Hey Berliners!

Three things finish today. Pop-Kultur closes at the Pierre Boulez Saal after a week of walking across the city. Marina Abramović’s exhibition has its last afternoon at the Gropius Bau. And ISTAF fills the Olympiastadion with 40,000 people and most of Germany’s European Championship medallists.

Then September arrives on Tuesday and opens the taps. By Friday night Berlin has a 220,000-person trade fair, a basketball World Cup, a literature festival and a film festival, all running at once.

Friday also happens to be the day the ransom deadline expires on the hackers holding Berlin’s state network. The Senate has said it will not pay.

Pick one thing. You cannot do four.

— Dr Yassir A Shuaib

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MediaMarkt's and Saturn's IFA campaign runs to 9 September. Televisions are the deepest cuts.

📺 IFA-Tiefpreise — to 9 September
Up to 50% off across the range, up to 67% on televisions, soundbars, and surround systems. The LG OLED 65 C5, a 65-inch OLED, is at €1,179.
👉 View the campaign here

📱 Apple iPad Air, 11-inch — €679
In the same campaign, it is the most useful thing in it for most people.
👉 View deal here

⌚ Garmin Venu 3 — €299
AMOLED, proper multi-day battery, and the sports watch people actually keep.
👉 View deal here

📱 Samsung Deal Days — to 7 September
Galaxy phones across the range. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 is the headline.
👉 View the Z Flip 8 here

🎓 Apple Back-to-School — to 22 October
An €80 Apple gift card with a MacBook Air, iPad Air or iPad Pro; €120 with a MacBook Pro. University students, their parents and university staff only — school pupils and schoolteachers don't qualify. Verify through UNiDAYS first.
👉 Shop the Education Store here

🕹️ Half-price arcade every Tuesday
Electric Social at Alexanderplatz drops all arcade games to half price every Tuesday, noon to midnight, prize machines excepted. Fifty-plus cabinets. The games are the bargain; the food isn't.
📍 Grunerstr. 13 — U/S Alexanderplatz
👉 More info here

⚡ Switch electricity and save
Most households on a basic-supply tariff save several hundred euros a year by moving. Two weeks' notice; the new provider handles the cancellation.
👉 Compare here

📱 IFA — Friday 4 to Tuesday 8 September · Messe Berlin ⭐

The 101st edition and still the biggest consumer electronics fair in the world: 220,000 people came last year under this year's motto, "The Future is Now".

What you need to know
· Friday is trade-only until 12:00, then public 12:00–18:00.
· Saturday to Tuesday, 10:00–18:00
· Families, school groups, and visitors with disabilities get in from 10:00 every day, including Friday.
· €21.50 online, €28 on the door. Students: €14. A family ticket, two adults and up to three children, is €43 online. Children 15 and under are free.

The bit worth knowing: a Sommergarten concert ticket starts at €35.50 and includes entry to the whole fair that day. Luciano plays on Friday at 17:00, and Ikkimel & Friends on Saturday at 15:00. So the concert costs about fourteen euros on top of the admission you were going to pay anyway.

BUNT plays Thursday the 3rd, before the fair opens, so that one is ticketed separately.

If you go, pick one hall and one theme. Nobody sees IFA in a day.

👉 Tickets & programme here
📍 Messedamm 22 — S3/S9 Messe Süd or U2 Kaiserdamm. Take the train; the car parks fill by mid-morning.

Warm and dry to start, then it turns. Today and tomorrow reach 26°C with nothing falling. From Thursday the showers arrive and the temperature drops — Friday is the coolest day of the week at 20°C, with rain in the morning, which is the day IFA opens and Lichtenberg spends six hours outdoors for the Lange Nacht der Bilder. Take a jacket to that one.

· Today · 26°C / 16°C · dry — good for ISTAF
· Mon · 26°C / 15°C · dry
· Tue · 22°C / 12°C · September arrives cooler
· Wed · 23°C / 14°C · dry
· Thu · 21°C / 14°C · afternoon showers, the week's wettest
· Fri · 20°C / 15°C · morning showers — IFA opens
· Sat · 22°C / 13°C · showers early, clearing

👉 Full forecast here

🔒 Hackers are holding Berlin's state network to ransom

Attackers were inside the state network from 7 August; data was leaving until the 12th. It wasn't discovered until the 14th, when the departments for Transport and for Building and Housing were cut off entirely.

A ransom demand arrived on 27 August. Der Spiegel reports the group is Rhysida, that they want 30 Bitcoin — around €2 million — and that they hold 5.79 terabytes: roughly 1.4 million files, including some 46,000 contracts, 6,000 passwords, 148 bank account numbers, and an assessment of weaknesses in Berlin's water supply. Their deadline expires this Friday, the same day IFA opens.

Kai Wegner's answer: "Das Land Berlin wird sich nicht erpressen lassen". Berlin will not be blackmailed.

What it means for you: the Senate can't rule out that personal data was taken, and the departments affected handle building, housing and transport. If you have an application pending with either, check directly rather than trusting the online status. The election systems were not affected.

🍺 Berlin Beer Week ends next Sunday — and Saturday's party is free

Tenth anniversary, more than 20 venues. The big free night is Saturday at Zur Alten Börse 41 in Friedrichsfelde, with Straßenbräu, Hops & Barley and Berliner Jungs in the yard. The official close is the Anniversary Brews Cruise on Sunday evening from Jannowitzbrücke, three hours on the Spree, for €69.90.
👉 Programme here

🎨 Lange Nacht der Bilder — Friday 4 Sept · 18:00 to midnight · FREE

For one evening the nineteenth Long Night of Images turns Lichtenberg into an open-air gallery: 47 venues with installations, projections and performances in courtyards, shopfronts and studios that are shut the rest of the year.

No ticket, no queue, no route to plan. You walk, and you find things, which is the appeal and also why it's worth a jacket. Friday is the coolest day of the week.

If you want a guided tour, book by Wednesday. Six routes leave at 18:00, and registration closes on 3 September at 15:00.

The official opening is an hour early, at 17:00 in the Kulturhaus Karlshorst, with an exhibition by Lili Yuan and music from Mitsune.

👉 Programme & venue map here
📍 Across Lichtenberg — Treskowallee 112 for the opening · S-Bahn and tram throughout

SUN 30 · TODAY
· 🏃 ISTAF · stadium opens 10:45, and the main programme 13:20 · Olympiastadion · from €13.60
· 🎭 Marina Abramović · FINAL DAY · Gropius Bau · €15/€10
· 🎵 Pop-Kultur finale · Múm plays Sonnenuhr · Pierre Boulez Saal
· 🛒 Flohmarkt Mauerpark · 10:00–18:00 · free · cash only
· 🛒 RAW-Flohmarkt · 09:00–17:00 · free

MON 31 · LAST DAY OF AUGUST
· 🍺 Beer Week · tap takeovers citywide

TUE 1 · SEPTEMBER
· 🌿 Türkenmarkt · 11:00–18:30 · free
· 🕹️ Half-price arcade · Electric Social, Alexanderplatz
· 🗣️ Language Exchange · 19:00 · free · Travolta Bar

WED 2
· 🎬 Fantasy Filmfest opens · to 9 Sept · Zoo Palast · from €14
· ⏰ Last day to book a Lange Nacht der Bilder guided tour · closes at 15:00

THU 3
· 📚 International Literature Festival opens · Haus der Berliner Festspiele
· 🍜 Street Food Thursday · 17:00–22:00 · Markthalle Neun

FRI 4 · EVERYTHING OPENS
· 📱 IFA opens · public from 12:00 · Messe Berlin · €21.50 online
· 🎨 Lange Nacht der Bilder · opening 17:00, main programme 18:00–midnight · FREE · Lichtenberg
· 🏀 Spain v Germany · 17:45 · Women's Basketball World Cup
· 🍺 Brews Cruise · Jannowitzbrücke · from €69.90
· 🌿 Türkenmarkt · 11:00–18:30 · free

SAT 5
· 🏃 Parkrun Hasenheide · 09:00 · free 5 km
· 🥬 Winterfeldtmarkt · 08:00–16:00
· 📱 IFA · 10:00–18:00
· ⚽ Union away at Bayer Leverkusen · 15:30 · Bundesliga
· 🏀 Germany v Japan · 18:00 · Women's Basketball World Cup
· 🍺 Beer Week closing party · FREE · Zur Alten Börse 41, Friedrichsfelde

🌅 Freiluftkino Kreuzberg — closes Sunday 6 September
The last week of open-air cinema in Berlin this year. In the Bethanien courtyard, original language with subtitles, €10 (€6 reduced); the programme changes daily. Dogs on leads welcome. It ends with a Summer Nights Poetry Slam on the Friday and Saturday.
👉 Programme here
📍 Mariannenplatz 2 — U1/U8 Kottbusser Tor

👻 Fantasy Filmfest — 2 to 9 September · Zoo Palast
The 40th edition of Germany's biggest genre festival: horror, thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, all in the original with English subtitles. From €14, or €240 for a pass to the whole thing. Indoors, which is the point given the week the weather is having.
👉 Programme & tickets here
📍 Hardenbergstr. 29a — S+U Zoologischer Garten

The season starts in two weeks — here's how to find English-language theatre when it does

Most of Berlin's stages are still between seasons. The Schaubühne, Deutsches Theatre and Berliner Ensemble come back mid-September, and the Berliner Festspiele's performing arts season runs from autumn.

When it does start, the surtitle situation is worth knowing. The Maxim Gorki surtitles every performance in English. The Berliner Ensemble does several nights a month on the main stage, marked in the programme – and they recommend the stalls from row 13 or the balconies because the side boxes have a partly blocked view of the surtitle screen. The Komische Oper has a screen in every seat.
👉 Berliner Ensemble's surtitled nights here

🎫 Everything on, in one place
Berlin Bühnen lists the schedules of every theatre, opera house and concert hall in the city, in English, and it's the fastest way to find what's on any given night.
👉 Browse the schedule here

🎼 Musikfest Berlin — week two, to 23 September
Four weeks of orchestral music at the Philharmonie. The Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra are both still to come; Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre opened it on Friday.
👉 Programme here
📍 Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1 — S+U Potsdamer Platz

🎵 Pop-Kultur closes tonight
The finale is at the Pierre Boulez Saal: Múm playing Sonnenuhr, a new commission, with Anushka Chkheidze and Robert Lippok opening.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Französische Str. 33d — U2 Hausvogteiplatz

🎶 IFA Sommergarten — Thursday to Sunday
Luciano on Friday at 17:00; Ikkimel & Friends on Saturday at 15:00; BUNT. on Thursday before the fair opens. From €35.50, including same-day entry to IFA itself.
👉 Tickets here

🎭 Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic — Gropius Bau · closes TODAY · €15/€10
Last afternoon. Nude with Skeleton runs 14:00–18:00. Explicit — not for children.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Niederkirchnerstr. 7 — U/S Potsdamer Platz

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

📷 Anton Corbijn — Fotografiska · to 20 September
Fifty years of portraits by the photographer behind Depeche Mode, U2 and Joy Division. Open daily until 23:00, which makes it the rare museum you can visit after dinner.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Oranienburger Str. 54 — U6 Oranienburger Tor

🖼️ Gabriele Stötzer: Dabei sein und nicht schweigen — Gropius Bau · to 6 December
The largest institutional show yet for an artist who spent five decades on justice, self-determination and gender in and after the GDR.
📍 Niederkirchnerstr. 7 — U/S Potsdamer Platz

TODAY
· 🛒 Flohmarkt Mauerpark · 10:00–18:00 · free · 500+ stalls, karaoke from 15:00, cash only
· 🛒 RAW-Flohmarkt · 09:00–17:00 · free · vinyl, vintage, bike parts
· 🛒 Nowkoelln Flowmarkt · 10:00–17:00 · free · Maybachufer — second-hand and handmade only. Fortnightly, so it's back today
· 🍢 Thaipark · 11:00–20:00 · free · cash

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

IN THE WEEK
· 🌿 Türkenmarkt · Tue 1 + Fri 4 · 11:00–18:30 · free · prices drop after 17:30
· 🍜 Street Food Thursday · Thu 3 · 17:00–22:00 · Markthalle Neun
· 🍢 Thaipark · Sat 5 · 11:00–20:00 · free · cash
· 🥬 Winterfeldtmarkt · Sat 5 · 08:00–16:00 · Berlin's biggest weekly market

🔵 Union open with a draw
Their first Bundesliga game of the season ended 3-3 at home to Eintracht Frankfurt yesterday. Next is Bayer Leverkusen away on Saturday at 15:30, which is a harder afternoon.

🏀 Women's Basketball World Cup — the first Berlin games
Spain v Germany on Friday at 17:45 and Germany v Japan on Saturday at 18:00. Sixteen teams across the Uber Arena and the Max-Schmeling-Halle until 13 September are Germany playing Mali on the Monday.
👉 Fixtures & tickets here

🏃 ISTAF — today
The stadium opens at 10:45 and the box office at 10:00. Full details above.

🏃 Parkrun Hasenheide — Sat 5 · 09:00 · free
Timed 5 km, register once; briefing in English and German at 08:50.
📍 Columbiadamm 160 — U8 Boddinstr.
👉 Register here

· 🎤 New in Town — tonight · 20:30 · Hier, wo du strahlst, Mitte. Expat life and culture shock, and the last show of the run.
📍 Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 20 — S+U Alexanderplatz · 👉 Tickets here

· 🎤 The Lineup Open Mic — Mondays · The Wall Comedy, Friedrichshain. Doors at 19:30, show at 20:00. Pay what you want, and sign up at 19:30 if you want to perform.
📍 Grünberger Str. 84 — S+U Warschauer Str.

· 🎤 What is Love? — Tue 1 · 20:00 · SaliGari, Friedrichshain · from €14.61
📍 Simplonstr. 23 — S+U Warschauer Str. · 👉 Tickets here

· 🎤 Cosmic Comedy — Thu, Fri & Sat · Kookaburra, Prenzlauer Berg. Doors at 19:00, free vegan pizza around 20:15, show at 21:00 — the gap catches people out. Thursday open mic is €13; Fri/Sat is €17.
📍 Schönhauser Allee 184 — U2 Eberswalder Str. · 👉 Tickets here

· 🎤 Meanwhile in Berlin… — Sat 5 · 20:15 · SaliGari, Friedrichshain · from €18.02. Carmen Chraim headlines.
📍 Simplonstr. 23 — S+U Warschauer Str. · 👉 Tickets here

👉 Everything else on here

📱 IFA — families get in two hours early on Friday
Everyone else waits until noon; families, school groups and visitors with disabilities are in from 10:00. Children 15 and under are free, and a family ticket — two adults, up to three children — is €43 online. The halls are full of robots and things they're allowed to press.

🎨 Lange Nacht der Bilder — Friday · FREE
Opening at 17:00, the main programme runs from 18:00 across 47 venues in Lichtenberg, so the early hours work for children. No tickets, no queue; leave whenever you like. Take a jacket – it's the coolest evening of the week.

🏃 ISTAF — today
Under-12s are half price, and under-3s are free. Snacks and soft drinks are allowed in a Tetra Pak up to a litre and in a PET up to half. The main programme is from 13:20 to 17:00, so it fits an afternoon.

🇫🇷Théodor Brasserie — Charlottenburg

A French brasserie in the former Mommsen-Eck opened this spring: steak frites, oysters, escargots, moules frites, and a long French wine list. A hundred and twenty seats inside, the same again on the terrace.

Open daily, 11:30 to 23:00.

👉 More info & reservations here
📍 Mommsenstr. 45 — S Savignyplatz

🦪 KaDeWe's food hall — Schöneberg

The sixth floor of KaDeWe is one of the largest food halls in Europe — 7,500 square metres of counters rather than aisles, with an oyster bar, a cheese room, and more or less every cured meat in Europe.

It isn't cheap and it isn't a discovery. It's a place to buy one good thing and eat it standing up, which is the whole point of a food hall.

👉 More info here
📍 Tauentzienstr. 21–24 — U1/U2/U3 Wittenbergplatz

All from the joint portal of Berlin's seven state-owned housing companies. Prices are warm rent – cold rent plus heating and service charges.

💶 €611.83 warm – Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf · 2 rooms · 54.7 m² · no WBS
Heilmannring 26B, Charlottenburg Nord. Ground floor, balcony, cellar, district heating. Built in 1958, free from 1 September. A rare two-room flat in the inner west under €620.
👉 View flat here

💶 €884.95 warm - Mahlsdorf · 2 rooms · 70.5 m² · no WBS
Hönower Str. 84/86, right at the S-Bahn. First floor of three, Altbau from 1948, with a bathtub and a cellar. Seventy square metres for under €900 is the trade you make for the commute.
👉 View flat here

💶 €975.00 warm - Lichterfelde · 2 rooms · 69.1 m² · WBS 160–220 required
Osdorfer Str. 48. Tenth floor of seventeen, lift, and balcony. Free from 1 September.
👉 View flat here

💶 €1,303.59 warm - Hellersdorf · 3 rooms · 78.4 m² · no WBS
Albert-Kuntz-Str. 58. Ground floor of seven; balcony; lift; step-free; and cellar. Built 2020, available now.
👉 View flat here

👉 Search all listings here

Warm rent includes heating and utilities. WBS is an income-based housing permit — far more households qualify than expect to, so check the limits before ruling yourself out. State flats get hundreds of applications within hours; apply the day you see one.

Skyflow — Product Engineer · Prenzlauer Berg · hybrid · €80–100k
Software for automated drone emergency response, built alongside firefighters and pilots. TypeScript, Swift, AWS. Four years' experience, startup background. New this week.
👉 Apply here

JOIN — Engineering Manager (m/f/d) · hybrid, 3 days in office
Leading a team at a recruitment platform handling millions of candidate interactions. Five years' engineering experience; relocation support available.
👉 Apply here

DATATRONiQ — Senior Data Scientist · hybrid
Industrial AI and edge IoT: anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, real-time quality monitoring. Python, PyTorch, and scikit-learn. Three years' hands-on experience.
👉 Apply here

Tandem — Product Manager (parental leave cover) · hybrid
Fixed-term, in a language-learning community of 35 million. Three years' PM experience with consumer mobile. Relocation support available.
👉 Apply here

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See you next time. Same time. Same Kiez.

— Yassir