If you want to improve your German, a good way is to listen to raido and read novels. I just finished Shantaram (didn’t really love it) and made a collection of German novels recommended by my Instagram followers. I am currently reading Schönwald by Philipp Oehmke, which is very promising.

In addition, I started a small page with my personal recommendations for books, products, apps and media. It will be a permanent collection of all the good stuff that I ever recommended in this newsletter. I got the idea after receiving my second TFA Kitchen timer. Anyway, it’s only a start; I will be adding more in the coming weeks and years. Since I have you here, here is another link for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

My gut feeling is that CDU’s maglev train idea between the planned Urban Tech Republic industrial and research park, Tegel airport and Spandau doesn’t make much sense. According to CDU, a maglev wouldn’t get stuck in traffic, as the already planned tram would. Now, the feasibility study will be ordered. I don’t know: how about prioritising trams with traffic lights? The same for pedestrians and bikes. I feel stuck at crossroads for ages. I know I come across anti-car (I am not), but cars in urban areas are a dead concept, and on top, I don’t have much faith that Berlin can finish big infrastructure projects on time and budget.

In Berlin (and most German cities), building owners are responsible for cleaning the snow in front of the property, typically by 7 am on weekdays (lol, I’ve seen cases where they only did it for 3 buildings in the street, but not the rest). Due to the recent disaster, the CDU and SPD coalition wants to improve. But, of course, they are now only examining whether to centralise these services. I do wonder how long the examination will take. Maybe we should just hope for a less harsh winter and wait for the global warming to do its job.

One of the reasons Berlin isn’t getting more money from tourists (see the Weekly social section) is also because BER doesn’t have good (international) connections. That’s a combination of factors: politicians decided on the wrong airport location; Air Berlin went bust, and Lufthansa is lobbying for Munich and Frankfurt. Tagesspiegel Checkpoint reports that they are reportedly also strongly against the UAE airlines getting the licence for the fifth airport in Germany, Berlin. Disaster. Meanwhile, Lufthansa pilots and cabin crew were on short term strike last week over pension issues. Subsidiaries like Swiss and Eurowings weren’t affected.

Beware independent coffee shops in Berlin. After LAP Coffee, now the Chinese are coming (Cotti Coffee, not Luckin). Just kidding, I have nothing against LAP, but I can’t wait for all the hot takes from the same people who were bashing LAP after Cotti opens their 10th store in Berlin (at least one at Kotti?). They offer espresso for €0.99 and operate 7.5k shops worldwide.

If you used Instagram or Facebook in Germany, you can participate in a class action lawsuit. Here are very good instructions by funk, with current claims around €5k for adults and up to €10k for minors. I created this because I like my subscribers.

Berlin is politically a completely divided city: Greens sandwiched by CDU from the left and Linke from the right, and AfD ruling the far-right part of the town (this part really fits). Tagesspiegel has a nice dashboard where you can go back to 1990.

I previously linked to shady exploitation practices of middlemen in the food delivery business. It’s mostly Indian students having to ride to make ends meet: here is a good video from DW. Maybe consider walking to your nearest restaurant and having a meal there. The restaurant will also be happy.

Stats: Among younger couples (18–44) in Berlin-Brandenburg, women are now more often the higher-educated partner than men (18–19% vs. 15%), which is the opposite with older couples (45+), where men still lead (20% vs. 14%). (Mikrocenzus, St. BB)

95 new high-rises planned in Berlin [read]

Stromnetz Berlin: Protecting power lines with cameras and razor wire [read]

From horror to family epic - four films worth watching (Forum section at Berlinale) [read]

Career: This AI-assisted essay about how AI will change everything went viral: Something big is happening. Reading it makes you nervous, but the author isn’t the most credible person alive. Here is a very good parody response: Something small is happening. And a very balanced one: Why I'm not worried about AI job loss. I am somehow on the side of the last one. In a nutshell, most of us will be fine because humans are too big of a bottleneck and the planet is, for now, run by humans.

Career: This essay on how to make a living as an artist from an artist (finnch) living from his art has some great ideas, but with the limitation that you might consider his art as “pop”. But it’s a great read and another proof that what matters is to consistently try something.

Career: I feel it so much! With AI, my work has now expanded, so it fills the time available for its completion (Parkinson’s Law). In other words, I work the same amount as before and produce more instead of working less to produce the same amount of work as before. Related: AI doesn’t reduce work—it intensifies it. How do you feel about it? I feel it’s slightly terrifying.

Career: If you never get a reply to your application, it’s often not you, but a recruiter. They are busy and overwhelmed as well, so don’t take it personally. But I still think there are no excuses for ghosting!

Timeless: 26 useful concepts for 2026 by Gurwinder. It’s hard to pick my favourite, but how about the shower test: “If you want to know where your heart is, look to where your mind goes when it wanders.” Another great one is the no. 10, the healthy user bias: “People who try supplements or practices that might have health benefits are naturally more health-conscious, and likely already healthier, than those who don’t. This is one reason there are so many studies suggesting some intervention has health benefits.”

Timeless: Speaking of research and science, please never forget that misaligned incentives destroyed science (as well?). The number of citations and publications doesn’t mean that what the paper says is true. The study replication problem is well known (especially in behavioural sciences), and, for example, this paper was cited more than 6000 times, is “fatally flawed”, and nobody cares. It’s the same with studies claiming you should eat X for Z to happen. Imagine how hard it is to do a study measuring long term impact of a certain diet.

Bad news: BASF (chemicals) is planning to cut thousand+ jobs at its Berlin service centre, which employs 2800. [more] The unconfirmed plan is to move administrative functions, including finance, HR, and logistics to India.

Enter Wero: Europe’s $24 trillion breakup With Visa and Mastercard [more] [careers, all remote]

Let’s go: The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling [more]

Beware of your Chrome extension: it might be spying on you. [more] I moved to Firefox and never looked back.

Jonas Andrulis, founder of Aleph Alpha, launched a new AI startup in Frankfurt (I couldn’t find the name) focused on integrating human expertise into AI-driven business processes tog. Roland Berger (the most famous German consultant?) is the sole investor. [more]

Flink (quick commerce) returned to Wolt's platform and is now available in over 40 German cities. Wolt (owned by DoorDash) is using Flink to fill gaps in its grocery delivery coverage in smaller cities where Wolt Market has limited presence. [more]

Thyssenkrupp (Essen, engineering & steel) reported a Q1 2025/26 net loss of €353M, far worse than the expected €32M profit. [more]

Bertelsmann (Gütersloch, media conglomerate) acquired an 80% stake in Lets Transport, India's logistics marketplace platform. [more]

Quantum Systems (Munich, drones) secured a €150M financing package to support industrial scaling and expansion across Europe. [more]

Tesla experienced the strongest reputation loss in Germany since 2013, landing in last place in a 2025 reputation survey. [more]

Anthropic completed a $30B funding round G (!) at a $380B.

Mercedes-Benz reported net profit halved to €5.3B in 2025 while revenue fell 9% to €132.2B, pressured by tariffs, currency effects, and a 19% sales decline in China.

Siemens exceeded expectations with industrial business results up 15% and orders up 10%. They raised the annual forecast.

Siemens Energy reported record Q1 2025/26 results with net profit tripling to €746M, driven by AI data centre demand for gas turbines.

Truck traffic on German highways declined noticeably in January, serving as an early warning signal for the economy. [more]

metiundo | Berlin | Smart metering and energy data | €40M | Careers.

Andercore | Berlin | AI industrial trade platform | €33.5M Series B | Careers.

Circle Health | Berlin | AI preventive care platform | €9M Seed | Careers.

hellomed | Berlin | Digital medication error prevention | €6M Seed | Careers.

Hades Mining | Munich | Drilling for critical raw materials | €15M | Careers.

driveblocks | Munich | Autonomous driving for off-road vehicles | €3.5M Pre-Series A | Careers.

conmeet | Borken | AI cloud platform for construction | €1.3M Pre-seed | Careers.

Reddit: People discuss the trash situation in town. And yes, it’s also nature—I’ve seen crows making a mess myself, but also nurture. Some people simply have no shame. Another problem is poor enforcement of the fines, which, again, brings me to how poorly this city-state is governed. But some would say, “Fine, but you also don’t get fined for minor lawbreaking acitivities and it all evens out.” I am not so sure.

YouTube: It’s also because the city is so dirty that people talk about a crisis in tourism. The numbers never recovered since Corona and dropped in 2025 vs 2024. In German.

Reddit: Here is a great chart on who owns the apartments in Berlin. How lovely: small private landlords (often defended, for example by Markus Lanz) are, if you look at the real data, a minority.

elsewhere: Here is a great calculator by BerlinRelo to manage your flat search expectations.