#217: where are all the flats?

Our speaker list is now complete for our next Everyday AI Club for Product teams and you don't wanna miss it. We still have a couple of spots, so be fast, we have very limited capacity. We’ll have 3 demos and a table discussion: you will learn new stuff and meet great people. Register here.

It's a bit ad-hoc, but I am inviting you for a walk this Thursday. For everyone who is focusing on too many things at the same time, myself included. Join us for a lunch time walk. If you are interested but can't make it, let us know by booking the free ticket.

This is an interesting project: KiezScore. They score every Berlin address from 0 to 100 for public transport connectivity, but you can also pin three locations and see a heatmap of where it would be best to meet (the UI could be better, but you will figure it out). Useful if you want to meet halfway. There is even a restaurant named like this, but I didn't like it.

There likely won't be any consequences, but it's an insight into AfD: Hackers published a 281GB dump of roughly 420k internal AfD emails from 2014 to September 2026 that includes correspondence from all party levels. Journalists are now sifting through, and we'll probably read more about it in the coming weeks.

Coalition talks are underway in all directions. Berlin CDU leader Stefan Evers invited the Greens and SPD to talks on managing the government transition, though all sides stress these aren't coalition negotiations. More of the same or something new?

Berlin's Linke, Grüne and SPD have agreed on a compromise to expropriate large landlords (€): instead of the original 3k-unit threshold from the ballot initiative, companies holding over 10k apartments will have to transfer them into public ownership. This would affect five companies (Vonovia, Adler Group, Heimstaden, Covivio and DVI-Gruppe) and at least 150k apartments. The federal government says it's watching the debate but sees no reason to intervene yet, though an earlier coalition decision would prevent such expropriations under federal law. This will be the topic for the next few years.

Unfortunately my hair is gone, but for the rest of you: a study by cosmetics maker Schwarzkopf claims Berlin has the worst environment for hair of any German city, based on several parameters: air pollution, humidity, UV radiation and hard tap water. Now you know you can also blame the city for your bad hair day.

BER is scrapping its surcharge on late-evening flights. Airlines currently pay 100–300% extra for landing between 22:00 and 23:59 (roughly 37 flights a night). They also published its winter flight destinations, including new routes to Finland and Iraq and confirmed Emirates won't fly between Berlin and Dubai for now.

Nvidia (US, AI chips) pledged nearly $10B in new investment across Europe and unveiled a container-sized "Rubin DSX POD" AI data centre at its GTC Berlin keynote in the Tempodrom. The lines were long and Jensen, CEO, was seen eating döners around Berlin.

Related, Reflex Aerospace (Berlin, space tech) is one of four German startups picked for fresh Nvidia funding this week, alongside Munich's Agile Robots and Avelios Medical and audio-AI startup Mirelo.

Axel Springer (Berlin, media) is reportedly interested in buying TikTok's Europe business, after parent ByteDance was forced to sell its US operations [more].

YellowFox (Dresden, telematics) acquired Berlin AI software company Peregrine Technologies.

Delivery Hero (Berlin, food delivery) had the sale of its Taiwan Foodpanda unit to Uber blocked by the local competition authority [more].

Zalando (Berlin, e-commerce) reportedly raised its planned 2027 office requirement from three days a week to five, according to employee posts on Reddit [more].

Tagesspiegel: activists paint over markings for a delivery zone in the dispute over removing the Kantstraße bike lane [more].

Tagesspiegel: "we're giving the Berlin Senate and Deutsche Bahn an ultimatum" — activists threaten to open the closed pedestrian bridge to Görlitzer Park themselves [more].

rbb24: websites of government agencies and authorities are partly back online after the PHP security flaw [more]. Related, Charité took its own website offline as a precaution.

Berlin's data protection commissioner ruled that CDU, SPD, the Greens and Die Linke broke GDPR rules with targeted Facebook ads in the 2021 federal election campaign; a separate case against the AfD is still pending [more].

Election posters are still hanging in all Berlin districts, more than three weeks past the removal deadline. Around 2k complaints have reached the district offices, but no fines have been issued so far. (TS)

Berlin got a new techno club: [119] in the former KvU (Kirche von Unten) on Storkower Straße in Prenzlauer Berg. KvU was a hub of East Berlin's counterculture.

rbb24: loose facade parts prompt the district office to cordon off a wide area around the Bierpinsel in Steglitz [more].

Four Berlin hotels won World Travel Awards 2026 in Germany's categories: Waldorf Astoria Berlin took Leading City Hotel and, for its presidential suite, Leading Hotel Suite; InterContinental Berlin took Leading Conference Hotel; Soho House Berlin took Leading Hotel Residences; and the Ritz-Carlton Berlin took Leading Luxury Hotel.

MPs asked whether Berlin's outdoor pools will stay heated past summer: no — for cost and climate reasons only Sommerbad Kreuzberg stayed open into October, and only its unheated terrace pool, though the Senate rates the health risk from colder water as low since heated indoor pools are available once the outdoor season ends [more].

An MP asked how much Berlin's six state-owned housing companies have raised rents since the election: in the weeks since 21 September they sent about 52.5k increase notices averaging 3.6-4.8% depending on the landlord (GESOBAU sent none), and the Senate says the timing — the day after the vote — was the companies' own call, driven by maintenance and climate-retrofit spending [more].

An MP asked how Berlin fights the oak processionary moth and who pays for it: the districts, out of their general budgets with no dedicated line, reporting 2026 costs between €12.5k and €960k each (Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf alone vacuumed 47k nests); an egg-cluster search this winter will estimate the 2027 risk, and a new strategy is due by the end of the year [more].

Amazon is big and convenient, and I've been using it for years. Here is how Amazon pushes up prices all across the Internet by Amanda Shendruk. Amazon's seller fees push merchants to raise prices even off Amazon's own site. I talked with a successful Amazon seller, and they told me that a rule that a product "can't be cheaper outside Amazon" isn't set in stone. Btw, if you ever buy German books, get them at your local bookstore, they will be priced the same way as online.

There is a lot of demand for fake meeting recordings with several different use cases. Appear busy with fake meeting audio and calendar invites. Welcome to Fleeting by John Carroll.

Regular readers will know I am going on about housing for several newsletters now, including this one. So I had another look at Georgism, an old concept of land value tax which could be a part of a solution for the housing crisis in large cities. If you are interested, this is an excellent primer: Does Georgism Work? Five Years Later by Lars Doucet. We need fresh ideas!

Reddit: Redditors complain that delivery drivers ride dangerously and nothing is being done about it. It is a problem, similar to cyclists riding on the wrong side of the road.

Instagram: It's a joke clip, but what could happen if our AIs become too "smart" and got to know us just a bit too well? Kids, be careful out there and don't get too dependent on one company. Always assume someone will be reading those chats as well.

Reddit: AI-related: previously we could at least trust videos, but even that's gone now, making trusted sources more valuable than ever because of AI.

Last week I asked you if smoking decides which bar you go to: 80% avoid smoking bars, 8% love that 2006-jacket smell, 6% don't go to bars, and 6% don't notice anymore.