#520: Cyberattack, homeless voters, fewer BER passengers
Will Berlin do something about the growing hard drug problem?
Hey 20 Percent,
On the way to the S-Bahn, we pass a pile of mattresses. There’s a motionless body under a dirty blanket. At the station, blocking the entrance, two men are hunched over a piece of tin foil, fiddling with a lighter. On the train, a man is sleeping on the floor. In a tunnel in Friedrichstraße, a woman wanders around barefoot, lost. Every day, it seems, I see more impoverished, desperate people. Almost everywhere in the city. Homelessness has been bad for years in Berlin but now Germany is in the midst of a crack and fentanyl epidemic that is wrecking lives. Last year there were a record 300 drug-related deaths in the city.
The SPD mayoral candidate Steffen Krach wants to boost spending on addiction counselling programmes and drug policies after years of cuts. He hopes to slash the bureaucracy and waiting times users have to endure to join counselling programmes. He hopes to finance 1,000 more Housing First spots (up from about 350), where homeless people are given a proper place to live without bureaucratic hurdles. The destitution is, of course, a visible symptom of the greater housing and poverty crisis. And shows, again, that housing remains the key issue in the Berlin elections in September. Whoever cracks this hard problem should be able to rule Berlin for decades.
News below.
Maurice
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Berlin hacked
The Berlin government announced Monday that the state’s own IT network was hit by a cyberattack, with hackers exploiting a vulnerability in both the Housing and Urban Development and Transport departments. “Sensitive data” has been stolen, authorities said. Both departments have been cut off from the internet since Friday. “Without internet and email, work is practically impossible,” said an employee of the transport department. Only phone communication is permitted. A task force is investigating the breach.
Homeless voter registration
For the first time, homeless people in Berlin can register to vote at a day center in Pankow ahead of the September 20 state election. The pilot project allows them to add their names to the voter registry and immediately cast a mail-in ballot at the Sozialprojekt Prenzlauer Berg facility. To take part, voters have to show an official ID.
CSD solidarity concert
“Fresse auf für queere Freiheit” translates roughly to “Open your mouth for queer freedom.” That’s the name of the sold-out benefit concert featuring German musicians like veteran singer Herbert Grönemeyer and Berlin rapper Ikkemel at Columbiahalle tonight. Proceeds go to queer counselling centre Schwulenberatung as well as various Pride organisers in rural eastern Germany.
Bureaucracy haircut?
In the run-up to the election, IHK Berlin (the chamber of industry and commerce) claims halving red tape could free up 35 working days for a small company employing 20 people. Suggestions include eliminating outdated regulations, replacing approval requirements with simple notifications where possible, and reviewing costly rules like species protections and accessibility standards that inflate construction costs. All that could result in an additional €1 billion in economic output and create thousands of jobs. The IHK director said: “What is needed is a systematic review across all departments of the administration.” So, will Berlin be getting doged? Doubtful. That probably won’t be the priority of the Linke-Green-SPD coalition expected to take over.
Airport S-Bahn disruption
From today (August 18) through August 31, a section of the S-Bahn line running to the airport will be out of service thanks to track maintenance. Between Treptower Park and Schöneweide, replacement buses will be running instead. If you can, take a train from Südkreuz or Ostkreuz. Here’s a full list of summer S-Bahn closures.
Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
🪩 UNCLOUDED Thursday · 5–10 pm · Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50 · Free Sound Metaphors play Balearic house and deep-cut disco into the sunset while Circadian pours rare Japanese teas instead of the usual bar.
📷 200 Years and Counting
Saturday · 12 pm–12 am · C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 22-24 · Free with exhibition ticket (€15/8), registration is required
C/O turns two hundred years of photography into an argument with itself: Kate Crawford's keynote on what AI slop costs the planet, and a wet plate collodion camera developing portraits in the courtyard all afternoon, first come first served. Panels between them, shorts at 9 pm.
🌻FLORA Festival '26, Session 10 Saturday · 5–9 pm · Location TBA · Free Free, solar-powered deep listening outdoors, nomadic; location goes out on Telegram the day before.
👠Berlin Drag Festival Sunday · 12–8 pm · Festsaal Kreuzberg, Am Flutgraben 2 · €39.55 Pandora Nox, who won Drag Race Germany, and Soa de Muse from Drag Race France headline a full day with over ten Berlin queens and a queer creators' market.
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🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🗣️ Germany rethinks law protecting politicians from insults
🚘 Access to telemetry data: Auto industry criticizes intelligence agency reform
🤢 ‘Soon I’ll really start to puke’: Samuel Beckett’s travels around Nazi Germany
Factoid
BER saw fewer passengers in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. 11.9 million people (minus 1.2%), used the airport. By comparison, in the first six months of record-year 2019, 17 million passengers travelled via the old Tegel or Schönefeld airports. Why the drop? Covid, airlines pulling flights, a drop in Berlin tourism? Who really knows? Despite the occasional new international connection, (there’s a new direct flight to Syria), it looks like Germany’s capital and largest city will remain an air travel backwater for the foreseeable future.
a message from our friends at Berlin non-profit Masterpiece for Good
Pink Silence Avignon is a participatory art installation featuring 365 pink bed sheets, designed to combat gender-based violence. Avignon was chosen deliberately: it was here that the Gisèle Pelicot trial took place, sparking a global debate on violence, silence and social responsibility. Together with schools, organisations and the local community, we’re creating a space for visibility, dialogue and collective action.
365 works of art. 365 stories. A social sculpture against gender-based violence.
Find out more and support our crowdfunding campaign here.
🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗
🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify