Hey Berliners!

Berlin voted a week ago and gave Die Linke 25.7% - the first time the party has come first in this city, and only the second time it has come first anywhere in Germany. The CDU took 18.8%, and the AfD 16.3%. The SPD, which ran this place for most of the post-war period, got 12.1%, its worst result ever here.

Nobody can govern alone, and the two parties that came fourth and fifth now choose the mayor. Die Linke’s party congress is deciding this week whether to invite them to exploratory talks. More on how that works below.

Meanwhile, the city centre is shut. Fifty-six thousand people are running through it this morning; the course closes at seven, and the roads come back in stages between tomorrow lunchtime and Thursday evening.

Two practical things before you go: if you travel west at all, the Hanover line changes from five on Friday morning and stays changed until December. And Saturday is German Unity Day, which falls on a Saturday this year so no extra day off, and the shops shut. Do the shopping on Friday.

And it is twenty-four degrees all week. In October

— Dr Yassir A Shuaib

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🌍 Interrail is half price - and booking closes Wednesday morning ⭐
Fifty percent off one-, two-, and three-month Global Passes, fifteen percent off the rest. The window shuts at 10:00 on 30 September. One country passes from €50, global from €212, and you have eleven months to activate, so you're buying the pass now and deciding the trip later. Reservations still cost extra on high-speed and night trains. 👉 Book here

🚂 BahnCard 25 - €29.99, and Wednesday is the last day
Half price, second class; €59.99 in first. The start date has to fall inside September, so the 30th is the last day it can begin. Twenty-five percent off Flex and Saver fares for twelve months. It renews at full price unless you cancel four weeks ahead or cancel it the day you buy it. 👉 Get it here

📉 MediaMarkt and Saturn's Tiefpreis-Finale—ends Tuesday
Up to 55% off, and the 29th really is the end of it. Worth a look: a 6TB WD My Book at €180, the DJI Lito 1 drone at €279, and the 2026 LG OLED 65 C6 at €1,499. 👉 Browse here

🏛️ The German Historical Museum is free on Saturday
Free entry to the Pei-Bau all day on 3 October, 10:00–18:00. Normal admission is €7, or €10 for the combined ticket. The Zeughaus is closed for renovation—the Pei-Bau is the one that's open. 👉 More info here
📍 Hinter dem Gießhaus 3 — U6 Französische Str.

⚡ Switch electricity and save
Finanztip puts a model household's saving at €282 a year moving off a basic-supply tariff onto something with a twelve-month price guarantee. Two weeks' notice, and the new provider handles the cancellation. 👉 Compare here

🗳️ Die Linke won Berlin. Now the Greens and the SPD decide who runs it ⭐

The result from 20 September, on a turnout of 74.2%:
· Die Linke — 25.7%
· CDU — 18.8%
· AfD — 16.3%
· Grüne — 14.3%
· SPD — 12.1%
· BSW — 4.7%, just under the threshold and out

Only Die Linke and the AfD gained, up 13.5 and 7.2 points. The CDU fell hardest — 9.5 points, from 28.2% — and the SPD dropped 6.3 to its worst result in Berlin ever. These are provisional official figures.

The arithmetic. The Abgeordnetenhaus has 158 seats, and a majority needs 80. Die Linke takes 47, the CDU 34, the AfD 29, the Greens 26, and the SPD 22. Nobody will work with the AfD, and a Linke–CDU pairing is ruled out by both sides, which leaves two routes — and both need the same two junior partners:
· Die Linke + Grüne + SPD — 95 seats
· CDU + Grüne + SPD — 82 seats

So the Greens and the SPD choose the next mayor, and it's Elif Eralp or Stefan Evers.

Where it stands. Die Linke's party congress voted on Friday evening, by a large majority, to invite the Greens and the SPD to exploratory talks. Those aren't coalition negotiations — they're the conversation about whether to have them, and a further congress will vote on that afterwards.

What it turns on. Housing, as it was all a campaign: Eralp made expropriating the big corporate landlords a condition of governing, and the CDU has ruled it out. The talks are also strained by a row over antisemitism within Die Linke. Berlin coalition negotiations routinely take two months.

Kai Wegner gave up the CDU lead candidacy in July over his handling of January's blackout — but he won the Spandau 5 seat and stays on as caretaker until the new parliament elects a government. It has to convene by 1 November.

And the districts went differently. The twelve district assemblies were elected the same day, and they're what decides parks, playgrounds, cycle lanes and libraries. Die Linke took six, the CDU four, the SPD none — and the BSW, shut out of parliament, got into eleven of the twelve, because the district threshold is 3% rather than 5%.

👉 Official results here

Summer came back for one more week and picked the marathon to do it. 24°C today, which is hot for running 42 kilometres; if you're out watching, bring water for whoever you're waiting for.

It holds at 25 through Wednesday, then slides to 21 on Friday, 20 on Saturday, and 19 on Sunday. The warm spell ends more or less exactly on Unity Day. And there is no rain in the forecast at all, not one day of it.

· Today · 24°C / 11°C · dry, marathon day
· Mon 28 · 25°C / 11°C · dry
· Tue 29 · 25°C / 12°C · dry
· Wed 30 · 25°C / 12°C · dry
· Thu 1 Oct · 24°C / 12°C · dry
· Fri 2 Oct · 21°C / 10°C · dry
· Sat 3 Oct · 20°C / 9°C · dry, Unity Day

👉 Full forecast here

🚆 Trains west change from Friday morning ⭐
From 05:00 Friday, works on the Lehrte–Berlin line change for long-distance and western regional travel until 12 December. ICEs to Hanover run at least hourly but take sixty to eighty minutes longer. Locally: Spandau to Stendal closes completely, the RE4 and RB34 go over to buses, the RE2 diverts via Gesundbrunnen and Ostkreuz, and the RB23 is withdrawn. Check the journey planner, not an old bus map.
👉 DB's notice here

🇩🇪 German Unity Day is Saturday
Thirty-six years since reunification, and the only public holiday set by federal law. It falls on a Saturday, so no extra day off — and the shops are shut. Station branches at Hauptbahnhof, Ostbahnhof and Friedrichstraße may open. Do the shopping on Friday.
The central celebration is in Bremen. Berlin's own programme is largely free, and the best of it is further down.
👉 Berlin's Unity Day page here

🎡 The autumn funfair is running
Berliner Herbstrummel at the Zentraler Festplatz, 80+ rides. Wed–Thu 14:00–22:00, Fri–Sat to 23:00, Sun 13:00–22:00. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Runs to 25 October.
👉 More info here
📍 Kurt-Schumacher-Damm 207

🕌 Muslim Culture Week, final weekend
Free, and it ends on the 4th. Open Mosque Day is Saturday, 11:00–12:00 — mosques across the city open their doors, as they have on 3 October since 1997.
👉 More info here

🏭 Final weekend for the Industrial Heritage Festival
Factories, power stations and workshops that don't usually let anyone in — around a hundred events. Closes 4 October.
👉 Full programme here

🌍 Transkontinentale — Humboldt Forum · Wednesday to 4 October ⭐
The third edition of the Humboldt Forum's own festival, bringing dance, theatre and performance from Brazil, China, Cameroon, Nigeria and Aotearoa. Several productions happen inside the ethnological collections themselves, which is not a thing most museums allow.
It opens Wednesday with Luftmasse, from the Chinese director Tian Gebing, after a text by Alfred Döblin — with a set by Ai Weiwei. Also on: dancers from Lagos performing their city as a Radical Audio Visual Experience, and Shel We, a dance piece with no words at all, for anyone aged four and up.
Times and prices vary by performance, and every event comes with a conversation with the artists.
👉 Programme & tickets here
📍 Schloßplatz — U5 Museumsinsel

🎧 Tag der Clubkultur — from Saturday, to 11 October
Around 130 events from more than 110 clubs, collectives and initiatives, under the title Stay Core: club nights, concerts, performance, exhibitions, films, workshops, talks, tours and radio takeovers. The first year it runs as a full festival week rather than a single day. Admission varies by event.
👉 Programme here

🎃 Schöneberger Kürbisfest — Saturday and Sunday · FREE
More than ten thousand pumpkins in twenty varieties, a hundred-odd traders and food stalls filling Akazienstraße and Belziger Straße. Saturday 11:00–20:00, Sunday 10:00–20:00.
👉 More info here
📍 Akazienstr. / Belziger Str. — U7 Eisenacher Str. or Kleistpark

🪑 Design Börse Berlin — Friday to Sunday · Trabrennbahn Karlshorst
Design classics and vintage furniture from Art Nouveau and Bauhaus through midcentury, plus contemporary Berlin design, in the Tribünenhalle. Friday 14:00–21:00, Saturday and Sunday 10:00–17:00. €10 on Friday, which buys all three days; €5 at the weekend.
The Riesenflohmarkt runs alongside at the same venue — a separate, much larger general flea market, so you can do both in one trip.
👉 More info here
📍 Treskowallee 159 — S3 Karlshorst

🎨 Cassirer — Alte Nationalgalerie · FINAL DAY today
Extended hours for the last day, 09:30–19:00. More than 120 works — Manet, Monet, Renoir, van Gogh, Liebermann, Munch, built around the dealer who brought them to Germany. Timed booking is advisable.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Bodestr. 1–3 — Museumsinsel

🏃 The marathon is today — and here's when your street comes back

More than 56,000 people are running the 52nd Berlin Marathon this morning. The wheelchair and handbike fields go first, from 08:20; the main field starts in six waves between 08:45 and 10:30; the last finishers are expected around 17:00.

Altonaer Straße closes from 05:00 and reopens around 11:30. Unter den Linden between Pariser Platz and Friedrichstraße is shut from 05:30 until 19:00.

🚧 The staged reopening
· Monday, 12:00 — Ebertstraße, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee, Scheidemannstraße, Dorotheenstraße and the government quarter
· Tuesday — Straße des 17. Juni from the Großer Stern to Yitzhak-Rabin-Straße
· Thursday 1 October, 18:00 — the last stretch, Yitzhak-Rabin-Straße to Ebertstraße

That final section has been closed since 21 September.

🚇 Getting around today — and the U-Bahn is not the easy answer

Many bus and tram lines are diverted, shortened or interrupted across the districts the route crosses. Normally the advice would be to go underground. This week it isn't that simple.

After the fire at Wittenbergplatz on the 17th, the U1 is still not running at all, and the U2 can't run through. The U3 is back to normal. BVG's own recommendation is to detour widely — use the S-Bahn and other lines like the U7, and take the S-Bahn between Alexanderplatz and Zoo rather than trying to cross the west underground.

And from late tonight, separate planned work begins on the U2 between Bismarckstraße and Zoologischer Garten, with buses replacing trains in the late evening and overnight, Sunday to Thursday, until 12 November. Weekends run normally.

On foot, cross the route through the U-Bahn underpasses. If you're running, your race number works as a BVG ticket.

🔪 A weapons and knife ban is in force in Mitte

Berlin police have issued a temporary order covering a defined area, in force yesterday and today from 06:00 to 17:00. It covers knives as well as blank-firing and irritant weapons. If you're heading into the centre with a picnic, leave the knife at home.

👉 Road closures & map here · Live BVG disruptions here

SUN 27 · TODAY · MARATHON DAY
· 🏃 Berlin Marathon · wheelchair and handbike fields from 08:20, main field 08:45–10:30, last finishers ~17:00
· 🚧 Course closed from 07:00 · Unter den Linden shut 05:30–19:00
· 🛒 Flohmarkt Mauerpark · 10:00–18:00 · free · cash only
· 🛒 RAW-Flohmarkt · 09:00–17:00 · free
· 🛒 Flohmarkt am Arkonaplatz · 10:00–17:00 · free
· 🛒 Flohmarkt am Boxhagener Platz · 10:00–18:00 · free
· 📚 Antik- und Buchmarkt am Bodemuseum · 10:00–17:00 · free
· 🍢 Thaipark · 11:00–20:00 · free · cash
· 🏒 Eisbären v Iserlohn · 14:00 · Uber Arena
· 🎨 Cassirer · FINAL DAY · Alte Nationalgalerie · to 19:00
· 🎤 Sunday Comedy Party · 19:30 · Oblomov, Kreuzkölln
· 🎻 Prokofiev & Schindler's List · 20:00 · Philharmonie

MON 28
· 🚧 Government quarter reopens from 12:00
· 🚇 Late tonight: U2 works begin between Bismarckstraße and Zoo, to 12 November
· 🎭 Le Lampenfieber opens · Ballhaus Ost · to 4 October
· 🎤 A$AP Rocky · 20:00 · Uber Arena
· 🎬 Lost Highway · 22:00 · Kino Babylon · OmU

TUE 29
· 🚧 Straße des 17. Juni reopens as far as Yitzhak-Rabin-Straße
· 🌿 Türkenmarkt · 11:00–18:30 · free
· 🎬 Kurdish Film Festival · Karapetê Xaço 16:30 · Van 18:00, with Q&A · Earth Song 19:30, with the director · Kino Babylon

WED 30 · TWO DEADLINES
· 🚂 LAST DAY to buy the half-price BahnCard 25
· 🌍 Interrail 50% booking window closes at 10:00
· 🌍 Transkontinentale opens · Humboldt Forum · to 4 October
· 🎛️ AGGREGATE Festival opens · Konzerthaus
· 🆓 Make it in Germany webinar · 14:00–15:30 · free, in English
· 🎬 Kurdish Film Festival · Wie die Nelken 18:15, with Q&A · Kino Babylon
· 🎼 Junge Deutsche Philharmonie · Haydn & Prokofiev · 20:00 · Philharmonie
· 🎸 Tarja · Huxleys Neue Welt

THU 1 OCT
· 🚧 18:00 — the last stretch of Straße des 17. Juni reopens
· 🎓 TU Berlin master's lottery deadline
· 🎬 Kurdish Film Festival · final day · Kino Babylon
· 🍜 Street Food Thursday · 17:00–22:00 · Markthalle Neun
· 🎼 Brahms & Also sprach Zarathustra · 20:00 · Philharmonie

FRI 2 OCT · RAIL WORKS BEGIN
· 🚆 05:00 — Berlin–Hanover works begin, to 12 December. Spandau–Stendal closed
· 🪑 Design Börse Berlin opens · Trabrennbahn Karlshorst · 14:00–21:00 · to Sunday
· 🌿 Türkenmarkt · 11:00–18:30 · free
· 🎸 Bryan Adams · doors 18:00, show 20:00 · Uber Arena
· 🎼 Brahms & Also sprach Zarathustra · 20:00 · Philharmonie

SAT 3 OCT · GERMAN UNITY DAY
· 🇩🇪 Public holiday — shops shut. Do the shopping on Friday
· 🆓 Free for the holiday: German Historical Museum 10:00–18:00, tours at 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 · Ministergärten open houses 11:00–18:00, seven state representations · Tag der offenen Moschee, mosques open across the city
· 🥬 Winterfeldtmarkt · 08:00–16:00
· 📚 Antik- und Buchmarkt am Bodemuseum · 10:00–17:00 · free
· 🔥 Gauklerfest · Spandau Citadel · 10:00–19:00 · fire show 18:00
· 🧶 Berlin Wool Festival · 10:00–17:00 · Trabrennbahn Mariendorf
· 🥔 Harvest Festival · Domäne Dahlem · 10:00–18:00
· 🎃 Schöneberger Kürbisfest · 11:00–20:00 · FREE
· 🍢 Thaipark · 11:00–20:00 · free · cash
· 🎧 Tag der Clubkultur opens · citywide · to 11 October
· 🏀 ALBA v Bamberg · 18:30 · Uber Arena
· 🎼 Brahms & Also sprach Zarathustra · 19:00 · Philharmonie
· 🎺 Unity Day concert · 20:00 · Philharmonie, Kammermusiksaal

🎬 Kurdish Film Festival — final week, to 1 October · Kino Babylon

The sixteenth edition, in its last days, with a focus this year on Kurds in the Soviet Union. Tuesday is the night to go: Van, a Turkish film from this year, at 18:00 with a Q&A — then Earth Song from Finland at 19:30, with the director Erol Mintaş there to answer for it.

Check the label before you book: OmeU means English subtitles, OmU means German, and OV means none at all. This festival runs all three.
👉 Programme here
📍 Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30 — U2 Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz

🎬 Two Lynch films at the Babylon this week
Lost Highway plays Monday at 22:00, and Mulholland Drive is in the programme too. Both OmU — German subtitles, not English — though with Lynch that's arguably the least of your comprehension problems.

Also on with English subtitles this week: Mr. Nobody Against Putin and Jim Queen 👉 Find OmeU screenings here

🎭 Deutscher Herbst — Deutsches Theater
Christopher Rüping's piece 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. It opened last weekend and runs through October, so the sold-out premiere is no longer the only way in.
👉 Tickets & dates here
📍 Schumannstr. 13A — S+U Friedrichstraße

🎭 Stereophonic — Schaubühne · from Saturday
The Tony-winning play about a rock band coming apart while recording an album in the 1970s, in its first Berlin run. Saturday is the first date and more follow through October — but it's the opening weekend, so book rather than turn up.
👉 Tickets & dates here
📍 Kurfürstendamm 153 — U7 Adenauerplatz

🎭 Mephisto — Berliner Ensemble
Frank Castorf directs Klaus Mann's novel about an actor's rise under the Nazis. It premiered on 17 September and is still running.
👉 Tickets & dates here
📍 Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1 — S+U Friedrichstraße

🎹 Brahms and Also sprach Zarathustra — Thu, Fri and Sat · Philharmonie ⭐

Kirill Petrenko conducts Brahms's First Piano Concerto and the Strauss — the one that opens 2001: A Space Odyssey, which lasts ninety seconds and then becomes half an hour of something else entirely.

The soloist changed at short notice: Víkingur Ólafsson replaces Daniil Trifonov, who is indisposed. Ólafsson is a different kind of pianist, and the Brahms won't sound the same for it.

20:00 Thursday and Friday, 19:00 Saturday. €50–161, about two hours with an interval.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Herbert-von-Karajan-Str. 1 — S+U Potsdamer Platz

🎛️ AGGREGATE — Wednesday and Thursday

A festival of hyperorgans and computer-controlled organ music, curated by Gamut Inc. Wednesday at the Konzerthaus, 20:00, with adaptations of Laurie Spiegel and a set from Rrose, from €19.75. Thursday at St Hedwig's Cathedral, 20:00, where Tristan Perich and James McVinnie play Infinity Gradient — written for organ and a hundred speakers. €15, or €10 reduced.
👉 Tickets here

🎺 Unity Day concert — Saturday · 20:00 · Philharmonie, Kammermusiksaal

The Berliner Symphoniker marks the holiday with Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt, in the small hall. A different room and a different hour from the Petrenko concert, so both are possible.
👉 More info here

🎤 A$AP Rocky — Monday · Uber Arena

The Don't Be Dumb tour. Doors open at 18:30; the advertised show time is 20:00; tickets are from €106.50. Check your own ticket, since the listed start time varies by seller.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Uber Platz 1 — S+U Warschauer Str.

🎸 Bryan Adams — Friday · Uber Arena

Roll With The Punches. Doors open at 18:00, show at 20:00, and the arena's own offer starts at €60.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Uber Platz 1 — S+U Warschauer Str.

🖤 Death Cab for Cutie — Thursday · Columbiahalle · SOLD OUT

Doors open at 18:30 and show at 20:00, with Pool Kids supporting. Both the promoter and the band mark it sold out, and there's a waiting list — worth knowing before you start looking.
📍 Columbiadamm 13–21 — U6 Platz der Luftbrücke

🎹 Ryuichi Sakamoto: seeing sound, hearing time — Hamburger Bahnhof · to 20 June 2027
The first major European retrospective of the composer, and it's as much about sound as about objects. It runs for nine more months — which is exactly why people mean to see it and then don't.
👉 More info here
📍 Invalidenstr. 50–51 — S+U Hauptbahnhof

🖼️ Maurizio Cattelan: Night — Neue Nationalgalerie · to 7 March 2027
His first major solo show in Germany, mounted for the Nationalgalerie Prize and 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 3 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
· 🛒 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 on the Spree — come by S-Bahn to Hackescher Markt today, since Unter den Linden is closed
· 🍢 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 29 + Fri 2 · 11:00–18:30 · free · prices drop after 17:30
· 🍜 Street Food Thursday · Thu 1 · 17:00–22:00 · Markthalle Neun
· 📚 Antik- und Buchmarkt am Bodemuseum · Sat 3 · 10:00–17:00 · free
· 🥬 Winterfeldtmarkt · Sat 3 · 08:00–16:00 · Winterfeldtplatz
· 🍢 Thaipark · Sat 3 · 11:00–20:00 · free · cash

🏃 The marathon — full details above
More than 56,000 runners, six start waves from 08:45.

🏒 Eisbären v Iserlohn — today · 14:00 · Uber Arena
Ice hockey at two in the afternoon, while the marathon is still going on the other side of town. The Eisbären have won the last three German championships.
📍 Uber Platz 1 — S+U Warschauer Str.

🏀 ALBA v Bamberg — Saturday · 18:30 · Uber Arena
Basketball on Unity Day evening, when most other things are shut.
📍 Uber Platz 1 — S+U Warschauer Str.

⚽ Klopp's first game ended 1–1
Jürgen Klopp's debut as national coach finished level against the Netherlands in Amsterdam - Nmecha scored after half an hour, and the Dutch equalised in stoppage time. Musiala and Havertz both went off injured, so the squad has already changed.

⚽ And neither Berlin club plays this week - it's the international break.
Union have one point from four games and seventeen conceded after the 7–0 at Bayern. They're home to Elversberg on Saturday, 10 October, 15:30.
Hertha go into the break at the top of the 2. Bundesliga and are away at Greuther Fürth on Sunday, 11 October, 13:30.

🎭 Comedy Café Berlin — Neukölln
Berlin's first international comedy stage, open since 2015, and more improv than stand-up: a soundproofed seventy-seat room where a word shouted from the audience becomes the next twenty minutes.
Wednesday, 20:00 - the CCB Open Mic, where comedians try material that isn't finished. €5.
Friday, 20:30 - The Fishbowl: improv built live from what the audience gives them. €10.
👉 Programme here
📍 Roseggerstr. 17 - U8 Boddinstr.

🎤 Gören am Samstag — Die Göre, Prenzlauer Berg · Saturday 20:30
Berlin stand-up in a small room, local and visiting acts. €10–12.90.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Danziger Str. 64 - M10 Hufelandstr.

🎤 East-West Comedy — Kreuzberg and Neukölln
Weekly English shows: open mics, themed showcases, game shows, and touring dates by American comedians passing through.
👉 What's on here

📋 And the listings site nobody mentions
comedyinenglish.de tracks English-language comedy across the city and sends a weekly email. User-maintained, so not perfect, but it's the only thing that tries to list all of it.
👉 Browse here

👉 Everything else on here

🔥 Gauklerfest — Spandau Citadel · Saturday and Sunday ⭐

The eighth year of a medieval market inside a sixteenth-century fortress: taverns and food, a carousel and Ferris wheel both turned by hand, a juggling school for children, storytelling, music, and acrobatics. The fire show is at 18:00 on Saturday, though the organisers say the running order can shift.

Saturday 10:00–19:00. Booked ahead: €13 adults, €7 for six to sixteens, under-sixes free, €33 for a family. At the door it's €14, €8 and €36, and online prices don't include the booking fee.
👉 Tickets here
📍 Am Juliusturm 64 — U7 Zitadelle

🍂 Köpenicker Herbstspektakel — Thursday to Sunday · FREE
Blues, rock and pop across two stages by the water at the Luisenhain, with fairground rides and activity zones for children. Thursday 14:00–22:00, Friday and Saturday midday to 22:00, Sunday midday to 18:00. Free, and none of it needs German.
👉 More info here
📍 Luisenhain, Alt-Köpenick — tram to Rathaus Köpenick

🥔 Erntedankfest — Domäne Dahlem · Saturday and Sunday · 10:00–18:00
A working farm museum in the middle of the city. €4.50 adults, €2 concession, free under twelve. Dig your own between 10:00 and 17:00 while stocks last — pumpkins at €3 a kilo, potatoes at €2.50 — with market stalls, heritage machinery and tours alongside. No tractor rides this year.
👉 More info here
📍 Königin-Luise-Str. 49 — U3 Dahlem-Dorf

🧶 Berlin Wolle-Festival — Saturday and Sunday · Trabrennbahn Mariendorf
International wool producers and independent dyers, with spinning, knitting and crochet demonstrations through the day. Saturday 10:00–17:00, Sunday to 16:00. From €8, free for under-14s.
👉 More info here
📍 Mariendorfer Damm 222–298 — U6 Alt-Mariendorf

🍕 Gazzo - Neukölln

Berlin's first sourdough pizzeria, and the chef is Norwegian, which in a city with three hundred Italian places is a reasonable claim to attention. Mikael cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens, took a finance degree, consulted for restaurants, and then opened a pizzeria in Neukölln anyway.

The dough ferments slowly from organic German flour and bakes cooler than Neapolitan, so you get a crisp base without the charred blisters. The mozzarella comes from free-grazing buffalo in Brandenburg, the wine is on tap, and the buffalo-milk soft serve with olive oil and sea salt is what people actually come back for.

Pizzas run €11.50 for a marinara to €19.50 for spicy salami and burrata.

It's loud, it's full, the tables are long and shared, and they'll want them back, so book, and don't plan on lingering.

Noon to ten, or eleven on Friday and Saturday.

👉 More info here
📍 Hobrechtstr. 57 — U8 Schönleinstr.

💊 Apotheke — Kreuzberg

Twelve years after founding their label, Jale Richert and Michele Beil have opened their first own shop — in a 135-year-old pharmacy on Muskauer Straße, with the old fittings left where they were and the monochrome collections hanging against them.

It's built like a restaurant kitchen, on purpose: the atelier, the production, the archive and the rail all in one room, so you can watch the work happening while you browse. Ready-to-wear alongside archive pieces and one-offs, with installations between collections. Around €80 for a top, up to €1,800 for a blazer.

They opened it during Fashion Week and pointedly didn't do a show. Instead they auctioned ten one-off garments with tags listing the name, the size, the ingredients and the cooking time — no price.

Thursday to Saturday only, midday to six.

👉 More info here
📍 Muskauer Str. 41 — U1/U3 Görlitzer Bahnhof

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.

💶 €487.01 warm — Marzahn-Hellersdorf · 1 room · 36 m² · no WBS
Wittenberger Str. 21. Fourth floor of six, balcony, bathtub, lift, built 1985. Listed as housing among an older community, so check the age conditions before applying. Available now.
👉 View flat here

💶 €634.80 warm — Lichtenberg · 2 rooms · 54.9 m² · WBS required
Alfred-Jung-Str. 22. Ninth floor of ten, lift, district heating, built 1976. Free from 1 December, and they'll consider an earlier start.
👉 View flat here

Tandem — Product Manager (parental leave cover)
The language-learning platform. A fixed-term role, which is often the easier way into a company that isn't otherwise hiring.
👉 Apply here

Hygraph — (Senior) Financial Accountant (f/m/d)
A headless CMS scale-up: DATEV workflows and month-end close. One of only five finance jobs on the whole board this week.
👉 Apply here

Skyflow — Product Engineer
Data-privacy vaults and developer tooling — a role that sits between building and deciding what to build.
👉 Apply here

And 38 internships are open right now — worth knowing if you're a student, and not a number anyone else publishes.

🆓 Three things that aren't jobs but might get you one

Wednesday, 14:00–15:30 — a free webinar in English from Make it in Germany, on registering with the Federal Employment Agency and what the official job service actually does for international professionals. Online, no cost.
👉 Register here

Tuesday and Wednesday — Vocatium in Potsdam, 08:30–14:45 at the Metropolishalle. Free and the strongest for school leavers and anyone looking at an Ausbildung or a dual-study place.
👉 More info here

Thursday — TU Berlin's master's lottery closes. Remaining places in Civil Systems Engineering, Information Systems Management, Mechanical Engineering, Scientific Computing, and Language and Communication. It only runs if places are left, and you need an active TUB account with complete documents.
👉 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, all free to walk around. Worth the diary entry now — the good vantage points fill up.
👉 More info here

🎧 Rough Trade's launch party — Thursday 8 October
Their new Neukölln room finally opens properly: Dina Summer live, with DJ sets from Mark Reeder and Local Suicide. The stage holds 250 and tickets are limited, so this one's worth booking rather than remembering.
👉 More info here

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