#386: AfD ban? flat prices, AI unicorn
Was the world's first computer built in Kreuzberg?
Dear 20 Percent,
On Sunday I was hanging out in a small beer garden in a “garden colony” in our neighbourhood. Soaking up the sun, sipping on a pilsner, minding my own business. My two small children were playing in the sandbox.
At some point they start fighting and shouting at each other as small kids do. Promptly, a woman from the garden next door yelled, “Be quiet now!” in English, with a very strong German accent.
I laughed nervously in response but this small incident triggered the hell out of me.
Twenty-five years in Berlin and I’m still allergic to the bluntness, the bossiness. No “please” or “excuse me” or “sorry but”. No polite word with the children’s parent, perhaps acknowledging their humanity and the difficulty of parenting toddlers. No, just a direct order blurted over my head directly at my kids.
I’m not staying here forever, I told myself. There are nicer places to spend the second half of my life!
Later, I calmed down and remembered I still love Berlin and so many people and things here but counted my blessings that I don’t have a Schrebergarten surrounded by gruff, snooping neighbours.
Some news below!
Maurice
🪶Thanks to today’s sponsor, Feather. They explain below which insurance you need and which you don’t need in this insurance-obsessed country.
👂 Episode 11 of our podcast is out! We talk about the AfD ban, the Hohenzollern wanting their toys back and what we would do if we were mayor.
Ban the AfD?
Protesters took to the streets in 70 German cities Sunday to call for banning the far-right AfD party. Between 4,000 and 7,500 people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate. Organiser Julia Dück told the taz: “The AfD is misanthropic, it incites hatred and violence. This violates the constitutional principles of human dignity, democracy and the rule of law.” Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Verfassungsschutz, recently classified the AfD as “confirmed right-wing extremist”, smoothing the way for possible surveillance and a potential ban. The party won 20% of the vote in February’s election but is now polling at 25%.
Rising property prices
After a dip in home prices since 2022, they rose in Berlin by 4.9% last year, faster than in Hamburg and Munich, according to a report by the German Association of Mortgage Banks — but slightly behind Frankfurt am Main and Cologne. The same report found that the price of new rental contracts rose by 5%. In short, Germany’s housing crisis is showing no signs of abating. The coalition agreement (PDF) between Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and the SPD promises to “boost housing construction and property ownership through an investment, tax relief and debureaucratisation offensive.” I guess we should give them the benefit of the doubt.
Berlin has an AI Einhorn
Local AI firm Parloa just became a unicorn by raising €106 million, nudging its valuation over €1 billion. The “AI agent management platform” helps “reinvent customer service with agentic AI”. Personally, I’m not going to mourn the end of call centers — and at least Berlin is securing a slice of the pie in this exploding sector.
Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
🎷XJAZZ! Festival 2025
Wed–Sun, 14–18.05, from 8 pm. Various venues across Berlin. Tickets from €16
XJAZZ! returns with a glowing lineup of local legends and global trailblazers. This edition is full bloom from jazz and soul to avant-garde, electronic and Afrobeat. Our highlights: 🎧 Moor Mother + Lonnie Holley, 🎧 Alabaster DePlume, 🎧 Àbáse, 🎧 Joy Guidry, 🎧 Brown Penny, 🎧 MUSCLECARS, and 🎧 Yukimi.
🎸Tim Bernardes
Wednesday, 14.05, doors 7 pm / show 8 pm. Funkhaus Berlin, Saal 1, Nalepastr. 18. Tickets: €40.
It’s a rare chance to see one of Brazil’s most soulful voices live. 🎧 Tim Bernardes blends tropicalia, indie, and metaphysical saudade with intimate power. Expect a quietly beautiful show.
🌃Queer Night Market – Berlin Edition
Friday, 16.05, 3–11 pm. Holzmarkt, Holzmarktstr. 25. Tickets: €4.38
A chill and joyful afternoon with drag, music, food, tattoos, and handmade things from queer creatives. Everyone’s welcome.
🪩Toy Tonics presents ITALOMANIA
Saturday, 17.05, 2 pm – 8 am. OXI, Wiesenweg 1–4. Tickets: €13.55–€22.60
One of my favorite dancefloors returns to Berlin with 18 hours of disco, Italo, and non-stop groove. Open air + indoor floors with 🎧 Hara Katsiki, 🎧 Vio PRG, and more.
🌶️Berlin Chili Fest: Spring Edition
Fri–Sun, 16–18.05, from 6 pm. Berliner Berg Brauerei, Treptower Str. 39, 12059 Berlin. Tickets: €6-€12.
The festival for chili lovers. Hot sauces from across Europe, spicy street food, craft beer, all set to a soundtrack of good music and sunny vibes.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🛂Germany starts turning away asylum-seekers
☎️Merz’s first phone call with Trump
😬Celebrations of German-Israeli diplomatic ties tense and subdued
🪖Germany Scales Back Transparency on Ukraine Military Aid
Factoid
On May 12, 1941 one of Berlin’s first tech bros, Konrad Zuse — financed by the Nazi government — presented his Z3 computer to a small group of engineers at his lab in Methfesselstraße 7, next to Viktoriapark, Kreuzberg. The world’s first programmable, fully automatic digital computer successfully performed calculations to improve aircraft designs. It was demonstrated several times but never put to practical use. The Z3 was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943. Since this was Nazi Germany, it’s not surprising that Zuse had a sinister side. Notes he made in the 1930s reveal he considered using computers for “systematic racial research”. The inventor died in 1995.
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I love with a sense of weird terrified fascination the absolutely dystopian stories under "Germany wide news" being illustrated with the emojis you choose.
When my boys were little, they'd play in the sand pit, making noise, laughing, being kids, having fun. But, one woman in the house next door regularly yelled out telling them to shut up, and more than once threatened to call the police. I was looking forward to her phoning them, but she never did. A colleague of mine, whose husband was a policeman said, if she phoned and he was on-call, she'd have gotten a fine for wasting their time.