Have Berlin Rents Finally Hit Their Ceiling? For the first time in years, rents in Berlin fell. But with asking rents around double what's being paid on average, don't expect to feel it yet.

Rent prices falling?

⁠Berlin rental prices just fell for the first time in 5 years, so have we reached the tipping point?

www.heistberlin.com/news/berlin-...

Why Can't Berlin Have Its Own Mamdani? German politicians are scrambling to capitalise off Zohran Mamdani’s success in New York. Problem is, they’re got no interest in engaging with his actual politics.

German politicians love everything about Zohran Mamdani. Except his politics.

www.heistberlin.com/why-cant-ber...

S-Bahn “Hijackings” On The Rise S-Bahn surfing is on the rise. Reports of improper train travel in Berlin quadrupled last year, with teenagers posting their misdeeds to social media.

S-Bahn Hijackings

Dangerous S-Bahn “surfing” and sabotage incidents are on the rise.
www.heistberlin.com/news/s-bahn-...

This Year's Christopher Street Day Will Be The Biggest Ever For the first time in half a century, Berlin's biggest Pride event will span two days – and it's explicitly focused on the upcoming elections.

CSD 2026 Will Be The Biggest In History

Berlin's largest Pride event will be two days – and target its message for the elections.
www.heistberlin.com/news/biggest...

“I am not censoring myself at all”: Mudar Al-Khufash at the Berliner Ringtheater Palestinian-German artist Mudar Al-Khufash brings his lecture-performance Dialectics of Erasure to the Berliner Ringtheater. It runs through Sunday April 19.

"My god, it took a genocide for people to want to know what's going on."

This weekend, Mudar Al-Khufash is staging his lecture-performance Dialectics of Erasure at the Berliner Ringtheater.

@return2sanders.bsky.social spoke to him for HEIST

www.heistberlin.com/i-am-not-cen...

Vivantes Hospital Workers Strike For Equal Pay On Wednesday morning, the workers responsible for cleaning, sterilising, and doing maintenance at eight of Berlin’s hospitals launched an indefinite strike.

“By sterilising operating instruments, Robert Dahms is literally keeping people alive — but he still has to worry about keeping himself alive at the end of each month.”

Read our report on the Vivantes service worker strike

www.heistberlin.com/vivantes-ser...

This Is the Slowest Bus in Berlin At 13.1 kilometres per hour, the 147 bus travels the speed of a brisk jog, or a child's bicycle.

The Slowest Bus in Berlin

At 13.1 km/h, the 147 travels at the speed of a brisk jog, or a child’s bicycle.

www.heistberlin.com/news/the-slo...

Bunny tell-all!

Remember the masked rabbits who gave out keys to Görlitzer Park earlier this week? They gave HEIST an exclusive:

www.heistberlin.com/exclusive-go...

Who’s a Nazi?

The US National Archives has made 13 million NSDAP membership cards fully searchable online

www.heistberlin.com/news/who-is-...

Copies of Görlitzer Park "Master Key" Distributed By Mysterious Bunnies The masked "Union of Easter Bunnies" handed out chocolates with the master key to the park's controversial fence locks – and also hid a few for members of the press.

Görli unlocked?

Activists dressed as Easter bunnies handed out master key copies to reopen Görlitzer Park.

www.heistberlin.com/news/copies-...

Es gibt ein neues, von den Autor*innen selbstverwaltetes Medium in Berlin – und zwar auf Englisch! Folgt @heistberlin.bsky.social !

Really adore seeing all these new worker-owned media projects popping up lately. This one's doing local news - another rapidly disappearing and crucial field. Support!

The 9,540 Tonnes of Winter Gravel are Finally Gone Just in time for the Easter deadline, the BSR have swept up all those little black rocks. It's still stuck in the escalators, though.

9,540 Tonnes Later

Berlin's winter gravel is mostly gone, but it's still stuck in the escalators.

www.heistberlin.com/news/bsr-gra...

The AfD, Alice Weidel, and the Politics of Homonationalism The use and abuse of queer identity by the German far-right.

For @heistberlin.bsky.social––an essential new worker-owned newsroom reporting on this city for the millions of people who make it their home and have a first language other than German––I wrote an essay about the AfD's attempt to swing both ways. www.heistberlin.com/lgbt-queer-r...

Beware the SlopDoc: Charité Warns Of AI Videos Advertising Miracle Drugs Deepfake videos of the hospital's doctors promising "technically impossible" medical solutions are circulating in Berlin.

Beware the SlopDoc

AI videos are faking Charité doctors to sell miracle cures that don’t exist.

www.heistberlin.com/news/beware-...

Activists Scale Rheinmetall Weapons Factory in Wedding to Protest Genocide Activists poured red paint from the roof of the Wedding Rheinmetall factory, which went from making car parts to weapons.

Berlin Activists Target Rheinmetall Weapons Factory

"We don't want a weapons factory in Berlin. We don't want weapons produced here that are used to kill people."

www.heistberlin.com/news/activis...

🚨NEW EPISODE🚨

Nick and Uma talk to @heistberlin.bsky.social about Berlin and English language journalism in the city

Listen wherever you get podcasts!

Police Launch Mass Raids Over Grid Sabotage — And Remain in the Dark Police raided 14 Berlin properties associated with Berlin's left-wing scene. But after 500 officers deployed and zero arrests, evidence seems to be thin on the ground.

Berlin's Blackout Crackdown

Police raided 14 properties targeting Berlin's left-wing scene, but have not managed to make an arrest.

www.heistberlin.com/news/police-...

The Taliban Are Quietly Running the Afghan Embassy in Berlin The Taliban appear to have taken control of the Berlin embassy without explicitly informing Germany. What does it mean for the 442,000 Afghans living in the country?

Taliban embassy takeover

Berlin's Afghan embassy is now run by the Taliban - and Germany says it didn't know.

www.heistberlin.com/news/taliban...

Deepfake Porn Scandal: Thousands Protest Digital Sexual Violence in Berlin Thousands attended a rally in front of Brandenburg Gate to demonstrate against the "virtual rape" of German media personality Collien Fernandes.

Deepfake porn scandal

Thousands protest digital sexual violence after shocking report from German TV presenter Collien Ferdandes.

www.heistberlin.com/news/protest...

How To Spot a Housing Scam Berlin recorded almost 5,000 new cases of rental fraud last year.

That Apartment Might Not Exist

Berlin scammers are cashing in on the housing crisis. Here is how to spot a fraud.

www.heistberlin.com/news/rental-...

The Mayor Played One Game Of Tennis – And Can't Stop Lying About It Did Berlin's mayor lie twice about the January blackout? New documents cast fresh doubt on Kai Wegner's account of his crisis management.

Has the Berlin mayor been caught lying again?

Kai Wegner played one game of tennis - and can’t stop losing.

www.heistberlin.com/news/kai-weg...

Berlin Justice Senator Wants to End Preferential Hiring for Migrants Felor Badenberg says a law favouring applicants with migration backgrounds in public sector jobs violates equal treatment and merit-based hiring.

Berlin's CDU justice senator Felor Badenberg has declared the city's migrant hiring law unconstitutional.

The law was meant to help the ~40% of Berliners with a migration background get public sector jobs

Badenberg immigrated from Iran as a child.

www.heistberlin.com/news/berlin-...

#Berlin

Strike Paralyses BER Airport Berlin's BER airport faces a full shutdown on Wednesday as the Verdi union call a strike over pay: 445 flights are cancelled, with 57,000 passengers affected.

Tuesday, March 17

Strike Paralyses #BER Airport: No Flights on Wednesday

www.heistberlin.com/news/ber-ber...

#News #Berlin

Will Berlin be forced to backtrack on the Görli fence? After years of protest, one anti-fence alliance is going the legal route to reopen Görlitzer Park at night.

#News

Monday, March 16

Will Berlin backtrack on the Görli fence?

www.heistberlin.com/news/gorlitz...

002: The Train HEIST 🚆

Our second newsletter just went out.

Featuring a fun dispatch from @biettetimmons.bsky.social, who spent the last week betting cold, hard caßh on how delayed individual Deutsche Bahn trains will be.

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Friday: The Epstein files are rattling European politics. In Berlin, conspiracy theorist Xavier Naidoo is planning a rally.
www.heistberlin.com/news/xavier-...

HEIST is launching soon, but early readers are already getting the stories.
This week in the newsletter: our exclusive report on the people betting on Deutsche Bahn delays. Get early access at heistberlin.com

We need more of this all over the world.

C115: New club opens on the West Berlin motorway this weekend A new club called C115, built inside Berlin's most historic AVUS motorway grandstand, will start its in-house programming this weekend.

Thursday: A new club called C115, built inside Berlin's most historic AVUS motorway grandstand, opens this weekend.
www.heistberlin.com/news/c115-av...