Hey Berliners!

The polls are open until six tonight. If you can vote and haven’t, your station is on your Wahlbenachrichtigung — and there is still most of the day.

What follows is worth knowing even if you cannot vote. At six exactly, the first number appears. It is not the result. It is an exit poll, and German television calls it a Prognose to make that clear. The real thing builds through the evening as votes get counted, and on current polling — the CDU and Die Linke level, no two parties able to govern alone — tonight probably gives Berlin a parliament without giving it a government.

Then the rest of the week belongs to something else entirely. The marathon is next Sunday, but the road closures start tomorrow at six in the morning and spread across Tiergarten and Mitte from there. Some of them stay in place until 1 October.

A week of two very different kinds of counting.

— Dr Yassir A Shuaib

No shoutout this week; be the first in next week's issue. Refer three friends and you're in the next issue.

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🚂 BahnCard 25 — €29.99, ten days left

Deutsche Bahn has halved the BahnCard 25: €29.99 instead of €62.90 in second class, €59.99 instead of €125 in first. Twenty-five per cent off Flex and Saver fares for twelve months, roughly one return to Hamburg, and it has paid for itself.

Two things to know. The start date has to fall in September, and the 30th is the last possible first day. And it renews automatically at full price unless you cancel four weeks before it expires — so cancel it the day you buy it, then decide again next August.
👉 Get the BahnCard 25 here

🛋️ IKEA is cutting 1,500 prices

IKEA Germany is lowering prices on around 1,500 products, averaging about 20%, with September offers running alongside. The SOLFIBBLA bedding set is €14.99 instead of €19.99 until the 30th; the DYVLINGE swivel chair is €129 instead of €179 in stores.
👉 See the offers here

💻 Back to School at MediaMarkt and Saturn — to 5 October

Windows laptops and desktops reduced, with a student discount that stacks on top. This is the one September promotion that outlasts the month, so there's no rush today.
👉 Browse the offers here

🧹 Shark and Ninja — up to 50% off · to 30 September

Vacuums, air fryers, blenders and coffee machines. Ten days left.
👉 Browse the offers here

⚡ Switch electricity and save

Finanztip estimates €200–300 a year moving off a basic-supply tariff, depending on how much you use and where you live. Two weeks' notice, and the new provider handles the cancellation.
👉 Compare here

One last thing: MediaMarkt and Saturn's Tiefpreis Tage end at 09:00 tomorrow. If something has been sitting in your basket since IFA, today is the day.

🗳️ How tonight works ⭐

Polls close at 18:00. Your polling station is printed on your Wahlbenachrichtigung — but if you've lost it, ID alone is enough.

rbb begins at 17:40, twenty minutes before the polls shut, broadcasting jointly with NDR on both rbb Fernsehen and Das Erste because Mecklenburg-Vorpommern votes the same day.

The thing worth knowing: the number that appears at 18:00 is a Prognose — an exit poll, not a result. What follows through the evening is the Hochrechnung, built from actually counted votes and revised several times as more come in. That first figure can look like the answer, and it isn't.

· 18:00 — first Prognose
· to 19:27 — the main rbb/NDR programme
· 19:30 — rbb24 Abendschau
· 20:25 — rbb24 Berlin wählt: Ergebnisse & Analysen

And it's close. The final polls had the CDU and Die Linke level, with the AfD close behind. Whatever the numbers, what you'll know tonight is the shape of the parliament, not who runs the city — coalition talks take weeks.

⚠️ Compare the Wahlkreis number on your Wahlschein with the one on your ballot. If they differ, don't use the ballot, follow the district's instructions straight away, and if you go in person, take the Wahlschein with you.

Some postal voters in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, in electoral districts 3 and 4, were sent ballots for the wrong district — specifically those whose papers were issued on 24 or 25 August. Around 1,400 people are being written to, though only a handful of cases have been confirmed.

Compare the Wahlkreis number on your Wahlschein with the one on your ballot. If they differ, yours is affected — and a wrong-district ballot doesn't count.

If yours is wrong, don't post a replacement today; it won't arrive. Everything has to reach the Bezirkswahlamt by 18:00, so go in person.
👉 The district's FAQ here

👉 Results & polling stations here

Still holding a ballot? Make one clear mark for your choice and write nothing else on the paper.

A good day to be out: clouds this morning, sun this afternoon, and nothing falling. The week stays dry apart from Wednesday, which takes almost all of it rain through the day and showers into Thursday morning. Then it clears again for the weekend, which is what the marathon needs.

· Today · 20°C / 12°C · clouds clearing to sun
· Mon 21 · 18°C / 9°C · dry
· Tue 22 · 19°C / 8°C · dry
· Wed 23 · 19°C / 11°C · rain, the week's wettest
· Thu 24 · 18°C / 10°C · showers in the morning
· Fri 25 · 18°C / 10°C · dry
· Sat 26 · 18°C / 9°C · dry, good for the skating

👉 Full forecast here

🗳️ Berlin votes today
Polls close at 18:00, first projection immediately after. Full details are in the Lead above.

🚆 The Messe gets busy Tuesday to Friday
InnoTrans, the leading trade fair for transport technology, runs 22–25 September. It's trade-only so you can't wander in, but the S-Bahn around Messe Süd and Westkreuz will be fuller than usual.
👉 More info here

🏭 Industrial Heritage Festival runs to 4 October
More than 100 events at industrial sites across the city. Some need booking.
👉 Full programme here

🎭 Deutscher Herbst — Deutsches Theatre · Berlin premiere Saturday ⭐

Christopher Rüping's new piece, and it's about this exact autumn: a daughter meets her father, who has forgotten where he came from, and it goes from there into the disorientation of an election season.

The premiere is sold out — remainders at the box office only — but five more dates follow. And there's a free way into the building that night: DT Kontext at 18:00 in the Rangfoyer, Rüping in conversation with the historian Hannah Ahlheim. No ticket needed.

The world premiere was at the Ruhrtriennale last week; this is the Berlin one.
👉 Tickets & dates here
📍 Schumannstr. 13A — S+U Friedrichstraße

📷 Anton Corbijn — Fotografiska · closes today
Final day. Fifty years of photographing Depeche Mode, U2 and Joy Division. Open until 23:00, so there's still tonight.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Oranienburger Str. 54 — U6 Oranienburger Tor

🎨 DesignDays.Berlin — Thursday to Saturday · FREE
The first edition, marking twenty years of Berlin as a UNESCO City of Design: more than sixty brands opening showrooms and galleries across the city, with talks and workshops alongside.
👉 Programme & map here

🚧 City alert: marathon closures start Monday

The race is next Sunday, the 27th — the 52nd edition, well over 56,000 athletes from more than 160 nations. But it reaches you before it reaches them.

Monday 21, 06:00 — Straße des 17. Juni closes between the Großer Stern and the Brandenburg Gate, with Yitzhak-Rabin-Straße affected too. Reopening is staged, and parts stay shut until Thursday 1 October.

Thursday 24, 18:00 — Ebertstraße, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee, Scheidemannstraße, Dorotheenstraße and the government quarter.

Saturday 26, 05:00 — Potsdamer Straße between Potsdamer Platz and the Reichpietschufer.

Nine districts are affected, and many bus and tram lines will be diverted, shortened or interrupted.

🚇 What that means practically

Take the U-Bahn and S-Bahn, not the bus — the underground network is the one thing the marathon can't touch. The Tiergarten and Alexanderplatz tunnels stay open throughout, and on foot you can cross the route using the U-Bahn underpasses. On race day itself the A100 stays open, though the Hohenzollerndamm and Innsbrucker Platz exits close.

🛼 And Saturday is worth watching

The Inline Skating Marathon covers the full 42.195 km from 12:20, finishing through the Brandenburg Gate — speed skaters first, then the fitness blocks.

· Generali 5K · 10:00 from Potsdamer Platz
· R5K · 11:50
· mini-Marathon · 12:00
· Inline Skating Marathon · 12:20

👉 Road closures & map here · Live BVG disruptions here

SUN 20 · TODAY · BERLIN VOTES
· 🗳️ Polls open until 18:00 · rbb coverage from 17:40, first projection at 18:00
· 🛒 Nowkoelln Flowmarkt · 10:00–17:00 · free · Maybachufer — back after a fortnight
· 🛒 Flohmarkt Mauerpark · 10:00–18:00 · free · cash only
· 📷 Anton Corbijn · FINAL DAY · Fotografiska
· 🎤 Sunday Comedy Party · 19:30 · Oblomov, Kreuzkölln

MON 21 · FIRST BIG ROAD CLOSURE
· 🚧 Straße des 17. Juni closes at 06:00 between the Großer Stern and the Brandenburg Gate — parts stay shut to 1 October
· ⏰ MediaMarkt and Saturn September promotions end 08:59

TUE 22 – WED 23
· 🚆 InnoTrans · Messe Berlin · Tuesday to Friday
· 🌿 Türkenmarkt · Tue · 11:00–18:30 · free
· 🎼 Musikfest Berlin · final day Wednesday · Philharmonie
· 🎤 Pro Comics F*cking Around · Wed · 20:00 · The Wall Comedy

THU 24
· 🚧 From 18:00 closures reach Ebertstraße and the government quarter
· 🎨 DesignDays.Berlin opens · citywide · FREE · to Saturday
· 🍜 Street Food Thursday · 17:00–22:00 · Markthalle Neun

FRI 25
· 🎬 Kurdish Film Festival opens · Kino Babylon · to 1 October
· 🚆 InnoTrans · final day
· 🌿 Türkenmarkt · 11:00–18:30 · free
· 🎤 The Cream of the Crop · 20:30 · Epic Comedy Club, Mitte

SAT 26 · MARATHON WEEKEND BEGINS
· 🚧 Potsdamer Straße closed from 05:00
· 🥬 Winterfeldtmarkt · 08:00–16:00
· 🏃 Generali 5K 10:00 · R5K 11:50 · mini-Marathon 12:00
· 🚂 Railway Festival · Bw Schöneweide · 10:00–18:00 · €12/€5, under-6 free
· 🛼 Inline Skating Marathon · 12:20 · finishing through the Brandenburg Gate
· 🎨 DesignDays.Berlin · final day · FREE
· 🎭 Deutscher Herbst · Berlin premiere · Deutsches Theatre · sold out, remainders at the door
· 🎤 Our Most Unpredictable Night · 20:00 · Monbijou-Theatre

🎬 Kurdish Film Festival — Friday to 1 October · Kino Babylon

The sixteenth edition: features, documentaries and shorts, with this year's focus on Kurds in the Soviet Union. Most screenings are in the original with English subtitles.

👉 Programme & tickets here
📍 Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30 — U2 Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

And a note that applies all year: OmeU in a cinema listing means original language with English subtitles. OmU usually means German subtitles, which catches people out.

🎭 Mephisto — Berliner Ensemble

Frank Castorf directs Klaus Mann's novel about an actor's rise under the Nazis. It premiered on the 17th and plays again this week.

👉 Tickets & dates here
📍 Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1 — S+U Friedrichstraße

🎭 Die Seherin — Schaubühne

Milo Rau's play about a war photographer confronting what she has spent years documenting. Ursina Lardi takes the part, and this week's performances carry English surtitles, which is rarer than it should be.

👉 Tickets & dates here
📍 Kurfürstendamm 153 — U7 Adenauerplatz

🎼 Musikfest Berlin — to 23 September

The 75th anniversary edition: 36 events, around 40 concerts, five venues. Three worth booking this week.

London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Antonio Pappano — tonight, 20:00 · Philharmonie
Gubaidulina's Viola Concerto with Eivind Ringstad, then Bruckner's Ninth.
👉 Tickets here

Vienna Philharmonic, Tugan Sokhiev — Wednesday, 20:00 · Philharmonie
Hilary Hahn plays the Dvořák Violin Concerto, then Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. Introduction at 19:10.
👉 Tickets here

Berliner Philharmoniker, Brett Dean — Thursday, 20:00 · Philharmonie
This year's composer in residence conducts his own work alongside Debussy, with Jennifer France singing.
👉 Tickets here

The festival also leaves the concert hall — there's music on the Ringbahn and a grand piano on the Philharmonie roof.
👉 Full programme here
📍 Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1 — S+U Potsdamer Platz

🎨 Cassirer und der Durchbruch des Impressionismus — Alte Nationalgalerie · closes 27 September · €16/€8
Final week. Around 100 works by Monet, Degas, Cézanne and van Gogh, built around the dealer who brought them to Germany. Tue–Sun 9:30–19:00 — and with an annual pass there's still a €6 surcharge.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Bodestr. 1–3 — Museumsinsel

🖼️ Maurizio Cattelan: Night — Neue Nationalgalerie
His first major solo show in Germany, installed in Mies van der Rohe's glass pavilion — which is half the point.
👉 More info here
📍 Potsdamer Str. 50 — U/S Potsdamer Platz

📷 Carrie Mae Weems: The Heart of the Matter — C/O Berlin · to 2 February
Her first full retrospective in Berlin: more than a hundred photographs and videos across four decades, on race, gender and class.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Hardenbergstr. 22–24 — S+U Zoologischer Garten

🖼️ Kreuzberg: Art and Migration Since 1960 — Gropius Bau · to 17 January
Sixty-five years of migration and the art it produced in one district. One ticket also covers the Gabriele Stötzer survey upstairs.
👉 More info here
📍 Niederkirchnerstr. 7 — U/S Potsdamer Platz

TODAY
· 🛒 Nowkoelln Flowmarkt · 10:00–17:00 · free · Maybachufer — fortnightly, and it's on today. Second-hand and handmade only
· 🛒 Flohmarkt Mauerpark · 10:00–18:00 · free · 500+ stalls, Bearpit Karaoke from 15:00, cash only
· 🛒 RAW-Flohmarkt · 09:00–17:00 · free · vinyl, vintage, bike parts
· 🛒 Flohmarkt am Arkonaplatz · 10:00–17:00 · free · the little brother of Mauerpark, and far calmer
· 🛒 Flohmarkt am Boxhagener Platz · 10:00–18:00 · free · Friedrichshain, surrounded by cafés
· 📚 Antik- und Buchmarkt am Bodemuseum · 10:00–17:00 · free · around 60 traders selling books and antiques on the Spree
· 🍢 Thaipark · 11:00–20:00 · free · cash · Preußenpark — the outdoor season runs to the end of October

ALL WEEK
· 🍜 Dong Xuan Center · 10:00–20:00 · free · closed Tuesdays · Vietnamese food and textiles in Lichtenberg

IN THE WEEK
· 🌿 Türkenmarkt · Tue 22 + Fri 25 · 11:00–18:30 · free · prices drop after 17:30
· 🍜 Street Food Thursday · Thu 24 · 17:00–22:00 · Markthalle Neun
· 📚 Antik- und Buchmarkt am Bodemuseum · Sat 26 · 10:00–17:00 · free
· 🥬 Winterfeldtmarkt · Sat 26 · 08:00–16:00 · Winterfeldtplatz
· 🍢 Thaipark · Sat 26 · 11:00–20:00 · free · cash

⚫ Hertha are top of the 2. Bundesliga
Five wins from five after beating Osnabrück 3–1 and away at Dynamo Dresden last night. No Berlin club has started a season like it in years.

🔵 Union lost 7–0 at Bayern on Friday
That's one point from four games and seventeen conceded — bottom half of the table, and the worst start Union has had in the Bundesliga. The international break now gives them three weeks to think about it. Next up: Elversberg at home on 10 October.

🎤 Sunday Comedy Party — tonight · 19:30 · Oblomov, Kreuzkölln
English stand-up in a Neukölln bar. Starts before the first projection and finishes after it, if tonight goes that way.
📍 Lenaustr. 7 — U8 Schönleinstr.

🎤 Pro Comics F*cking Around — Wed 23 · 20:00 · The Wall Comedy, Friedrichshain
New jokes get their first outing and old ones get taken apart. The comedians' own favourite night.
👉 More info here
📍 Grünberger Str. 84 — U5 Samariterstr.

🎤 The Cream of the Crop — Fri 25 · 20:30 · Epic Comedy Club, Mitte
Berlin's best English-speaking comedians back to back, and pay what you want — so there's no reason not to try it.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Tucholskystr. 30, at Zosch — S Oranienburger Str.

🎤 Our Most Unpredictable Night — Sat 26 · Monbijou-Theatre
An improvised game show built from the audience's anonymous dark thoughts. You write them down; the comedians turn them into live comedy on the spot.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Monbijoustr. 3b — S Hackescher Markt

👉 Everything else on here

🛼 Inline Skating Marathon — Saturday from 12:20 · FREE to watch
Forty-two kilometres on closed roads, finishing through the Brandenburg Gate. More approachable than the marathon itself — fewer crowds, and the fast skaters are done inside an hour.
👉 More info here

🚂 Berlin Railway Festival — Saturday and Sunday · Bw Schöneweide
The twenty-first edition at the old depot, in the same week the rail industry is in town for InnoTrans. Steam engines, cab rides, model railways and workshop tours. Saturday 10:00–18:00, Sunday until 17:00.
€12 for adults, €5 for six to fourteen, under-sixes free — or €30 for two adults and up to four children.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Wagner-Régeny-Allee 9 — S Johannisthal

🎨 DesignDays.Berlin — Thursday to Saturday · FREE
Showrooms and galleries across the city opening for three days, free to enter, marking twenty years of Berlin as a UNESCO City of Design.
👉 Programme & map here

🥟 Manti Berlin — Markthalle Neun, Kreuzberg

Duygu trained as a business mathematician. Since 2018 she has spent her days at a dough sheeter instead, hand-folding every one of the fingertip-sized dumplings she sells from a stall in Markthalle Neun. The recipe is her grandmother's.

They're poached to order and come under a warm yoghurt sauce and melted paprika butter, with sumac, mint and chilli if you want them. After three months of wine bars, brasseries and a sushi counter, this is the opposite of all of it.

Thursday 17:00–22:00, Friday 12:00–18:00, Saturday 10:00–18:00. Thursday is Street Food Thursday, so the whole hall is open around her.

👉 More info here
📍 Eisenbahnstr. 42/43 — U1/U3 Görlitzer Bahnhof

👟 Voo Store — Kreuzberg

A concept store in a backyard off Oranienstraße, in a former locksmith's shop, open since 2010. The reason to go this week rather than any week: last month they stopped selling the selection online. In their own words, it's now "exclusively available at Oranienstraße 24."

Three hundred square metres of fashion, design objects, niche perfume, magazines and books — streetwear through to labels that cost more than your rent. Companion Coffee runs the counter inside, so you can make an afternoon of it.

Mon–Sat, 11:00 to 19:00. Closed Sundays.

👉 More info here
📍 Oranienstr. 24, in the backyard — U1/U3 Kottbusser Tor

All from the joint portal of Berlin's seven state-owned housing companies. The figures are total warm rent, including the listed operating and heating costs. Three of this week's four need a WBS; the last one doesn't.

💶 €518.67 warm — Neu-Hohenschönhausen · 2 rooms · 45.8 m² · WBS required
Ribnitzer Str. 4. Fifth floor of eleven, lift, built 1986. Free from 1 October.
👉 View flat here

💶 €570.78 warm — Buckow, Neukölln · 2 rooms · 52.9 m² · WBS 140 required
An den Buckower Feldern 13. A 2026 new build that nobody has lived in: balcony, cellar, lift, and step-free throughout. Third floor of four.
👉 View flat here

💶 €648.05 warm — Marzahn · 2 rooms · 51 m² · WBS required
Joachim-Ringelnatz-Str. 5. Top floor of four, balcony, bathtub, built 1995. Free from 1 November.
👉 View flat here

💶 €867.00 warm — Alt-Hohenschönhausen · 2 rooms · 70 m² · no WBS
Wriezener Str. 16. Third floor of four, balcony, gas central heating, and a 1930 Altbau rather than a slab. Seventy square metres, no permit needed.
👉 View flat here

CEF AI — Founder's Associate
The job people take to learn how a company gets built: broad, unglamorous, and the fastest route into a founding team.
👉 Apply here

LIFTED — City Manager (m/w/d)
Running the Berlin operation end to end — the rare role where the city is the job, not the location.
👉 Apply here

Juna AI — Enterprise Account Executive
Selling industrial AI to large manufacturers. Long cycles, big contracts, and a sector most people never think about.
👉 Apply here

TAXMARO — Growth / Performance Marketing Manager (m/w/d)
Paid acquisition, SEO and lifecycle for a tax software company.
👉 Apply here

Ossler Solar — Junior Account Executive
Solar sales, and a genuinely junior opening on a board that mostly wants five years of something.
👉 Apply here

Festival of Lights — 9 to 18 October. The twenty-second edition, under the theme Colours of Love: ten nights of projections across the Brandenburg Gate, the cathedral and dozens of other buildings, free to walk around. Worth the diary entry now — the good vantage points fill up.
👉 More info here

Make Berlin yours.

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See you next time. Same time. Same Kiez.

— Yassir