#496: Grindr robbery, more BER flights wanted, repair bonus
This week: a panel discussion on how internationals can get involved in local politics
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
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 launches competition to build frontier AI model
🏭 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 🔗 🔗 🔗
🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify
Hi Maurice,
Thank you for sharing the Volt event - love seeing expact communities getring active in politics, will definitely join. Just thought that I could introduce a project I co-founded as a grassroot initiative.
Water4All makes Berlin public drinking fountains easier to find and use. Berlin has ~238 fountains, but fewer than 40 are visible on Google Maps, so we built an open Water Map and database to fix that.
https://www.water4all.com.de/en/map
We also put together a practical advocacy guide based on our experience working with public authorities. It walks people through concrete steps to request new fountains — including submissions to Berliner Wasserbetriebe, Einwohneranfragen to district assemblies (BVV), and parliamentary “Kleine Anfragen” via representatives.
https://www.water4all.com.de/en/fountains/guide
If it fits your audience, we’d love if you could share it in a future issue.
Thanks again!
"BER aiport only offers direct flights to eight long-haul destinations: New York, Montreal, Toronto (go Canada!), Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Beijing."
This list is pretty surprising! Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi make sense to me but I had no idea that Canadian, Saudi and Chinese carriers were offering direct flights to Berlin.