Berlinale is here. I interviewed Julia (How to get tickets and What to see) and Leo about it. I outsourced my movie selection this year, but I can still add my tip for getting tickets: pretty easy for big venues (Uber Eats Music Hall) at weird times, for example, at 11.00 on a Saturday with 1500 other people. It’s an experience worth having. I also had success on Kleinanzeigen.

Fitting, here is an article from Tagesspiegel with the most special cinemas in Berlin. [more] For example, I had no idea there is a special day for everyone who wants to knit while watching a movie. In total, Berlin has 87 cinemas.

Last week, snow helped me to yet again see how much potential for improvement this city has. First, the streets and sidewalks were full of snow and ice. Some parts of the city never get/got cleaned. Second, BER airport struggled with ice. Again, basic public infrastructure is below par in the capital of one of the richest countries in the world. Luckily for everyone and the people running the show, we got slightly warmer weather that helped. I cannot even imagine the chaos if we had much more snow and lower temperatures for longer. You can’t just hope for the best, can you? I guess in Berlin we do.

MIT, the economic wing of CDU, wants to place tighter restrictions on part-time contracts. According to MIT, 27% of part-time workers are doing it simply as “a desire to work part-time.” However, labour law experts note that many employees don't disclose their reasons to employers, and most part-time arrangements result from mutual agreement rather than lifestyle choices. The debate continues. In a nutshell: “Any employee of a company that has 15 or more staffers is allowed to request a part-time contract, but it must be done at least three months in advance. Their employer is allowed to reject the request if, for example, it would incur the company undue costs or impede the company's ability to operate at normal output.”

I liked to check the quality of restaurants in Pankow occasionally and even did some content around it in the past. Unfortunately, the updates were slow (like once a month?), and a highly-rated restaurant owner told me the whole process is strange. The site is now temporarily down, which is bad, since it was still better than nothing. If you asked me, we should have something like this for the whole of Berlin and updated regularly. It would be a great public service.

There is this interesting initiative for a referendum to forbid certain types of advertising in public spaces (Berlin Werbefrei). The Senate claimed this would cause a €325M hole in the budget, which, based on the court decision, needed to be corrected down to €48.5M. A similar initiative failed in Hamburg last May.

For the Telekom users amongst you: did you know that Telekom is throttling your internet speed? I noticed it myself. You can help the cause by donating and by measuring your internet speed at peak hours - I tried and always got stuck at step 3, 4 or 5. Meanwhile, Telekom launched its first AI data centre in Munich, with 10k Nvidia chips.

Stats: January 2026 in Berlin had an average temperature of -1.9°C, which was 0.4°C below the 1961-1990 reference period, but not as cold as January 2010 when temperatures averaged -5.1°C. It was sunnier and drier than usual.

25 years since Berlin banking scandal: The big crash [read]

Why road salt is so problematic [read]

Dead swans: Bird flu continues to circulate [read]

Berlin's ice victims can sue for bodily harm - take photos of the scene and search for witnesses [read, €]

Climate activists convicted for paint attack on Brandenburg Gate [read]

Career: How can two things at the same time be true? Germany is facing a massive shortage of skilled workers, from nurses to IT Specialists. At the same time, IT Specialists (and others) in Berlin struggle to get jobs. It’s because there is too much supply in the big cities, especially at the junior level. If you are struggling for months and would be up for it, looking a bit outside of the big cities would make a lot of sense. [more]

In the meantime, you can have a look at what YC is thinking startups should be building. [more] AI-Native agencies make a lot of sense (forget SaaS, make internal tools to be able to deliver higher quality faster).

Career: The February “Who is hiring thread” from Hacker News is here. Mostly technical roles, filtered for Berlin. [more]

Career: I’ve been closely following developments in AI coding and am regularly in exchange with several senior software engineers. I strongly believe that one of the worst job outlooks at the moment is for junior software engineers. This is particularly true after very recent developments with Claude Code & other state-of-the-art coding models (Codex, Antigravity). If you are thinking about software bootcamps to pivot from another profession, think again. If you are a junior looking for a job, the best way is likely to build your own tools that you can demo or clear roadmaps you can suggest to the company you want to work for. A good pivot could be into business development roles and technical sales roles.

Timeless: 35 extremely useful and inspiring tips by health experts. Looking forward to trying to get back to sleep by 4-7-8 breathing and counting back from 300 by threes. [more] Also interesting is not to rinse after brushing your teeth.

Trade Republic (Berlin, neobroker) received a license to operate its own electronic trading platform from German financial regulators. They need it because of the EU ban on payment for order flow (PFOF).

BaFin reported a 35% increase in customer complaints in 2025, with 767 of 1,521 cases involving securities transactions at neobrokers. Complaints include lengthy depot transfers and incorrect tax statements. [more]

Revolut (fintech) reached 3M customers in Germany, one of its fastest-growing markets.

LiveEO (Berlin, spacetech) plans to build the largest commercial 3D camera in orbit by 2028 using its own satellites, marking a strategic shift from data analysis to satellite production. [Gründerszene] [careers]

The Female Company (Berlin, femtech) faced serious allegations of alleged mobbing, extreme workload and discrimination against mothers. A former employee reported a sexual assault incident at a 2022 company retreat. The company denies the allegations. [more]

Topi (Berlin, hardware rental), acquired by Peac Solutions, is expanding to the UK.

A Berlin court ruled that the former director of the dentists' pension fund VZB abused his position by holding conflicting roles in fund-linked companies without disclosure. The fund has calculated a minimal loss of €1.1B from failed startup investments (half of their total assets). [more] They started investing in startups in 2013.

According to founder Markus Villig, Bolt (Talinn, mobility) is profitable in Germany, though he says regulatory challenges are limiting its growth potential. [more] They also launched 'Women for Women' ride-hailing service in Berlin.

Germany's antitrust authority banned Amazon from using price control mechanisms that remove or hide third-party sellers' listings when their prices are deemed too high. €59M fine is pending. [more] Amazon grew 8% in Germany in 2025, reaching revenues of $45.9B, following 9% growth the previous year.

Heraeus (Hanau, precious and special metals) was accused of ignoring fraud whistleblowers in a €460M scandal. [more]

Several German courts ruled Meta Platforms' data collection on third-party websites and apps illegal, now with the Oberlandesgericht Naumburg awarding four-figure damages. Around 10,000 lawsuits against Meta are pending in Germany, with courts in Dresden and Naumburg issuing the first legally binding rulings requiring Meta to pay compensation for harvesting user data without consent through Meta Business Tools. [more]

Related, here is a good Instagram explainer from Stiftung Warentest. [more]

Internal auditors at Bitpanda's (Vienna, crypto) German subsidiary found unresolved security issues in 2024, contradicting the crypto exchange's assurances to regulators that problems identified in a 2023 audit had been fixed. [more]

The German federal government bought a 25.1% stake in TenneT (Bayreuth, transmission grid operator), securing veto rights.

Hugo Boss replaced its HR chief, Jochen Eckhold, after a dispute over home office policies.

German industrial orders grew 7.8% in December, the fourth consecutive monthly increase and the strongest growth in two years.

Qontext | Berlin | AI business context infrastructure | $2.7M Pre-seed | Careers.

enclaive | Berlin | Confidential computing solutions | €4.1M Seed | Careers.

Duna | Berlin/Amsterdam | AI identity and compliance platform | €30M Series A | Careers.

RobCo | Munich | AI-powered modular manufacturing robots | $100M Series C | Careers.

TWAICE | Munich | Predictive battery analytics platform | €24M loan | Careers.

Additive Drives | Dresden | 3D-printed electric motor technology | €25M | Careers.

Morpheus Space | Dresden | Electric propulsion for satellites | $15M | Careers.

Enua | Cologne | Cannabis production company | €25M debt | Careers.

Gardia | Soest | Emergency alert for senior safety | €8.5M | Careers.

Reddit: What is a sign of very low intelligence? Love the first comment: “Actually, that’s not true, I know someone who died in an airplane crash.” Lack of curiosity is a strong one, and always having an answer as well.

Reddit: What should be on a Berlin bingo card? Some funny suggestions. “Had no plans to learn German” made me chuckle. (h/t to the reader sending me this!)

YouTube: How is this even possible? Beatboxing at the next level. My guess is that it requires a lot of training and talent. 😅

elsewhere: Please don’t say mean things about the AI I just invested in.