Handpicked Berlin

Your weekly Berlin briefing. The whole week in one read: the news, the context, and what's worth your time.
Curated by Igor Ranc.

Newsletter issues

Oct 19, 2026

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7 min read

#216: do you go to smoking bars?

Ashtrays, Knast and contactless: smoking bars, a prison hotel and BVG's card-only future.

Oct 12, 2026

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7 min read

#215: who says investors are killing?

A €2.5B terminal, a tunnel nobody can staff and beavers that need their own tunnel.

Oct 5, 2026

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6 min read

#214: how broke is Berlin?

Poor but sexy, the sequel: Europe's best club, a €5B budget hole and a pricier Deutschlandticket.

Sep 28, 2026

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7 min read

#213: who will govern Berlin?

42 kilometres later, and I am glad it’s over: the hardest part was probably carb loading.

Sep 21, 2026

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6 min read

#212: will anything actually change?

I felt very good walking to the school and voting; it just felt special that I could vote in a foreign country thanks to the EU.

Sep 14, 2026

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5 min read

#211: who you gon' call (vote for)?

Hello dear ghostbusters, the sirens off the Warntag caught me in the middle of the run, and I was thinking.

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