Dears,
yesterday I survived S25 and ran the furthest in my life, 25km. It was a fun experience with a finish line on the Olympic stadium and my first race ever in prep for the marathon in Septemeber. Would do again.
In other news, I am going to take the next week off to burn some tokens, so this is the last Monday issue before May 4th. Meanwhile I will hopefully drop the Salary Trends report as a dedicated mail.
Our great panel at Apple event on Wednesday was booked out several times, but we managed to release a couple of more tickets. Hope to see you there. Register here, free, BUT limited spots. The event will be held in English.
Also, check out the amazing deal from our partner, Kittl! Details in the banner.
📌 Pinned
For sure! And it's spilling into Brandenburg. A solid 30 min documentary by RBB also put a price to it: illegal dumping cost the city €13M last year. Beside the official app, you can now also use Trash Cam, which is faster and simpler. And btw, “zu verschenken” boxes? Forbidden. Part of the fix is behavioral, but part is structural: I am sure more frequent BSR Sperrmüll collection would help and cheaper than picking up illegal dumps. In Stuttgart, every household gets an annual coupon (or two?) to leave bulky waste on the curb for pickup. (More on the trash in the snippets)
🗞 Berlin & Germany
How many of the 3 groups Unesco world heritage sites in Berlin have you already visited? It’s palaces and parks of Potsdam and Berlin, Museum Island, and Berlin modernism housing estates.
Outside of our tech bubble Berlin ranks last among Germany's 16 federal states on adjusted purchasing power, with an average real annual income of €24,600. Prices in the capital are 6% above the national average, but salaries lag. Top-ranked Bavaria comes in at €30,396. Kaufkraft means how much stuff your salary actually buys after you account for how expensive the city is. The best place to live in terms of adjusted PP is Heilbronn with €39,424. Nothing against Heilbronn, but I’ve seen better.
If you feel like exploring Berlin with your bike, here is a completely new 25km route “Warmes Licht and kühles Bier”, which will guide you through Berlin's dual industrial heritage: the sites of the electrical industry and the surprising number of historic breweries on Prenzlauer Berg.
Berghain lost the spot in top 20 on the list of best clubs worldwide by the DJ Mag magazine and is now placed 21. Somehow I don’t think they really care. The best rated German club is “Boothaus” in Cologne at number 11.
Tourist numbers are down and hotel occupancy is stuck around 55%, so the obvious response of people in charge in the Senate and in the districts is to approve 116 new hotels with 8,100+ beds. What a time to be alive: if you have fewer guests, build more beds. Maybe it’s 3D chess: build it and they will come?
And when they come, they can help keep the city tidy. Under the new "BerlinPay" scheme (modeled on Copenhagen) tourists who collect trash or "beautify the Kiez" get rewarded with small perks from participating partners. Ok.
On Saturday thousands took to the streets in Berlin demanding the government stop dragging its feet on renewables, which gave me a convenient excuse to post this amazing chart (read the article here). It reminded me of the times when some of our managers in Mercedes told us that “the battery is too expensive”. Internal combustion engine for non industrial use is dead.
Stats: Berlin looks referendum-fatigued: "Berlin autofrei" (banning most private cars inside the S-Bahn ring) has gathered 46,200 signatures and "Berlin werbefrei" (banning commercial outdoor advertising) just 14,000. Far short of the 174,000 each needs by May 8 to trigger a September 20 vote.
Berlin-related headlines
Berlin-Mitte takes in €400,000 from improperly parked e-scooters [more]
Thieves steal cash from Gärten der Welt [more]
The future of Berlin's bike paths is bumpy [more]
Hype around Marina Abramović: more than 400m-long queue at the opening of her new Berlin exhibition [more]
Tilda Swinton will be on stage in Berlin next year [more]
Ad
Running a business solo and still designing in Canva?
Kittl is the AI-powered design platform for founders who need professional output without hiring a designer. Built in Berlin.
Generate concepts with AI, refine to production-ready in minutes
Mockups, packaging, brand visuals, and motion design. All in one place.
Much cheaper than an hour of freelance design work. All that starting from $12/month.
If you mean business (like 10M+ of our users), go all in: 25% off any subscription with code HANDPICKED25.
🌿 Worth your time
It took me a couple of years to realise that what I thought is me being attracted to people with ambition was actually me being attracted to people with purpose. And here is a great essay on the topic of being obsessed with your life. I think it also has a lot to do with doing some sort of regular therapy.
It does feel like YouTube algo realised that I got really sick and tired of hustlers selling us their routines and recipes for success, so I got this recommended the other day. And the algo was right, it is a great video.
📌 Briefly
Outside interests #1: Ticketmaster and parent Live Nation were found by a New York jury to hold illegal monopolies in US live event markets. Penalties have not yet been determined. [more] This is great for consumers. If you want more details, here is a great writeup on their business.
Outside interests #2: Anthropic is expanding its London office to accommodate 800 employees, up from a current capacity of 200. [more]
Outside interests #3: Microplastics pollution may have been significantly overestimated, after researchers found their measurements were contaminated by particles shed from their own plastic gloves. [more]
Outside interests #4: Meta plans to cut around 8,000 jobs (~10% of its workforce) in May, with further reductions planned in the second half of the year. [more]
FC Union Berlin parted ways with head coach Steffen Baumgart. Marie-Louise Eta takes over for the final games of the season, becoming the first woman head coach in Bundesliga history. [more]
Delivery Hero (Berlin, food delivery): Uber is expanding its stake to around 7% in the company in a €270M deal (the seller is Prosus). [more]
Solaris (Berlin, fintech) is considering additional layoffs beyond the 80 previously announced, according to CEO Steffen Jentsch. The company has around 400 employees; its valuation fell from €1.6B to under €100M after a €140M funding round in 2025. [more]
Lieferando (Berlin, food delivery) faces a €200 fine (not a typo!) in Berlin-Mitte after the Just Eat Takeaway subsidiary illegally put up discount posters on lampposts. Company has begun removing them. [more]
Axel Springer (Berlin, media) cleared UK regulatory review for its £575M acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group. It is Springer's second-largest deal after its ~$1B Politico acquisition in 2021. [more]
DeutschlandCard (Munich, loyalty) will close by the end of 2026, affecting 90 employees. The loyalty program is a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. [more]
Nio (Shanghai, automotive) is seeking subtenants for its showroom spaces in Berlin, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, and Hamburg after selling only 8 vehicles (not a typo!) in Germany in Q1 2026. [more]
Bosch (BW, automotive supplier) reported its first loss since 2009, with a net result of −€400M in 2025, driven by €2.7B in restructuring charges. Up to 22,000 jobs are being cut in the supplier division; global headcount fell by ~5,100 to 412,774. [more]
Getsafe (Heidelberg, insurtech) acquired Hamburg-based Helden.de for an undisclosed amount. The customer base will be integrated into the Getsafe app.
This week's Coffee Talk: Nina Mannheimer
Nina is working on something new and was previously at Klim. The full conversation, jobs, events & what the community is up to, every Thursday. Free.
😅 Meanwhile
when people say German is hard
from Reddit
Weekly social and outside interests
“God sleeps in the minerals, awakens in plants, walks in animals, and thinks in man.” I can’t believe the cubes are possible. Fascinating.
Reddit: a website or app that feels like a "cheat code" but most people don't know about. I can vouch for Firefox + uBlock origin.
elsewhere: If you cycle, you should wear a helmet (a testimonial from a neurosurgeon). It includes me and the rest of “ah, its just a short Nextbike ride” crowd.
Don’t miss
Need help with finding a flat, insurance, have problems at work or are you lost in career or life? Talk to our Handpicked Experts.
Handpicked Community talking about money. Plus ideas for your setup.
How to learn German? Three very hands-on articles.
Handpicked recs: a growing archive of recommendations.
