those playing one song outside their usual range.

🎶 Kaleidoscope — The Unscripted Musical* Sunday, 14 June, Monbijou Theater. Tickets from €5 Open air at Monbijou. The Spree to your right, the sun going down, a live band playing songs that didn’t exist this morning. Kaleidoscope makes up a full musical from scratch every night. One audience suggestion, no script, no second chances. Laughter and delight, all in English. Don’t miss this one!

*sponsored

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

👨‍⚖️ Trial of ‘Ulm 5’ activists: How Germany is dealing with its Palestine Action case

🔌 Why does Germany have such high electricity prices?

Factoid

Photo: Charité

I just found out that Charité was ranked the 7th best hospital in the entire world by Newsweek, the second best in Europe after Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset in Stockholm. I shouldn’t surprised but I am since I’m so used to so many things in Berlin being subpar. Charité was founded in 1710 as a quarantine facility for victims of the plague outside the city limits at the time. I've undergone eye surgery at Charité’s Wedding campus and my only complaint was the food. Read up on its history here.

Please visit our sponsor

Believe in an artist? Help them be discovered.

Do you know an artist whose talent, dedication, and practice should have made them famous by now — but hasn’t?

If so, please share this link with them: museumforarainyday.com/berlin

We’re currently accepting proposals for a permanent exhibition of paintings, prints, illustrations, and photography.

The Museum For A Rainy Day’s People’s Gallery is opening soon for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Free to the artist. Free to the public.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

🔫 Kreuzberg terrorist gets 15 years for robberies

#497: Spätis open Sundays?, more sewage, no gun at Tempelhofer Feld

Andrew Bulkeley — Fri, 29 May 2026 11:22:40 GMT

In Berlin, laws are really just suggestions. Photo: Magnus Hagdorn

Dear 20 Percent,

The German Spaziergang, or walk, is something else. I’ve been trying to meet with friends and acquaintances more regularly (the 495th Birthday Party last week was great for this) and I hit up another comedian for a beer or a coffee Tuesday.

“Let’s go for a walk,” he said. You have to talk on walks, he said. I like to talk with beer too, I countered.

I walk every day in hopes of battling various mental and physical ailments and so agreed. I thought he’d beg off after a few hundred meters but how naive I was. Any other nationality would have called what we did a hike and brought blister pads, snacks and plenty of water.

We just set off, completely unprepared. I’m pretty confident we saw every corner of the Tiergarten.

Even after two decades of marriage and nearly 30 years on and off in this country the natives can still surprise me.

“Ugh,” he said as we parted ways. “Now I have to take a bus home.”

I laughed. Because I walked.

Have a good weekend!

Andrew

PS: Did I say comedian? 100% Funny, the 20percent.berlin comedy night, is back June 18 at Berlin’s best standup club: Downstairs Comedy Club. Vincent Pfäfflin, Žana Fejzić, Dan Stern, Dinara Kerey and Masud Akbarzadeh hosted by 20percent.berlin’s own Andrew Bulkeley. TICKETS HERE.

Should Spätis open Sundays too?

While neither the ad-free and no-cars-inside-the-ring referendums gained enough signatures to make it on September’s ballot, here’s one most (if not all) of us can get behind: a referendum to allow Spätis to open on Sundays. I mean, mine all flout the rules and open anyway but Alper Baba, head of the Berlin Späti club (yes, there’s even a club for Spätis!), hopes to launch a referendum to alter Berlin’s store opening laws, according to RBB24. Only owners, not employees, would be allowed to tend the stores on Sonntage since most are owner-operated. A current mosaic of laws and court decisions allows some Spätis to open if they also have a bar license. Or, like the ones in my neighborhood, they just open.

from our sponsor

Recyclies.com offers a sustainable and flexible bicycle subscription exclusively for Berliners. By giving high-quality bikes a second life, we actively reduce waste and promote eco-friendly urban mobility.

Starting at just €13.95 per month, our hassle-free service eliminates the upfront costs and maintenance headaches of ownership. Every subscription includes free repairs, theft protection, and a lock, ensuring you stay moving without the stress. With convenient options for home delivery or store pickup at Mehringdamm 27, plus customizable extras like child seats or baskets, Recyclies provides a reliable, truly unique, and planet-friendly cycling experience.

Median rents up €0.50 per m²

Great, it’s worse. The median rent rose 7% in the past two years, according to RBB24, as politicians continue to do nothing to counteract the city-state’s housing problem. The official median cold rent (without amenities like heat and water) rose to €7.71 per square meter from €7.21 according to the government’s Mietspiegel (rent index). The figure is important because it’s the basis for legal limits on rent increases (landlords can only raise rent 15% in three years but not beyond the rent index), though increases or exceptions for location, condition and year of construction further complicate calculations.

No gun, no bomb

Thursday was an unsatisfying day to be a cop. About 100 officers raced to Tempelhofer Feld about 1pm after a woman reported an armed man amidst a group involved in fisticuffs, according to RBB24. The officers closed off parts of the park as well as several exits but were unable to find the suspect — despite the help of a helicopter. Then, about 9pm, someone called in a bomb threat for Terminal 2 at BER. Officers from the federal as well as Brandenburg police responded but were unable to find any traces of explosives, according to the Morgenpost. The officers closed Terminal 2 and all flights were transferred to Terminal 1. The all-clear was given about 2am and detectives are now investigating the call.

from our partner

Saving money doesn't have to mean giving up the things you enjoy. In the latest issue of Smart Living in Germany, a newsletter that helps English speakers in Germany get more value for money, you'll find a free month of coworking and coffee, unlimited mobile data plan for €18.70 a month, and free supermarket products you can get through money-back promotions. Each issue is carefully curated and includes only the most worthwhile deals. Subscribe here.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🛒 Are self-service stores the rural answer?

📉 The economy is worse too

Factoid

Some of yours, some of mine, some of your neighbor’s. Photo: Berliner Wasserbetriebe | Dennis Klehr

The Berliner Wasserbetriebe, Berlin’s water utility, last year gathered 3% less sewage but sold 1% more drinking water, which seems odd but they gave no reason. To be fair, recent years have been so consistently sh*tty that a 3% difference would be hard to notice. They also increased their investment to renew and build new infrastructure to €543.7 million, much to my shagrin because they usurp several blocks for their construction sites and then maybe three dudes sort of work a couple days a week for YEARS (we have four in my neighborhood right now and basically nothing happens).

🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️ Visit our sponsor! 🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️

Hey Berliners, ready to go out in nature around Berlin?

On June 6-7, 2026, join us for the Löwenmarsch Berlin 2026, a 24-hour social impact hike across Berlin-Brandenburg, from Eberswalde to Wannsee.

YOU choose YOUR distance: from a chilled 15 km hike to the 100 km challenge!

Participation is free, just like the water and food provided at each station.

All proceeds go to Learning Lions, providing tech education to young people in rural Kenya.

By becoming an Impact Partner, your club/NGO can gather funds for its own project.

Ready to hike for impact? Assemble your team and REGISTER NOW!

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

🤖 Germany launches competition to build frontier AI model

#496: Grindr robbery, more BER flights wanted, repair bonus

Maurice Frank — Tue, 26 May 2026 10:46:38 GMT

From here to, well, not really anywhere. Photo: Gemeinsame Obere Luftfahrtbehörde Berlin-Brandenburg

Dear 20 Percent,

With the Berlin state elections in September rapidly approaching, some are asking how expats, immigrants, internationals, whatever you wanna call ‘em, can get more involved in local politics.

On Thursday, Volt Berlin will be hosting a lunchtime online discussion titled “No German, No Problem? How to shape politics in Berlin”. I'll be one of the panelists.

In the words of the organisers:

“If you live here, work here, pay taxes here — you have a stake in what happens here. And there are more ways to get involved than most people realize.”

We’d love to see you there.

Maurice

🎙️ Thanks to everyone who came out Friday evening for our podcast recording at Geist im Glas. The podcast from the event is out now! For our next event we're bringing back the 20% Comedy Night at Downstairs Comedy Club!

🙏 A big shout out to today’s sponsors, Grape Odyssey and Museum for a Rainy Day. More from them below.

Grindr robbery

A 32-year-old Berlin musician was assaulted after he invited a man to his apartment via the dating app Grindr. Three men showed up. In an Instagram post, Leopold describes how the men insulted, threatened and assaulted him, took his phone and wallet — and made humiliating videos. The incident is part of a rising trend in Berlin, where attackers use dating apps to target victims from the LGBTQ+ community. Lisa Knack, the spokesperson for queer policy in the Berlin CDU parliamentary group, recommends meeting in public places initially and telling a trusted person about it.

The long-haul flights Berliners want

The most popular destinations last year (with at least one trasnfer) in terms of passenger numbers. Graphic: Tagesspiegel

BER aiport only offers direct flights to eight long-haul destinations: New York, Montreal, Toronto (go Canada!), Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Beijing. For years, politicians from Berlin and eastern Germany have been calling on the federal government to allow more landing slots at the capital’s airport for foreign airlines. The federal government has so far refused to do so, primarily to protect Germany’s flaghsip carrier, Lufthansa, which maintains hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Lufthansa says there’s not enough demand for direct intercontinental flights from Berlin, but new data unearthed by Tagesspiegel suggests otherwise. For example, last year 64,182 passengers flew to Bangkok, via hubs, enough passengers to justify a direct flight.

A third of the repair bonus goes to the bank

Every year Berlin earmarks €1.25 million for what’s known as the “repair bonus”. Citizens can apply for the subsidy to get their broken electrical appliances and devices fixed. The idea is to reduce e-waste, which is costly to dispose of and an ecological burden. Unfortunately, it turns out that the state-owned Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) that manages the programme ate up a third of the budget to cover administrative costs (paywall). The things people most commonly used the repair bonus for were washing machines, laptops, dishwashers and phones. Last year the budget was used up by June, so apply for your 2026 repair bonus right now.

from our partner

🍷Discover more than 100+ wines at Grape Odyssey 🍷

Grape Odyssey returns to Berlin on May 31!

Join us in exploring natural wines from Slovenia and its neighbouring countries: Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia.

Taste 100+ unique wines; sparkling, white, orange, rosé and red. Meet 30+ independent producers and understand their approach and process that makes them stand out.

In addition to tasting wines, we’ll have a bio grill by Piechas (vegan, vegetarian and meat options), local cheeses and regional specialities as well as coffee by Antibarist to help cleanse your palate.

And, of course, there will be live DJs playing throughout the day and night while you work your way through the wines.

Many of our winemakers are not yet represented in Berlin, so don’t miss out on these wines. Join the Odyssey!

Location: Kühlhaus Berlin, Luckenwalder Str. 3

11am trade | 12pm public | 6pm afterparty until 10pm

Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin

🎸 LALALAR *live
Thursday 28.05 · 7:30 pm · Gretchen, Obentrautstr. 19-21 · €12/18/24
Istanbul's underground crosses into club territory: hypnotic basslines, distorted electronics, guitars oscillating between punk, techno and Anatolian psychedelia.

🎞️ Doxumentale ‘26
27.05–07.06 · multiple venues across Berlin · day tickets €15 + festival passes from €60
Berlin’s documentary storytelling festival returns with around 50 films, including 3 world premieres, plus book readings, live podcasts, and a VR + games exhibition at The Playce. Strong thread this year on Iran, colonial reckoning, AI, and migration. The Dx’Lounge format crosses documentary with club culture: To Dance is to Resist at Kater on Friday, 29, on the queer Ukrainian dance scene during the war.

🎷XJAZZ! Weekender 2026
Fri-Sun, 29-31.05 · from 6 pm · Festsaal Kreuzberg, Emmauskirche, Sonnenraum · day passes available · €25–99
Moor Mother and Lonnie Holley on the same bill is the kind of pairing that doesn't need context - noise poetry meeting outsider blues. Also: Alabaster DePlume, Joy Guidry, Moses Yoofee Trio. Runs through Sunday.

🎺 Yoga in the sculpture garden Sat, 30.05 · 9:30 am · Potsdamer Str. 50 · €20 Open-air yoga at the Neue Nationalgalerie with Fujiko Nakaya's fog sculpture as backdrop.

🍴 Onette One Year Sun, 31.05 · Grunewaldstr. 11 Celebrate 1 year of Schöneberg's coziest luncheonette with free mimosas 10am–3pm & hot dogs from 5-9pm.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🏭 Germany should wake up to China shock 2.0

🏪 Self-service stores for rural Germany?

🖊️ Notes on German bureaucracy

📺 German nudism on the way out?

Factoid

More than a million people partied at the Karnveal der Kulturen at the weekend, both at the street market in Kreuzberg as well as in the parade along Frankfurter Allee and Karl-Marx-Allee on Sunday. The party began 30 years ago as an event celebrating diversity following the brutal attack on an asylum-seeker home in Rostock in 1992 and other racist violence in the early 1990s.

from our partner

Believe in an artist? Help them be discovered.

Do you know an artist whose talent, dedication, and practice should have made them famous by now — but hasn’t?

If so, please share this link with them: museumforaraindayday.com/berlin

We’re currently accepting proposals for a permanent exhibition of paintings, prints, illustrations, and photography.

The Museum For A Rainy Day’s People’s Gallery is opening soon for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Free to the artist. Free to the public.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

#34: LIVE Taping during 495th birthday

Andrew Bulkeley — Tue, 26 May 2026 10:07:42 GMT

Huge shout out to Oliver, Carl, Walter, Denzel and Izzy (from Radio Spätkauf) for their contributions to the live recording. Maurice likes some neighborhood Italian in Neukölln and I like Kino Central. Here’s to the next 495 issues! Picture is thanks Zuhause am Tempelhofer Feld

#495: Shots in Kreuzberg, Ebola in Berlin, building on Tempelhof

Andrew Bulkeley — Fri, 22 May 2026 11:21:17 GMT

Photo: Beto Ruiz Alonso

Hey 20 Percent,

I can’t believe I’ve written 247.5 newsletters since we launched 20percent.berlin nearly five (5!) years ago. What a crazy ride it’s been. And while I’d like to congratulate my partner in this, Maurice, I’d also like to thank you, our readers for sticking with us.

My first love was Star Wars but news may be my second and I’m very glad to have carved out this niche in this ever-changing city.

We are of course celebrating our 495th issue tonight at Geist im Glas in Kreuzberg starting at 7pm. We’ll first record this week’s podcast LIVE followed by mingling or networking or whatever it’s called these days. I’m going to try to do only limited drinking.

If I can’t thank you in person tonight then I’m thanking you now. Here’s to another 495 issues.

Andrew

PS: 100% Funny, the 20percent.berlin comedy night, is back June 18 at Berlin’s best standup club: Downstairs Comedy Club. Vincent Pfäfflin, Žana Fejzić, Dan Stern, Dinara Kerey and Masud Akbarzadeh hosted by 20percent.berlin’s own Andrew Bulkeley. TICKETS HERE.

sponsored

Planning a move before summer? Now’s the time to start.

The best flats go fast — especially heading into summer. Get The Flat helps you stay ahead by applying to listings for you, with tailored messages that get responses.

It’s €79 / month with a 7-day money-back guarantee.

Join now >>

One patient is not an epidemic, Andrew

We started this newsletter during the Covid epidemic and now Berlin has at least one Ebola patient — an American doctor who caught the terrifying disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Tagesspiegel. The doctor was flown in early Wednesday and is being treated in a special isolation ward at the Charite hospital’s Virchow campus in Wedding. The doctor is a medical missionary, according to Reuters, and caught the disease during a current outbreak that is suspected of killing 131. His wife and four children tested negative for the virus but are also being observed under quarantine in Berlin. The US asked Germany for assistance because the flight to Germany would be shorter than to the US.

The latest idea for Tempelhof

Solution or sucky? Kollhoff’s plans for Tempelhof. Graphic: Zuhause am Tempelhofer Feld

Consider it early campaigning for September’s Berlin election: Celebrity architect Hans Kollhoff and real estate developer Hamid Djadda presented an alternative plan Wednesday for building 21,400 apartments on Tempelhofer Feld, 30% of which would be for low-income renters, according to RBB24. The apartments would be built using standard processes and materials to accelerate approval and construction while lowering costs — and occupy one-third of the former airport’s land. Berlin voters in 2014 prohibited any new construction at the former airport through a referendum that then became law. Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) has pledged to launch a new referendum to lift the moratorium and the current Berlin government launched its own design competition that yielded six concepts for Tempelhof’s future. To build or not to build will be a common refrain during this year’s election.

Shots fired (on Urbanstrasse)

My grandmother grew up in Chicago during prohibition and said she once had to leap under a restaurant table for protection because Al Capone’s gang was in a gun battle on the street. And about 12.30pm Wednesday, a would-be assassin on a scooter shot into a VW on Urbanstrasse in X-Berg, apparently hoping to hit the driver, according to Tagessspiegel. The five men in the car were unharmed and belong to Berlin’s Remmo crime family. Police were unable to find the shooter but stopped the VW and took the four remaining men in the car into protective custody. Shots are fired almost daily in Berlin and police say the violence is linked to territorial battles as well as attempts to extort protection money.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

👴🏽 Is 70 the new 67? Retirement age going up?

🕵️ Chinese spies? IN GERMANY?

🔫 Iranian assassins charged

Factoid

Developers built almost half as many apartments and houses last year in Berlin as Kollhoff is proposing to build at Tempelhof, or about a third less than in 2024, according to the Berlin-Brandenburg statistics office. 11,027 residences were completed in Berlin last year including 9,524 flats and 804 single- or rowhouses, down from 14,632 in 2024. The last two Berlin administrations have pledged to boost the annual number of new apartments to at least 20,000 and have proposed various laws but have obviously made little progress — they have yet to even come near the 20,000 goal.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

#494: Nightlife zones, smaller school classes, queer burial site, cleaner S-Bahn, new festival

Maurice Frank — Tue, 19 May 2026 10:37:27 GMT

Chillin’ at BSR recycling

Dear 20 Percent,

I was transporting my two children in our cargobike when one of those giant police vans turned right in front of me, cutting me off. A close call. Thankfully, the kids didn’t notice a thing. But it scared the daylights out of me.

Polizei Berlin, if you’re reading this, could you think about giving your people a refresher course on sharing the road?

The experience made me want to get a car. 😱

News below.

Maurice

💡If you haven’t checked out Handpicked’s Salary Trends 2026 Report yet, do give it a look. When it comes to pay, I definitely chose the wrong profession: Media/culture are near the bottom of the table. At least I love my job.

❤️ Thanks to this issue’s sponsors, Grape Odyssey and Feather Insurance

Later outdoor drinking in “nightlife quarters”

Berlin’s districts have expressed doubts about economy minister Fransiska Giffey’s (SPD) plans to allow bars to serve customers outside past 10pm in designated Ausgehviertel (“going out quarters”). Under a new law, the central government would designate certain streets as party zones, permitting outdoor service til 11pm on weekdays and midnight on weekends and holidays. But the districts want to chose the zones themselves, which makes sense to me. Giffey also aims to cut bureaucracy for restaurants and bars — but the part allowing later outdoor service has potential for conflict. Renters associations are already pitted against the Chamber of Commerce, which favours later hours. Restauranteer Marc-Alexey Papanastasiou told Taz: “Lots of people move there because they love the lively atmosphere. And then the businesses that add life to the neighbourhood have to close because some people find it too noisy.” 🎯

Fire at Oxi

Staying with nightlife, police are investigating a possible arson attack on the Oxi nightclub in Lichtenberg. Firefighters were alerted to the fire early Monday morning. In March, a music venue at RAW in Friedrichshain was targeted by an arson attack— and Nazi grafitti.

Smaller classes at 140 schools

Berlin is reducing class size in “social hotspot” schools to the benefit of disadvantaged kids. According to an agreement signed by Berlin education minister Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) and the GEW teachers union, 140 of Berlin’s 457 primary schools will reduce classes from 24 pupils to 20. The programme will cost €32 million per year. GEW had been demanding smaller classes. Union leader Gökhan Akgün said recent strikes had yielded results.

Queer memorial site

On Sunday, a new burial and memorial site for queer people was inaugurated at the Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof (churchyard) in Schöneberg. The site was created by Schwulenberatung Berlin and aims to offer a dignified final resting place for LGBTQ+ people, as well as a space for collective memory and reflection.

Cleaner, safer S-Bahns?

Beginning in June, the Berlin S-Bahn network says it will up its cleaning and security game by “12-13%”. Roving cleaners accompanied by security guards will begin shifts at 5am. The teams will also be tasked with removing disruptive passengers and homeless people.

Local festival at Tempelhof

“BERLIN ACTS ONLY” shouts the site of the new TFELD festival on August 22. This is your chance to turbo-integrate into Berlin culture with a full day of local hip hop and electronic music. The folks from closed-down techno club Watergate are in charge of the afterparty. 25,000 partiers expected.

Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin

🧠The 20% Berlin News Quiz Wednesday 20.05 · 6:30pm · Electric Social, Grunerstraße 13, Mitte · €4 Test your knowledge of Berlin and German news, current affairs and trivia over drinks and food while mingling with other members of the 20% Berlin community.

🎤 Rasha Nahas / Wooly Aziz
Thursday 21.05 · 8 pm · HAU 1, Stresemannstraße 29, Kreuzberg · €20-29
The Palestinian musician is presenting new songs from an upcoming album produced by Meshell Ndegeocello. The Ndegeocello connection signals something: Nahas al ready worked across electronic rock, poetic Arabic lyrics, and raw singer-songwriter territory with the clarity of someone who has never needed to explain her influences.

🎈20% Berlin's 495th Birthday Party RSVP required. 7 pm · Geist im Glas, Lenaustraße 27, Neukölln · free Andrew and Maurice record a live podcast episode in the back room, then the party opens up.

🎹 Kiezsalon opening weekend — Schloss Britz
Fri-Sat, 22-23.05 · doors 6:30 pm · Schloss Britz, Alt-Britz 73, Neukölln · €10
Two nights at an 18th-century manor house in Neukölln. Friday brings Belfi & Reidy’s post-rock abstraction, Susannah Stark’s krautrock-folk from Glasgow, and alice does computer music‘s long-form collages.

🎻 Staatsoper für alle Sat 6 pm · Sun 1 pm · Bebelplatz · free Verdi's Nabucco broadcast live at Bebelplatz on Saturday, Beethoven's 6th with Thielemann on Sunday. 20th edition, free, no ticket needed.

🥁 Karneval der Kulturen — 30th Anniversary
Sunday 24.05 · parade 1:30 pm · Frankfurter Allee / Karl-Marx-Allee · festival at Blücherplatz · free
Thirty years and five thousand performers. The parade that turns Neukölln and Kreuzberg into something Berlin rarely is: completely unguarded. Twenty stages, all afternoon. Go without a plan, but our favorite is the Brazilian carnival with the Bloco do Urso (3 pm).

from our partner

🍷Discover more than 100+ wines at Grape Odyssey 🍷

Grape Odyssey returns to Berlin on May 31!

Join us in exploring natural wines from Slovenia and its neighbouring countries: Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia.

Taste 100+ unique wines; sparkling, white, orange, rosé and red. Meet 30+ independent producers and understand their approach and process that makes them stand out.

And, of course, there will be live DJs playing throughout the day and night while you work your way through the wines.

Many of our winemakers are not yet represented in Berlin, so don’t miss out on these wines. Join the Odyssey!

Location: Kühlhaus Berlin, Luckenwalder Str. 3

11am trade | 12pm public | 6pm afterparty until 10pm

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🏠 Housing crisis hits newscomers hardest

🤒 How broken is Germany?

🐯 Police shoot escaped tiger

🎸 Einstürzende Neubauten: Still collapsing

Factoid

No more tears about the weather, please. Berlin is Germany’s sunniest state in terms of hours of sunlight: 2,069 hours in 2025. Unfortunately, the average temperature last year was only 10.7°C.

sponsored

Your smile deserves more than public health insurance

Let's start with the bad news: public health insurance in Germany covers very little when it comes to your teeth.

Yes, you can have a tooth extracted in an emergency or get a cheap filling that doesn't match the colour of your teeth. But when it comes to preventive care or high-quality restoration, in most cases you'll have to pay out pocket.

Now for the good news: you can get supplementary dental insurance to fill that gap –so you're not caught off guard when your dentist hands you a bill.

Starting from €12.50 per month, Feather's dental coverage includes:
🦷 Professional cleanings – These usually cost €85–€125 per session. It's not hard to work out the savings.
🦷 High-quality fillings – Because your teeth shouldn't look like a metal detector jackpot.
🦷 Preventive care – Fluoride treatment, sensitivity treatment, fissure sealing.

The Advanced plan also includes:
🦷 Teeth whitening – Up to €200 every two years.
🦷 Dental work – Crowns and implants, up to €1,500 per year, with any remaining balance carried over to the following year.

No paperwork. No "Hallo, sprechen Sie Englisch?" on the phone. With Feather, dental insurance is online and in English.

Give your teeth the care they deserve. Get covered with Feather.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

🩺 Brandenburg pediatrician charged with 130 cases of sexual assault

🔫🏢#493: Easy Bürgeramt appts., gun raid, no cash-only

Andrew Bulkeley — Fri, 15 May 2026 11:01:14 GMT

Dear 20 Percent,

I bumped into a report about how real estate developers have become so annoyed with the glacial pace of Berlin bureaucrats that they’ve just started doing work, deciding to worry about permits when bureaucrats get around to it.

The report included a construction site on the westside that blocked off traffic lanes, set up scaffolding and even brought in one of those towering construction cranes — all without permission and without officials even being aware of it.

Fake it till you make it or set up for the permit you want, not the one you don’t have, or something.

This is really the spirit that created modern Berlin — do whatever you want. Nobody is watching — even the agencies who are supposed to be. I just can’t believe it’s still around.

Have a good, supervision-free weekend! Weather is looking good!

Andrew

PS. Thanks to this edition’s sponsors Löwenmarsch and Inner Circle!

Two-week limit three years too late

Everyone who needed an appointment with Bürgerämter in March was able to get one within two weeks, according to RBB24, finally meeting a goal Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) had promised for 2023. Many were even able to get same- or next-day appointments. Appointments had been so hard to come by early in this decade that unethical entrepreneurs had begun using bots to snap up and sell them. But officials have worked to move a few procedures online and hire 100 new bureaucrats to process the often-repetitive and too-often unnecessary paperwork. Now make the Ausländerbehörde more accessible (and friendly).

Pols hate cash-only too

Berlin politicians are tired of cash-only businesses and want the federal government to force retailers to accept at least one form of digitial payment, according to RBB24. A parliamentary committee Wednesday agreed to pressure the Bundesrat, one of Germany’s two parliaments, in-line with recent noise made by federal politicians in an attempt to dampen tax avoidance and make life easier for us consumers. Germany loses out on an estimated €2 billion in annual sales tax revenue while I am often forced to opt for major retailers and fast-food joints because of the short-sighted practice of accepting only cash by local merchants. Only the local 💩AfD opposed the measure.

20percent.berlin events!

💡Maurice will be hosting the fínal 20% Berlin News Quiz before a summer break on Wednesday, May 20. A fun night of pub quiz style news, trivia and history questions. At the awesome Electric Social, close to Alexanderplatz. We’d love to see you there. Get your tickets! 💡

🎂 We’re celebrating our 495th edition with y’all on May 22 with a live podcast taping followed by drinks, networking and general Berlin-ness. It’s free but space is limited. RSVP here. 🎂

😂 100% Funny, the 20percent.berlin comedy night, is back June 18 at Berlin’s best standup club: Downstairs Comedy Club. Berlin’s funniest comedians from both the German and English scenes will bring their best jokes in Berlin’s lingua franca — English. Vincent Pfäfflin, Žana Fejzić, Dan Stern, Dinara Kerey and Masud Akbarzadeh hosted by 20percent.berlin’s own Andrew Bulkeley. TICKETS HERE.

Gun crime raids

Berlin and federal cops Wednesday raided 28 addresses looking for weapons used in recent crimes, according to Tagesspiegel. 570 officers — including the elite GSG9 federal SWAT team — arrested nine suspects and confiscated drugs, cash, two cars and a single weapon. 570 officers. 1 gun. 🤔 Police and prosecutors have had little luck in controlling an explosion in gun-related crime, which leapt 68% last year. The near-daily shootings rarely result in serious injury and are often attributed to Turkish and Kurdish gangs attempting to establish dominance while blackmailing businesses into protection payments.

from our partner

You go to events, meet new people and never see them again. Making friends as a working adult in Berlin is hard. Everyone is busy. It's difficult finding like-minded people and making time to meet them.

What if your social-life was on auto-pilot? Real friendships means seeing the same people regularly and over time they become your people. That's Inner Circle.

Limited spots available.

Apply now to join.

Tschüss Eta!

The first-ever female head coach of a Bundesliga mens soccer team will coach her last match Saturday, according to RBB24. Marie-Louise Eta will then become head of 1. FC Union Berlin’s womens team after making history April 3 by being appointed to the leadership position. She was not only the first female coach of a Bundesliga mens team but also the first woman to coach a men’s football team in the the top-five European leagues. Union, Berlin’s eastside club, failed to blossom under her leadership. However, she was able to save it from relegation to a lower league. Union has yet to announce a replacement.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🐳 Is this dead whale Germany’s Timmy?

💚 The first Turkish-German state premier

Factoid

The bane of our existence.

Berliner’s throw away more per-person than the average German or an average 231.6 kgs per Berliner per year compared with just 186.7 kgs per Kraut nationwide, according to the Berlin-Brandenburg statistics office. The figures are for 2024, the first year that people threw away more than the previous year since 2020. The figure includes both ordinary household trash and Sperrmüll, or bulky items like that refrigerator or mattress abandoned on your street corner.

🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️ Visit our sponsor! 🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️🚶🏽‍♀️

Hey Berliners, ready to go out in nature around Berlin?

On June 6-7, 2026, join us for the Löwenmarsch Berlin 2026, a 24-hour social impact hike across Berlin-Brandenburg, from Eberswalde to Wannsee.

YOU choose YOUR distance: from a chilled 15 km hike to the 100 km challenge!

Participation is free, just like the water and food provided at each station.

All proceeds go to Learning Lions, providing tech education to young people in rural Kenya.

By becoming an Impact Partner, your club/NGO can gather funds for its own project.

Ready to hike for impact? Assemble your team and REGISTER NOW!

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

🌞 German tourist awarded €1,000 in sunlounger dispute

⚡📃 #492: Russian ambassador, train to Oslo, sabotage threat, shops closed Thursday

Maurice Frank — Tue, 12 May 2026 11:32:16 GMT

The cold is their fault. llustration: Henri Verstijnen

Dear 20 Percent,

Today I arrived at my co-working space and mumbled something to my neighbour about winter being back.

He replied, “Das sind die Eisheilige.”

Ah, yes, the Ice Saints — between 3 and 5 saints whose official saint days fall from May 11-15, beginning with St. Mamertus on May 11 and ending with Die Kalte Sophie (Cold Sophia) on May 15.

According to traditional German farmers’ rules, one shouldn’t plant crops before May 15.

My version of this rule is now: Don’t ride your bike without gloves before May 15.

The weather is forecast to improve by Saturday, May 16. Maybe those farmers were onto something.

News below.

Maurice

🚨Thursday is a public holiday. Himmelfahrt (Ascension Day), Vatertag (German Father’s Day) and Herrentag (Men’s Day) rolled into one. Most shops will be closed. Except these ones!🚨

💡I’ll be hosting the fínal 20% Berlin News Quiz before a summer break on Wednesday, May 20. A fun night of pub quiz style news, trivia and history questions. At the awesome Electric Social, a throw’s stone from Alexanderplatz. We’d love to see you there. Get your tickets! 💡

Russian propaganda in Mitte?

These days, Russian diplomats never waste the opportunity presented by the May 9th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the Third Reich to spread some lies about Putin’s war in Ukraine. Russophile “left-conservative” party BSW invited the Russian amabassador for a discussion on Sunday (paywall). At the event, Sergei Nechayev claimed his country didn’t begin the war, adding “the Ukrainians are being used as a buffer whilst the West prepares for war against Russia”. Hmm.

Another power cut sabotage?

Sa-bo-tage, childsplay? Image: Indymedia

The police are investigating an announcement published on the leftwing Indymedia site that apparently threatens yet another attack on the Berlin power grid. The post (partial screenshot above) shouts “CUT THE POWER SO WE CAN SEE THE STARS”. I love that in Germany 2026 even anarcho-terrorists prefer to use Denglish in their advertising. A police statement said: “We have, together with KRITIS (critical infrastructure) operators, developed exceptional measure across the city and are continuously monitoring potential—and as yet unspecified—threats very closely.”

Hantavirus cruise passenger back in Berlin

A Berliner who was a passenger on the Hondius cruise ship has been repatriated to Germany and taken home, where he’ll remain in quarantine for the time being, according to RBB24. He’s showing no symptoms of the hantavirus. A federal minister said a total of four German passengers have been returned home.

Slow train to Scandinavia

Deutsche Bahn says it will offer daily direct service from Berlin to Oslo beginning summer 2028 in cooperation with Norwegian operator Vy and Denmark’s DSB. The trip will take 14-15 hours. Stops will include Hamburg, Copenhagen, Malmö and Gothenburg.

The digitalisation department needs paper

Der Tagesspiegel found out that ITDZ, the Berlin government’s internal IT department, has put out a tender for €14 million worth of 100% recycled A4 photocopy paper, as well €1 million worth of “certificate quality” papier in A3 sheets. What for, though? Printing out emails?

Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin

🔉 The Infinite Now — Berlin Atonal x Unsound
Sat-Sun, 16-17.05 from 6 pm until midnight (Sunday) · Kraftwerk Berlin, Köpenicker Str. 70 · 30h pass from €128-54, day tickets available. The joint programme from Berlin Atonal and Unsound runs 30 hours without interruption. Caterina Barbieri presents her new work for electronics, vocal ensemble and brass. Kali Malone plays through the night using works otherwise heard only in gallery installations. Stars of the Lid at dawn. Keiji Haino twice. Actress with a new live show. Terrence Dixon closes Sunday with a world premiere. Read our highlights here.

🎮 A MAZE.: 15th International Games and Playful Media Festival Wednesday –Saturday, Silent Green, Gerichtstraße 35
Games as artistic language: installations, AI, interactive media, talks across four days on the entire silent green site. One of the few festivals that treats play as a serious cultural question.

🎤 Spoken word open mic night Friday, doors & sign-ups at 6:30pm, performances start at 7pm, Refugio Cafe, Lenaustraße 4, free - donations welcome A spoken word open mic night, featuring guest essayist, researcher & political geographer Sinthujan Varatharajah (all languages welcome)

🪩 Endless Groove Sessions w/ Joe Claussell
Sunday, 1:30 - 10 pm · Zenner, Alt-Treptow 15 · €24-36
Joe Claussell back in Berlin for the first time in nearly ten years. Seven hours, start to finish, his selection. Communal lunch at 1:30 pm, solidarity tickets available by email. Profits go to Hildahaus and Doctors Without Borders

🎭 Kaleidoscope — The Unscripted Musical Sunday May 17, Monbijou Theater. Tickets from €10.50 Open air at Monbijou. The Spree to your right, the sun going down, a live band playing songs that didn’t exist this morning. Kaleidoscope makes up a full musical from scratch every night. One audience suggestion, no script, no second chances. In English. Don’t miss this one.

from our partner

🍷Discover more than 100+ wines at Grape Odyssey 🍷

Grape Odyssey returns to Berlin on May 31!

Join us in exploring natural wines from Slovenia and its neighbouring countries: Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia.

Taste 100+ unique wines; sparkling, white, orange, rosé and red. Meet 30+ independent producers and understand their approach and process that makes them stand out.

And, of course, there will be live DJs playing throughout the day and night while you work your way through the wines.

Many of our winemakers are not yet represented in Berlin, so don’t miss out on these wines. Join the Odyssey!

Location: Kühlhaus Berlin, Luckenwalder Str. 3

11am trade | 12pm public | 6pm afterparty until 10pm

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

📉 German business disappointed by Merz

🏗️ Progress on Germany-Denmark tunnel

📺 That “Germany is over” video everyone’s talking about

Factoid

A record number of people are moving away from Berlin. According to Tagesspiegel, an estimated 160,000 people, especially people with children, left the city for good in 2025. In 2020, that number was 145,000. In the first 11 months of 2025 (why don’t they have stats for December by now?), 104,500 people moved here from abroad, 10,544 of them from India. Meanwhile, the city’s birth rate is at a record low (1.2 children per woman).

And, in case you missed it, I’ll be doing the last 20% Berlin News Quiz before the summer on Wednesday, May 20. I’d love to see you there.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

Limited spots available, apply now to join

👩‍⚖️ #491: Pro-Palestinian activist can stay, investigating illegal rentals, Helmut Kohl

Andrew Bulkeley — Fri, 08 May 2026 11:12:58 GMT

I was chancellor for 16 years and all I got was this lousy street. Photo: Volker David via CC2.0

Hey 20 Percent!

Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) isn’t a good mayor but maybe he’s a good politician.

Saturday he will cunningly fulfill his dream of having a Berlin street named after German über-chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU). Hofjägerallee, which guides cars from the Siegessäule south into Charlottenburg, will now be Helmut’s street.

People in Germany hate when their street gets renamed because they then get the headache of changing their address in this paper-obsessed country. Protests often accompany the changes.

But Wegner sidestepped public outrage by renaming an oft-used but little-known downtown connector. Nobody lives there. Well, not officially. And everyone’s forgotten about the Royal Court Hunter (Hofjäger).

Neither the former chancellor Angela Merkel nor the current chancellor Friedrich Merz will be on hand for the renaming even though they all hail from the same conservative CDU party. Possibly because of Kohl’s admitted role in a bribery scandal on behalf of the party.

I once covered a press conference with Chancellor Kohl and as he passed he was one of the largest people I’d ever seen. I swear the weather changed as he moved on. That’s no fat shaming — the man was 6 feet 4 (1.95 meters) as well as well-fed.

He was chancellor for 16 years and presided over the country’s reunification. Maybe he deserves a street.

Have a good weekend!

Andrew

PS: While most newsletters might celebrate their 500th edition, we’re celebrating our 495th! No, it’s not because May 22 fit best in our calendars. Not at all. Come celebrate with us — live podcast taping then drinks/networking! It’s free but space is limited. RSVP here.

Pro-Palestinian protestor can stay

Is Berlin lodging false charges against foreign pro-Palestinian activists? It certainly looks like it. Irish citizen Bert Murray was illegally stripped of her right to stay in Berlin last year by the city-state’s interior ministry, a Berlin administrative court ruled Wednesday, according to RBB24 and the Irish Times. The ministry tried to deport a handful of activists after the violent occupation of a Free University building in 2024 to protest Israel’s war against Hamas, alleging they were a threat to public safety. The court noted that charges against Murry were dropped — she was already in police custody when the alleged offenses she committed occured — and therefore poses no threat. Another Irish national, Shane O’Brien, also recently had his charges in connection with the occupation dropped. A video exonerated him of charges of allegedly violently reacting to an atttempted arrest. Police were also unable to produce a passport he allegedly dropped during his altercation with officers.

from our partner

Berlin is full of people — and still lonely.

You’re surrounded by millions of people. Events, bars, meetups every night.

And yet, real friendships are hard to build.

Because Berlin is transient. People come and go. Connections don’t stick.

Inner Circle changes everything. You’re matched into a stable group of 8 expats who meet regularly — so relationships actually have time to grow.

One apartment is a start

Berlin is finally doing something to combat short-term, furnished rentals after introducing new rules in April. Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain is investigating 36 potentially illegal short-term rentals. In Neukölln they’re looking into 22 flats in three different buildings, according to Tagesspiegel (paywall). Mitte’s looking at apartments in six buildings and Pankow five. Berlin is trying to discourage commercial landlords from offering temporary, furnished rentals, which remove flats from the normal rental market and often bring exorbitant prices because they are not subject to rent controls. Such rentals are seen as illegal conversions or residential spaces but officials can only enforce the new rules in Milieuschutzgebiete, special areas set aside to protect renters from gentrification. Only one single apartment — in Neukölln — has been returned to the normal rental market since the new rules went into effect in April.

from our partner

So many holidays in May — don’t spend them flat hunting.

While you’re enjoying your time off, Get The Flat keeps your apartment search running. They find listings, contact landlords, and request viewings for you — all for 79€ / month.

Less stress, better chances.

Try it now >>

Whose bones are these?

Proof people have lived here for awhile: Construction workers found human bones while working on a playground on Waldemarstraße, Kreuzberg in April, according to Tagesspiegel. And officials are now looking for even more bones at the site but don’t suspect foul play — the Künstlerhaus Bethanien artist residency is nearby and it used to be a hospital. Maybe the site used to be a cemetery? In 2008, construction workers at Alexanderplatz stumbled across a common grave from the 18th century.

Berlin kids have been sharing their play space with dead people so it should be easy for you to share this newsletter!

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🪖 50,000 expected at anti-militarization protest Friday

👮 Crackdown on neo-Nazi youth groups

🐳 Timmy the Whale probably drowned

Factoid

The Nazis surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945 in an officer’s mess in Karlshorst in southeastern Berlin. The building then became headquarters for the Soviet military from 1945 to 1949. The site is now a museum about the Eastern Front as well as Germany’s surrender — it’s always been on my list but I have yet to go.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

😢 Two killed and many injured after car driven into crowd in German city of Leipzig

#490: Public transport, May Day, Olympics in Berlin?

Maurice Frank — Tue, 05 May 2026 10:57:33 GMT

Dear 20% Berlin

We’re turning 500 in early June but we’ll be celebrating our 495th issue in style on May 22 at the cozy Geist im Glas in Neukölln.

We’ll start with a live recording of our podcast at 7pm followed by just a great party.

It’s free to attend. But there’s just space for 100, so RSVP right now!

Two days before the party, I’ll be hosting the last 20% Berlin News Quiz before the summer break! It costs a piddling €4 — score your tickets here!

Maurice

🎙️Episode #33 of The 20% Berlin Podcast is out (sponsored by Inner Circle and apologies for the errant e-mail to some of our subscribers Monday)!

And big thank you to today’s newsletter sponsor, Feather Insurance. More from them below!

Beh vau meh?

Last week we reported that BVG had boosted its punctuality rate to 98.6% up from 94% in 2025. Despite that improvement, according to a new survey from infratest dimap, just 47% of Berliners are satisfied with public transport in the city; 46% are dissatisfied. Attitudes change depending on your political affiliation: 69% of Green voters are satisfied with public transport; just 31% of AfD supporters are satisfied. Other fun facts: for 54% of Berliners, trains, buses and trams are their main way of getting around. 30% drive or ride a motorcycle, while 13% use a bike as their main mode of transport. A majority answered that they hadn’t noticed much difference between the Kai Wegner government’s transport policy and the previous ones.

May Day cray-cray

First of May passed relatively peacefully. Very little fighting between demonstrators and police was reported — around 11pm, there were scuffles between cops and some folks at the Revolutionary May 1 Demo. 15 officers suffered light injuries. BSR picked up 350m³ of trash — much more than last year. Leftwing party Die Linke held a party at Mariannenplatz featuring the insanely popular rapper from Tempelhof Ikkemel. The show became so big that it ended up blocking the protest march. Of course, certain lefties accused Die Linke of turning their sacred May Day into another street party because there’s nothing lefties love more than infighting!

Olympics, schlympics

Berlin presents its pitch to host the Summer Olympics in 2036, 2040 or 2044 today. One thing that stands out: The city government wants to do the opening ceremony on Tempelhofer Feld. Which means they’ve already lost the support of Kreuzbergers, Neuköllners and Tempelhofers. In September the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) decides which German city or region will submit a bid internationally. Apart from Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and the Rhine-Ruhr region are working on bids. Don’t worry, Berlin’s not going to win, folks. That’s my prediction, at least. Die Linke, who are almost certain to play an important role in the city government after the September election, are opposed. They’re even supporting the “NOlympia” anti-Games referendum campaign. I predict the DOSB will want to keep the Olympics away from the rowdy, dirty, grinchy, poor capital and therefore won’t chose us to represent Germany.

Winged wurst

Since May 1, airline Eurowings has been selling currywurst on its European flights for €8.90. The classic Berlin street food dish is made according to a fancy recipe developed by Michelin chef and ex-Kreuzberg gangster Tim Raue. Personally I find currywurst stomach-churning but if anyone knows how to cook one, it’s him. The celebrity chef recently took over the restaurant in the TV Tower.

Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin

🍑 Peaches
Tue-Wed, 05–06.05, 8 pm. Astra Kulturhaus, Revaler Str. 99, Friedrichshain. €46.
Thirty years making work that refuses to separate politics from the body. Loud, confrontational, funny. 🎧 No Lube So Rude

🪩 ULTRABOOTH Pt. 1 & 2
7 - 11:30 pm · Thu 07.05 · €16 / Fri 08.05 · €18 · Panke, Gerichtstr. 23, Wedding
Two nights, two different logics. Thursday: Robert Henke performs new Monolake material live. Friday: Errorsmith plays breakcore and dubstep, Homāyun gives his first live show, ltfll from Alexandria fuses sub-bass with Arabic syncopated percussion.

📷 Opening Party: Anton Corbijn
Friday · 7 pm · Fotografiska · Oranienburger Str. 54 · €39
The opening of Corbijn’s retrospective, with an artist talk and live sets from Anika, Drangsal, Isolation Berlin and Sally Dige. DJ Hell and Daisy Weweh on the decks at Bar Veronika dancefloor.

♀️ Misogyny Symposium
Saturday · 2–9 pm · n.b.k., Chaussestraße 128–129 · Free · No registration needed · EN
Full-day symposium on misogynistic backlash in the art world: anti-feminist representation, the female body as projection surface, feminist strategies under changing conditions. Speakers include Tala Madani, Lucy McKenzie, Nicole Wermers and Alison M. Gingeras.

🎤 Silvana Estrada
Sunday, 8 pm · Heimathafen Neukölln · €38
Mexican singer on Nonesuch. Folk, jazz, a voice that doesn't rush anywhere. 🎧 Tiny Desk Concert

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

📆 Germany’s Merz marks a year in office facing deep transatlantic crisis

🖥️ Nazi database takes Germans on personal journey into their families’ dark pasts

⏰ Can Merz reform Germany?

Factoid

"Umgelegt " by 7C0, CC BY 2.0.

E-scooter accidents are on the rise. The Berlin police registered 1,400 accidents in 2025, 27% more than in 2024. Half of the victims are 25 or younger. According to one study, half of e-scooter accidents do not involve a collision with another vehicle or person. Alcohol is a factor — as are the scooters’ small wheels that can get caught on obstacles. In mid-April, a 14-year-old girl was killed while riding a scooter with a friend. She rode across a red pedestrian light and was hit by a driver who’d been drinking. Be careful out there!

🪶🪶🪶 Check out our sponsor! 🪶🪶🪶

Protect what matters with Feather's Household Contents Insurance

Your home is more than just four walls - it's everything inside it. From your laptop and furniture to clothes and even that fancy coffee machine, replacing stolen or damaged items can be expensive. That's where household contents insurance comes in.

Feather's household contents insurance covers all your belongings against:

🔒 Burglary - With over 60,000 break-ins in Germany every year, it's good to be prepared.

🔥 Fire and water damage - Because what if the unexpected actually happened?

🚲 Bike theft – Add bike coverage for just a few extra euros.

All this for just 5-6€ per month - a small price for peace of mind that could save you thousands.

And the best part? If something happens, you'll be reimbursed based on your item's original value, not its depreciated worth.

No paperwork, no hassle - just sign up online in minutes, all in English.

Get covered with Feather

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

🧴 So much for Pfand: Germany is a huge plastic waste exporter

#33: Public transport survey, residential skyscraper, May Day

Andrew Bulkeley — Mon, 04 May 2026 13:05:14 GMT

Please check out our sponsor for this episode — Inner Circle!

Andrew’s Bears Knees: Schleusenkrug beer garden

Maurice’s Bears Knees: Nila

For all our Bear’s Knees, check out The Bear’s Knees Map!

#489: BVG is better, Wegner is worse, culture minister is worstest

Andrew Bulkeley — Fri, 01 May 2026 12:07:34 GMT

Happy Labor Day! Photo: Christian Lendl via CC2.0

Hey 20 Percent!

Happy Day of Labor Battles! Hopefully you’re reading this while doomscrolling in a park or during a leisurely late breakfast in your pajamas.

We’re supposed to have our first summer-like temps this three-day weekend (28 degrees), so enjoy!

Andrew

Thanks to Easy Bee Berlin gardening services for sponsoring this edition!

BVG is more reliable

And you know who’s working better? BVG, apparently. The U-Bahn at the yellow public transport company boosted it reliability to 98.6% in the first quarter from 94% in 2025 because of a trainload of new trains, according to RBB24. The figure doesn’t include effects of the strikes last year and refers to the number of planned trips that actually happened. 130 of 140 new small-profile subways have been added to U-Bahn lines 1 to 4 and a handful of 170 new large-profile trains to be introduced on U-Bahn lines 5 to 9 this year are already on the tracks. The company aims for 99% reliability and trams and buses already fulfil the target — now get 99% of riders to use deodorant.

Court tells minister to shut it

A Berlin administrative court Thursday said conservative German culture minister Wolfram Weimer wasn’t doing his job well, according to T-Online. The court said he was wrong in labeling the owners of the zur schwankenden Weltkugel (the wobbling earth) bookstore as “political extremists” in a recent newspaper interview. The owners had asked Weimer to sign a statement rescinding his claim and when he refused, they sued. The court said there was no basis for the accusation. The suit is related to another legal battle between Weimer and the store as well as two other left-leaning bookstores in Göttingen and Bremen after the minister disqualified them from an annual government booksellers’ competition because of their political leanings. The German booksellers’ prize carries a purse of up to €25,000.

Mayor not polling well

Another politician not doing his job well is our mayor, Kai Wegner (CDU). Just 17% of Berliners are happy with his government (a coalition with the center-left SPD), according to a recent survey by RBB24 and radio station 88.8. If elections for a new Berlin government had been last weekend, the CDU would have remained the city-state’s favorite party and gotten 19% of the vote but that’s a steep drop from the 28% it got in the 2023 election. The environmental Grüne, leftist Linke and 💩 AfD would have all gotten 18%. The SPD 14%. The poll is important since elections are in September and it would appear that we will most likely get a three-way coaltion of the Grüne, Linke and SPD — just as before the 2023 election.

Germany won’t let us non-citizen, long-time residents share in the vote but you could share this newsletter!

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🎣 Whale being towed to the North Sea

🖼️ Artist Georg Baselitz is dead

Factoid

I wanted to use this as the cover photo but it seemed inappropriate with the holiday so I switched the pictures. This is a new Rothschild’s giraffe Berliner. He was born April 28. Photo: Tierpark Berlin

Good news for workers! Real wages rose by an average of 2.9% in Berlin last year, according to Tagesspiegel. Utility workers saw their paycheck increase 6.4% while IT and communication peoples enjoyed a 4.8% bump. Waitstaff, on the other hand, had to stomach a 0.1% decline. Sad emoji.

🪴🪴🪴Please visit our sponsor!🪴🪴🪴

Gardener for busy expats with small spaces. Relax in lush plants without the hard work of gardening. Enjoy peace and privacy in your own garden that strengthens you for life’s challenges. You might be: New parents looking for a kid & pet safe garden. First time buyers with a weed filled garden. Struggling to balance work/life & longing to relax in your own beautiful garden. People who find themselves with an empty balcony in a new home. Owner of an office full of dead plants!

Garden/balcony clean-up
Low maintenance garden/balcony makeover
Indoor-plant care

Book your free consultation @ www.easybeeberlin.com

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

Limited spots available, apply now to join

#488: Ryanair shuns Berlin, Jewish group not "extreme", Spree swimming offensive

Maurice Frank — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 10:27:29 GMT

Flussbad Berlin’s plan to turn the Spree swimmable. See below.

Dear 20 Percent,

I was on the S-Bahn at the weekend. Two ticket inspectors entered the train and immediately identified their victims: a Dutch family of four that had a paper ticket but had failed to validate it.

“You have to now pay 60 euros,” one of the inspectors said in poor English.

“16 euros? One-six?”

“60 euros.”

“What for? We just arrived. We have a ticket.”

“You must validate your ticket. If I go to another country I must find this out. You must pay 60 euros.”

“We didn’t realise that. It wasn’t clear.”

Not exactly a great first impression of Berlin for tourists fresh off the plane.

I stood up and and walked over to the inspectors.

“Zeigen Sie doch ein wenig Kulanz!” I said, trying to stay calm. “Show a little goodwill!”

“We should show some goodwill?” the inspector said theatrically. Something had changed in his mood. He turned to the Dutch tourists and explained that he would make an exception just this once and they could validate their ticket at the next station without paying the fine.

The Kulanz thing can work with rigid bureaucrats too, sometimes. When you’re missing that document but urgently need the thing you applied for, try saying, “Please show a little Kulanz. Can you make an exception just this one time.”

Their heart might thaw and they might just grant you that exception — and they’re secretly pleased that they can show the world they’re a good person.

News below!

Maurice

💡Friday is May Day, a public holiday — the shops are closed (except for these ones).

from our partner

Berlin is full of people — and still lonely.

You’re surrounded by millions of people. Events, bars, meetups every night.

And yet, real friendships are hard to build.

Because Berlin is transient. People come and go. Connections don’t stick.

Inner Circle changes everything. You’re matched into a stable group of 8 expats who meet regularly — so relationships actually have time to grow.

Ryanair cuts flights

Just when tourism numbes are falling, Berlin gets another kick in the groin: Europe’s biggest airline is shutting down its Berlin operations base by the autumn and slashing the number of flights serving the capital by half from October. Annual passenger numbers are expected to drop from 4.5 million to 2.2 million. Ryanair exec Eddie Wilson blamed taxes and fees for the move: “German aviation is broken. The government admits that it is uncompetitive, yet there is no strategy to cut aviation taxes or high airport fees.” Dennis Dacke, an official at the Verdi trade union, accused Ryanair of treating its employees as “disposable commodities”. Isn’t that how they treat passengers? Perhaps the new international rail links expected this year can make up for lost travel options?

“Jewish Voice” group not “extreme”

Maybe this wasn’t great for tourism, either: In 2024, the Berlin-based group “Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost”, affiliated with “European Jews for a Just Peace”, was categorised as “confirmed extremist” by the “Office for the Protection of the Constitution”. An official report called the organisation an example of “secular pro-Palestinian extremism”. Why? Because the Federal Interior Minstry accuses the Jewish association of “indirectly inciting violence”. This was based on some very flimsy evidence: social media posts by a member that criticised, among other things, the Israel Defence Force (IDF). “Jüdische Stimme” fought the categorisation and won: A Berlin court said Monday there was “insufficient factual basis” to label the group “extreme.” Ach, Deutschland.

Urban swimmers up their game

Maybe this will attract some tourists: The Flussbad Berlin association is planning monthly demo-swims in the Spree at Museum Island this season, with the first action planned for May 20. The date is no coincidence: On May 20, 1925 Berlin banned innercity swimming for the first time. Flussbad Berlin spokesman Jan Edler said: “On most days of the year water quality is sufficient to swim in the Spree.” The group points to other cities that have opened up waterways to swimmers in recent years like Paris, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Flussbad has also launched a water quality dashboard. The activists hope the local election on September 20 could result in a more swimming-friendly government. SPD, Greens and Die Linke favour lifting the bathing ban.

Another big exit

Even if we’re turning off the tourists, seems like we’ve still got some start-up juice in us. Talon.one, an “incentives tech” provider founded in 2015, has been sold to a Dutch payment app Adyen - for a cool €750 million. Talon.one makes software for loyalty programmes and such and employs 280 people in Berlin and 7 other locations. Yay for them.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

👨🏻‍🦲Merz: US ‘humiliated’ by Iran’s leadership

🇩🇪 Germany: 1 in 4 residents has ‘immigration history’

👩‍⚖️Pro-Palestine activists on trial for arms factory break-in

🛢️Putin mounts oil power play against Germany

Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin

🎞️ Hausfest — Neue Zukunft
Thursday, From 4 pm · Neue Zukunft, Laskerstr. 5, free admission
The Walpurgisnacht warm-up that does everything at once: two cinema screens (film festival showcase, GDR-era screenings, a Berlin Bahnhof documentary premiere), live bands in the garage and concert hall (Saeko Killy, KNAST, Bloodfang), a rave-punk musical, jazz bar, outdoor cinema, and Berliner Ringtheater performing A Wide Open Walpurgisnacht at 6 pm.

🖼️ Gallery Weekend Friday-Sunday
Sixty-plus exhibitions. These are the ones worth planning the weekend around. You can follow our highlights in this map.

🍻 Berghain Garteneröffnung Friday, noon–8 pm, free. Cinthie, Cormac, Ogazón. Garden season opens.

🎷 Nubiyan Twist live ★ [live]
Saturday, 7:30 pm · Gretchen, Kreuzberg · €28
The UK afro-jazz collective is at full force with horns, electronics, percussion, and rhythm that doesn't sit still. One of the most excellent live acts in the post-jazz orbit right now. 🎧 Chasing Shadows

Factoid

In the 1950s, under code name “Operation Gold”, the CIA and MI6 built a 430-meter tunnel from Rudow-Neukölln into East Berlin in order to tap into landlines linked to the Soviet Army headquarters at Karlshorst. The US recorded tens of thousands of conversations but the KGB knew about the project from the beginning thanks to their double agent George Blake. The Soviets waited till April 21, 1956 to officially “discover” the tunnel, to protect Blake.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗

👮 Sex assaults up 8.5%, top cop says women should avoid men

🧑‍⚖️ 🏗️ #487: Antisemitism spat, failing commercial real estate, residential skyscraper

Andrew Bulkeley — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:16:18 GMT

Quartier 206: My first job in Berlin was in this gaudy, marbled mess (long live FT Deutschland). Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra via CC2.0

Hey 20 Percent!

Sometimes we miss big news items, either because too much is going on, or because they’re too nuanced, or because we just miss them.

I wade into two today — there’s been a battle in the Berlin government for most of this year over possibly illegal subsidies to anti-antisemitism projects that have opposition politicians decrying cronyism in the current government, and today it finally claimed a victim. News below.

The second is a proposed 50-story residential tower at S-Bahn Warschauer Str. The building would be higher than the nearby 35-story Amazon tower but across the street near the station.

Neighbors as well as the district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg say the development is out of character for the area. Annoyed, Berlin stripped the district of planning authority and initiated approvals for developer Atrium Development GmbH.

It would have 1,000 new apartments, including 300 for low-income renters.

On the one hand, Berlin needs lots of new apartments. Now.

On the other, the area between Ostbahnhof and Warschauer Str. is such an urban planning nightmare and thoughtless collection of new construction that I want to side with the opponents.

Any thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

And have a good weekend!

Andrew

sponsored

Berlin is better with company. Find it instantly.

Keep it simple. Skip the noise of group dynamics, just purposeful, 1-on-1 discovery. Tatapp helps you find people nearby for low-stakes conversations. Filter for your vibe, warm up with a proximity chat, and transition to a face-to-face meetup.

The first 20 of you to claim the offer at tatapp.astekita.com/20percent get 1-month Premium.

Culture minister out over subsidies

The subsidy scandal: Berlin culture minister Sarah Wedl-Wilson (independent) Friday resigned after a government accounting office said €2.6 million in subsidies paid to anti-antisemitism projects last year may have been illegal, according to Tagesspiegel. The Berlin government has been investigating the subsidies after opposition politicians feared projects with ties to the conservative CDU had been favored. The accounting office said some of the 13 projects weren’t even legally eligible for subsidies. At least one politician pressured Wedl-Wilson to ignore internal rules and approve the payouts in WhatsApp chats — which she did, leading to her resignation. She’s the second culture minister in the current administration to resign.

Quartier failure

Are commerical property values finally starting to collapse in Berlin? The April 17 bankruptcy auction of the supposedly prestigious Quartier 206 mall and office building on Friedrichstraße had to be postponed for a week after the two bids were well-under expectations, according to RBB24. Bidders offered €40 million and €39 million for a building valued at €187 million. It has 8,000 sq/m of retail and 15,000 sq/m of office space, most of it empty. That stretch of Friedrichstraße adjacent to Gendarmenmarkt feels doomed after French department store Galeries Lafeyette (which was attached to Quartier 206 by a marbled subterranean tunnel) left in 2024, 28 years after it opened. An attempt to turn that stretch of Friedrichstr. into pedestrian-and-bike only also failed in 2023.

Landlord registry unlikely

A law proposed by the governing Berlin coalition would require all landlords to register their residential properties online including rent, amenities and size, according to tabloid B.Z. The information would then be reviewed by AI and any potential illegalities would be reported to prosecutors. The law has yet to be passed and while renter associations are in favor, urban development senator Christian Gaebler (SPD) admits the proposal is legally questionable — rental law is usually left to the federal government. Corporate landlord Haus & Grund said the proposal is also problematic because its only purpose is for landlords to provide evidence against themselves — a legal no-no.

Berlin landlords hate to share but you could share this newsletter! Don’t be like Berlin landlords.

🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺

🦅 German pols growing weary of hawkish Israel

👴 The Shah’s son was in Berlin

Factoid

In search of safe bike paths. Amen. Photo: Stefan Mueller via CC2.0.
Berlin has built progessively fewer new bike lanes over the past years and will only install 8.1 kilometers of new paths for Drahtesel (wire donkeys) this year, according to Tagesspiegel (paywall). The city-state installed 26 kilometers of new paths in 2023 and then 24 in 2024. Last year they managed 20. Next year?

from our partner

Everyone can optimise a few things in their spending – and it doesn't have to take long. The latest issue of Smart Living in Germany, a newsletter helping English speakers get more value for money in Germany, has plenty of ideas on how to do just that – whether it's switching an electricity contract, understanding when you do or don’t need extra insurance, or finding free supermarket products. Subscribe here.

🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗