It’s hard to believe,
but the first Handpicked Berlin issue was sent almost exactly 4 years ago, on the 2nd of May. Thank you so much for being on this journey together with me.
Speaking of journeys, last week I released the Salary Trends report (unfortunately, the email was sent to Promotions on Gmail). You can read the report, check detailed reports per job families (if you lost your code, let me know) or sign up for a webinar, which I will run together with Ravio.
Two more things are coming: a market intelligence report (for companies) and salary calculator/dashboard for you.
Non-salary related news: we have a couple of more spots left for our 3 AI workshops in May, AND I am looking for volunteers to help me run events.
📌 Pinned
In Germany, Google Maps reviews became pretty much useless because businesses were able to easily remove negative reviews. Specialised firms appeared, offering takedowns for a fee. This probably caused a lot of cost to Google, so they finally responded with an extremely smart deterrence: signalling use of the takedown services in the last 365 days. I already removed several places from my “Want to-go” and my “Best restaurants and bars” lists. I guess a couple is fine, because sometimes people are really mean, but seeing a pattern sucks. I don’t recall the last time that a software update made me so happy.
Also, polls are back, see below.
This image was a part of my most viral post on LinkedIn to date.
So I wasn’t the only one happy with it.
I have already seen a couple of interesting vibecoded solutions, and I especially like this one from one of the subscribers, Berlin Trust Index. Happy browsing!
How many takedowns can a place have before you skip it?
🗞 Berlin & Germany
Our next AI workshop, where we help you take your AI use to the next level, is this Thursday, but if you can’t make it, we have two more slots in May. Check out the early bird tickets (and read the testimonials on the page!). Related, I am looking for volunteers to help me run Handpicked Live events.
A place that surely doesn’t remove reviews is BAMNAT, run by Häran Kim where we had our last Insider’s Dinner Club. A warm recommendation and a great proof of how far being passionate about food can bring you. They do amazing drinks as well.
You will be able to buy last-minute Deutsche Bahn tickets each weekend for the following week. The special deal will be available between the 9th of May and the 13th of September. From €6.99 onwards, inside Germany. A great deal and much more packed trains.
Ryanair is on a campaign to reduce costs at BER (the same flight costs €4.400 from Warsaw and €7.600 from Berlin) and will be closing the base in 2027 and cutting half of its flights in October. This is bad because they bring the most passengers annually. The ghosts of the past (big debt and wrong location) are still here. Ryanair’s CEO on what he would say to Kai Wegner after the recent reduction of flights from BER. Some say it’s just negotiation tactics, but let’s hope for the best.
A great opportunity. Gründerszene is launching a Startup-Summercamp — a 10-week, full-time fellowship for up to 10 builders shipping AI consumer apps from the Axel Springer HQ in Berlin. €2,410/month salary, free lunch, AI credits (OpenAI, Anthropic), mentoring from unicorn founders and VCs, and access to the Axel Springer network. Applications close 31 May. Apply here.
We will have elections in September. I enjoyed this very simple overview from WahlHeymat of how the political system in the city works. Every EU citizen can vote on the municipal level for a district assembly, which also elects the district mayor.
Die Linke and Benjamin Raabe filed a criminal complaint (€) against BCA Relocation Gmb for renting a 37 sqm Wilmersdorf flat to a Ukrainian newcomer at €1,450/month warm (~180% of the Mietspiegel). Imagine: the same company had advised him on his visa and knew he needed a contract urgently. Now they want to see whether §291 StGB (Mietwucher, up to 3 years prison) can actually be enforced against gouging landlords — a paragraph that has effectively never been used. If it sticks, prosecutors, not just district offices, would handle overpricing. (Disclosure: Mr Raabe is also my lawyer.)
Related, the federal cabinet just passed a draft tenancy-law reform, which still needs Bundestag approval. Four main changes: furnished-flat loophole closed (surcharge must be itemised, capped at 1% of furniture value or 10% of net cold rent); short-term contracts capped at 6 months (8 if needs change mid-tenancy); index-rent steps above 3% inflation only count half toward increases in tight markets; and the Schonfristzahlung now also blocks ordinary terminations, not just fristlos ones, if arrears are cleared within two months.
Stats: On the 2nd May BSR collected 183 cubic meters of trash, roughly 1,000 bathtubs. Last year, it was 110 cubic meters.
Berlin-related headlines
"Revolutionary May Day" demo marches through Kreuzberg [more].
Related, May 1 a "great success" for Mayor Wegner, police count 70,000 at demos and 87 arrests [more, €]
Alcohol ban at two Berlin stations (Zoo and Ostbahnhof) from 1 May [more]
BVG puts new trains into service on the U5 [more]
Heavy demand for Abramović show, Gropius Bau extends evening opening hours [more, €]
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🌿 Worth your time
Unbelievable creativity again by Neal. This time he made Cursor Camp, which works only on desktop. A fun distraction.
If you are shoplifting, who are you stealing from? I’ve seen some debate on German social media about theft on self-checkout, some people saying they are stealing from the capitalists. I found this perspective on “Why shoplifting is bad” from Noah Smith interesting. The perspective is from the US, but I think it should hold here as well.
Fitting for the first of May, here is a film database on labour and precarity in European film. It contains over 1300 keyworded titles. I love a good movie, and I recently made a Letterboxd account. You can connect with me there.
📌 Briefly
A bit longer than usual, because of the break last week.
Outside interests #1: Excellent essay about why X’s acquisition of Cursor makes sense and why will all the middlemen without compute struggle. [more]
Outside interests #2: LinkedIn is scanning users' installed browser extensions and using the data for tracking and identification across the web, including for signed-out visitors. [more]
Outside interests #3: Period-tracking app Flo has been sharing user cycle and intimate-experience data with Meta for ad targeting. [more]
Outside interests #4: Meta ended its contract with Kenya-based AI training subcontractor Sama, resulting in 1,108 layoffs, after workers spoke out about being made to watch sex and toilet footage captured by Meta smart-glasses users. Meta says Sama failed to meet standards; Sama and a Kenyan workers' organisation call it retaliation for speaking up. [more]
Outside interests #5: Starting September 2026, a Google update will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with Google, signed their contract, paid up, and handed over government ID. [more]
Quantistry (Berlin, deeptech), a startup focused on AI and quantum-based materials research, filed for insolvency.
Talon.One (Berlin, e-commerce) was acquired by Adyen for €750M. This is one of Germany's largest exits in recent years.
Blocks (Berlin, cloud cost optimisation) reported €1M ARR a month after launch. [more]
Delivery Hero (Berlin, food delivery) raised FY adjusted EBIT guidance to the upper end of €910-960M; Q1 GMV growth accelerated to +8.8%. [more]
Trade Republic (Berlin, fintech) reports 10M+ customers, €150B AUM, €12.5B valuation and three profitable years. But there are headwinds: within months it’ll lose Payment-for-Order-Flow (once up to a third of revenue) under the new EU ban and competition is increasing (even Sparkassen launched a competing app), plus the state-subsidised pension depot arrives Q1 2027 where many players want a piece of cake. [more]
Koro (Berlin, food brand) grew revenue ~44% to ~€250M in 2025 and was EBITDA-profitable with positive operating cash flow. [more]
Tesla (Grünheide, automotive) cut sick leave at its German Gigafactory from 17% (Aug 2024) to under 5%, after introducing perks (employee share programme, gym, barbershop, €25/day Tesla rentals) alongside earlier hardline measures, including unannounced home visits to sick staff. [more]
Aleph Alpha (Heidelberg, AI) is being acquired by Canadian Cohere. Schwarz Group plans to invest $600 million in Cohere’s upcoming Series E round. [more]
Schwarz Digits (Heilbronn, cloud), the IT arm of Lidl-owner Schwarz Group, has been picked by the Dutch central bank as its European cloud provider as they move to reduce dependence on the US cloud providers. [more] The platform is called STACKIT.
Deutsche Bank (Frankfurt, banking) Q1 net profit +8% to €2.2B, its second-highest Q1 pre-tax result ever, behind only Q1 2007.
Volkswagen (Wolfsburg, automotive) Q1 profit -28% to €1.56B and Porsche (Stuttgart, automotive) Q1 operating profit -20% to €595M, both citing US tariffs and weak China. Better news for VW: its ID.3 electric vehicle became the most registered EV in Germany, surpassing Tesla's Model Y.
Kone (Finland, elevators) is buying TK Elevator (Essen) from Advent and Cinven for €29.4B.
Munich has set minimum prices for ride-hailing apps Uber and Bolt, pegging them to the taxi base/km rate (€5.13 base, €2.43/km, no taxi surcharges). Effective 1 July.
Aldi Süd (Mülheim an der Ruhr, retail) is cutting around 1,250 jobs by the end of 2027. The cuts come on top of layoffs at the German HQ announced in January.
This week's Coffee Talk: Rajiv Desai
He is revealing three great tips: for an Indian restaurant, an app and a cafe to learn German. The full conversation, jobs, events & what the community is up to, every Thursday. Free.
😅 Meanwhile
did we come full circle yet?
Weekly social and outside interests
X: Lunch pack for the police working on the 1st of May. Looks good!
Reddit: CCP propaganda, but still a nice video to watch: from deer antlers to ancient ink. Not sure about the axe slapping, but the rest looks cool.
Reddit: Imagine being a soldier in the year 100 in a far, far land, walking through some forest and then you hear this war trumpet.
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.
