⚡📃 #492: Russian ambassador, train to Oslo, sabotage threat, shops closed Thursday
Record numbers of people are leaving Berlin
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?
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.
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
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🌞 German tourist awarded €1,000 in sunlounger dispute
📉 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 🔗 🔗 🔗
🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify
First, have you ever had a spam comment here? Why do we have to have two factor checks for substack if we're already logged in?
What I was GOING to say was imagine how fast the train to Norway would be if it was going direct from Hamburg to Copenhagen, but yeah your article on that tunnel was pretty depressing.
Why do greens in Germany protest against trains??? Trains are the good guys!
Well, I'm not going anywhere. If nothing else, I'm doubling down on Berlin.
I agree that Russia is acting on what it thinks is an existential threat from the West; but we watched the tanks roll into Ukraine. Do they think that our memories and attention spans are that short?!?! Nato expantion for a threat (the U.S.S.R) that didn't exist anymore was a huge mistake...driven by those sweet military contracts; but I think it's pretty clear who the aggressor was.
But I'm just shlub who makes computers work; what do I know?