We announced our fifth AI workshop, where we will help you get over the AI edge, so you will be independently building things to help you with your daily work. We intentionally keep the groups small, and the feedback has been amazing. Book early, we have very limited space.

Our friends at Gezellig Session are inviting you to their 5th anniversary this Saturday! For the ones who read first thing in the morning, here is a chance to win 2x2 tickets in a raffle. Only entries until 10 AM today will be counted. On top of that, we also have a 20% discount for the first 10 tickets.

Uh, I must admit I had higher hopes about Merz and his government. Now Germany also failed to win a UN Security Council seat and was beaten to it by Austria and Portugal. Things don't look good, and the turnaround better be quick! Or else?

On the brighter side: After 9 (!) years of delays, a new S15 line opens next week between Haupbahnhof and Gesundbrunnen.

Protest can still have an impact or do they? BVG advertised NIUS, a right-wing populist news platform, in the U-Bahns and on buses via their ad vendor. People went ballistic. BVG’s initial reaction was: as a public company we need to make ad space available without discrimination, also to NIUS. But then, Julian Reichelt (NIUS’ chief editor) posted a new ad motif on social media that the BVG considers "obviously unlawful." The way it was presented made it look as though the image was hanging inside a Berlin U-Bahn and was part of the booked BVG campaign. So they found an easy exit from the mess.

Good news: Apple will open its first developer center in Europe in Berlin! The space will be available for in-person sessions, workshops and one-on-one appointments. The renders look great.

For the döner fans out there: Berlin Kebab Prices. Probably also enabled by AI. It's the best time ever for idea people. We can finally build our own software, and I love it. On a related note, I think it’s safe to say that the average döner quality in Berlin is by far the highest in the world.

It’s that time of the year again: a map of 238 drinking fountains. I wish there were some on the edges of Tiergarten.

Berlin is getting Dock9, a €100M conference and exhibition hall that will replace Halle 9 and accommodate up to 5k people. It should be finished by 2029.

Stats: German citizenship grants hit a record 332k in 2025 (+14% YoY, 5th straight rise). Syrians still top (20%, -21% YoY); Turkish and Russian +51% each, US +100%, Bosnian +126%. [more] In Berlin, it was 39k (vs 21.8k in 2024).

Berlin Senate appeals court ruling on Görlitzer Park's nighttime opening. [more]

50th ADFC Sternfahrt: tens of thousands of cyclists took over Berlin's streets and motorways — sometimes pushing their bikes. [more]. Related, only 78 of 870 km done: new Berlin bike lanes are now being built at a snail's pace. [more, €]

In terms of real estate, Paris is where Berlin is going, just some 15 years ahead. [more]

Berlin parks were heavily damaged after May Day techno parties. [more]

If it's true that AI will replace or decrease the need for knowledge workers, who will be spending money and buying the products from the companies which just saved a ton of money by getting rid of their knowledge workers? Let me introduce you to the Dead Economy Theory. Another essential read for everyone curious. "The AI subscription that was supposed to be an investment in efficiency turns out to be a contribution to the destruction of its own market."

Where is Balkan? A timeless joke by Slavoj Žižek is another reminder of how we all behave the same against the “others”.

Outside interests #1: Meta scaled back its plan to log employees' keystrokes and clicks for AI training; workers can now pause collection for 30 minutes at a time and request exemptions. [more]

Outside interests #2: Tesla May sales in plus across Europe: +655% in France, +29% in Norway, double- to triple-digit growth in Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden; Italy -23.5%. DE and UK pending. [more] Coming back from a lower base?

Enpal (Berlin, climate tech) has brought 300+ Colombian and Brazilian electricians to its Brandenburg academy due to shortages of a qualified workforce. They say that's 3% of all German electrician certificates this year and want to cross 500. [more]

Contentful (Berlin, software) will be acquired by Salesforce, closing by the end of October. Terms undisclosed; valued at $3B+ in 2021. [more]

Factorial (Barcelona, HR tech) raised a $150M Series D at $2.5B valuation with an additional $540M available. They are opening a Munich office to take on Personio and expand in Germany. [more]

Martin Scorsese is using Black Forest Labs (Freiburg, AI) for storyboard generation in film pre-production. [more]

Schwarz Digits (Neckarsulm, cloud) won a GovTech contract worth up to €250M for the “Deutschlandplattform” and MEDI via its STACKIT platform. [more]

Check24 (Munich, comparison platform) is under scrutiny for favouring its own travel and energy offerings in rankings without clear disclosure, as it shifts toward owned products in response to AI competition. [more]

Rheinmetall (Düsseldorf, defence) signed its largest-ever international order: €5.7B with Romania for armoured vehicles, air defence, munitions, and four naval ships.

UniCredit has 34.35% of Commerzbank two weeks before its June 16 deadline, and could reach 50.8% via options and total-return swaps. Commerzbank’s board is still against the takeover.

Bayer (Leverkusen) shares dropped to a 6-month low last week after the US glyphosate settlement (up to $7.25B) was provisionally moved to a California federal court.

Uber and Israeli AI firm Autobrains announced a Level-4 robotaxi programme for Munich using “OEM-agnostic” tech that retrofits into standard Audi, BMW, Mercedes, or VW cars. [more]

Scalable Capital (Munich, fintech) co-founder Erik Podzuweit called the stock market “almost too good to be true” on Finance Forward. They now have 1M users and €50B AUM. [more]

Lufthansa's Boeing 787-9 nose gear collapsed at a Frankfurt parking gate (LH450 to LA). [more]

German automakers VW, Mercedes-Benz, BMW saw Q1 revenue fall 4.3% YoY (US peers +5%, Japanese +4%) and operating profit -23.3% (US peers +83%). China sales -16%. [more]

Used EV sales in Germany nearly doubled YoY: 120k in Jan-Apr 2026, almost triple 2024. [more]

Reddit: A typical construction site in Berlin. So true. Sometimes I wonder if this is all a dream.

Reddit: What can a person learn in 10 minutes that will be useful for life? Several good ones inside, like saying "No, I can't" is a full sentence or navy seal power nap: elevating your legs above your heart for 8-20 minutes.

Instagram: imagine someone stealing your work and then winning prizes with it. (in German) I didn't see the full film when they go to confront him, but it’s available in ARD Mediathek and it looks promising.

elsewhere: May I interest you in an online rave?

Last week I asked about social media bans for kids, and most of you are in favour: