💔 You all heard about the disgusting attack on openness, diversity and freedom at CSD this weekend. Humanity has made big progress, but we are still so primitive that we kill each other because of the interpretation of words written in very old books. Another sad day for common sense. I feel so sorry for all the victims.

Alcohol will be forbidden at 5,400 train stations across Germany. Sanctions: an order to leave the premises, for repeat offenders a ban from entering the station or a criminal complaint. DB says it will enforce it with "a sense of proportion". But you will still be able to drink on their trains.

German startups raised about €5.3 billion in venture capital in the first half of 2026, up 14% year-on-year, but the number of funding rounds fell 11% to 354. Berlin is at the top with 1.7B (+10%) and 95 rounds. Large rounds dominated: €500M for Stark in Berlin and €1.2B for Neura Robotics in Ba-Wü.

The Berlin Senate started automatically scanning apartment listings for violations of the rent cap. Landlords will get a letter asking them to reconsider their pricing. They plan to run the scan monthly, and in the June run, 46% of 4.5k listings were flagged as suspicious. 20% over the reference rent is considered excessive, 50% is rent gouging, a criminal offence.

What's the reason the German car industry, still seeming unbeatable as late as 2019 (as recently as 2023 EU car manufacturers earned 40.6% of global auto profits!!), now seems dead and done deal? Adam Tooze's analysis is again excellent: it's not because of China alone, but because European carmakers spent the post-COVID years on greedflation — restricting volumes, hiking prices, abandoning affordable models — and poured the record profits into dividends and reserves instead of investment, just as China was scaling up and cutting prices. On top, the industry actively lobbied against the green transition and against a determined response to China. Well, bravo, now you have it. But of course, the C-level, top managers and consultants get to keep every euro of the salaries and bonuses they collected over the last decade.

Can I interest you in some day trips from Berlin? Some great ideas from the official blog, including Spandau and Potsdam’s Dutch Quarter. If you go there, try Cafe Guam, they have loads of different cheesecakes.

What’s planned at the 500 hectares of the former airport Tegel? A lot, and the renders are pretty exciting. Interestingly, one of the challenges was removing all the WW2 ammunition. We are supposed to get Urban Tech Republic, an industry park, and Schumacher quartier with 5k apartments (first ones in 2028). Currently, 40 organisations are already working there.

Kalle Halle, a food court and a third space in Neukölln, filed for insolvency after 8 months of being open. It's a pity, but it did feel a bit expensive for the area. For now, the restaurants will stay open, and I have previously recommended Mogg and their Reuben. I am in the area daily, and unfortunately, Birds in the Kitchen, which is supposed to also be good, is almost never open. There is another rec by my trusted Insider’s Dinner Club foodies: Koji, a handrolled sushi place.

Four of 21 parties not admitted to the Abgeordnetenhaus election [more]

Second defeat for the transport authority — court provisionally overturns 50 km/h on another Berlin main road [more, €]

Researchers concerned - snakes with yellow stripes spotted in Berlin [more, €]

There is a lot to take from this BBC article on fads, not friends, dominating our social media feeds. For me it was that social media is basically turning into something passive like television. And next time you see my reel or a post by your local business, remember that "global social media ad revenue is expected to reach $317 billion (£236bn) in 2026, up from $277 billion (£206bn) last year. Meta is the biggest winner. Its ad sales already increased 22% year-on-year in 2025. Ad sales are expected to hit $243 billion (£181bn) this year, enough to overtake Google for the first time." Good that I don't need to work only for Zuck.

There are several ways to release dopamine, a signal of anticipation and motivation. You can also train yourself to do it by setting mini goals and then celebrating achieving them. More context from this Psychology Today article.

It's very rewarding to talk to a stranger. When I do it, I always feel better afterwards. A small interaction can brighten someone's day.

Outside interests #1: Alphabet reported its first-ever cash burn — $5.9B in Q2 — even as Google Cloud grew 82%; 2026 capex was raised by another $15B, with more expected next year. Microsoft, Meta and Amazon report this week under the same AI-capex pressure. [more]

Outside interests #2: A Nikkei Asia investigation estimates that Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Oracle are collectively hiding $1.65T in off-balance-sheet AI-related debt — more than their $1.35T of reported debt. Meta alone accounts for $420B. [more]

Neodigital (Berlin, insurance) ended its traditional insurance business, returned its BaFin license, and transferred over 400k customers to Adam Riese; it now focuses exclusively on its Insurance-as-a-Service platform for insurers and brokers. [more]

Zalando (Berlin, e-commerce) is cutting around 200 more Berlin jobs via voluntary agreements while spinning up a Bucharest office (60 roles by Q1 next year); 450 Berlin roles were cut last year, and the Erfurt logistics site with 2.1k staff closes in September. [more]

AUTODOC (Berlin, auto parts e-commerce) intends to launch a €530M senior secured term loan B with most proceeds funding a buyback of Apollo's Hybrid Value stake so the three founders return to 100% ownership. [more] Layoffs were also announced internally (20-45% in some teams according to my sources).

Galeria Kaufhof (Essen, retail) put 33 warehouse stores on a watch list for possible closure, including all four Berlin locations (Alexanderplatz, Hermannplatz, Kurfürstendamm, Spandau) and Potsdam. A recent €160M credit line is tied to further restructuring. [more]

Deutsche Bank (Frankfurt, banking) had its Frankfurt HQ raided by prosecutors investigating cum-cum transactions from the Postbank era (2008–2010), a fraud scheme that cost the German treasury €28B. [more] This series is great if you are interested in the topic.

VW (Wolfsburg, automotive) Q2 net profit fell 33% to €1.5B; the company cut its full-year revenue outlook from up-to-3% growth to flat-or-down-3%.

Porsche (Stuttgart, automotive) plans to cut a further 5-6k jobs by 2035 on top of the 3.9k cut last year.

Varta (Ellwangen, batteries) filed for insolvency in self-administration less than two years after its last restructuring, after Apple moved AirPods CoinPower cell production from Nördlingen to Chinese suppliers. Creditors plan to carve the profitable consumer batteries unit out of the process.

SAP (Walldorf, software) grew current cloud backlog 27% YoY to €22.9B in Q2 and closed acquisitions of Dremio and Prior Labs (the 18-month-old team behind tabular foundation model TabPFN). [more]

Picnic (Amsterdam, grocery delivery) grew group revenue 24% to €1.9B in 2025; Germany reached €774M (+28%), France €140M (+40%), Netherlands €1B. 3.6M customers, average spend over €500/year. [more]

Schwarz Digits (Bad Friedrichshall, cloud), the tech arm of Lidl/Kaufland owner Schwarz Group, opened its "Home of Digits" campus for up to 5.5k employees, positioning its sovereign stack against AWS, Microsoft and Google. [more]

ZenDiS's open-source Microsoft 365 alternative openDesk was found "suitable" as an emergency workplace in joint tests by the German Pension Insurance, Federal Employment Agency across Ionos, Stackit and T-Systems clouds; roughly 100k workstations already use it. [more]

Tesla (Grünheide, automotive) is asking its German staff to help train the humanoid Optimus robot. [more]

Axel Springer presented the Axel Springer Award to Peter Thiel. [more]

Amazon Prime: Bavarian court dismissed a class action from Verbraucherzentrale Sachsen and 324k plaintiffs against Prime's introduction of advertising; the consumer association has appealed to the BGH.

Germany's sick-leave rate slightly declined in H1 2026: employees averaged 9.6 sick days (from 9.9 in H1 2025) and the sickness rate ticked down to 5.3%. Mental-health absences rose 9% YoY and are now the top cause. [more]

Website: OverpAId, an agent that enables you to fire your CEO. But to be fair, a great CEO or a boss is often the biggest success factor for organisations' success.

Reddit: What were the most "this could only happen in Berlin" moments you ever witnessed? For me it was a homeless dude casually biting into a guy’s slice of pizza in the middle of the day.

Website: a pretty addictive Airport simulator game. I often mentioned that you can get a great job as a flight controller with salaries easily above 100k, and it’s probably not as complicated as this game.

Reddit: are you also noticing AI slop around Berlin? One of the local Vietnamese uses it, and it’s scringe af.

Last week I asked you if you notice Berlin's construction sites: 90% see them all the time, 7% only when they slow you down, and 3% have stopped noticing.