🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Something has been sitting with me since the CSD attack, and it isn’t only the attack itself. It’s how quickly the conversation split into different camps, with each side reaching for an explanation that already fit the argument they wanted to have.

What gets lost in that rush is the real danger, which is extremism itself, from whatever direction it comes, and the way it works to turn people against each other. That division is not a side effect of these attacks. It's more like the main goal. There's a DW piece that names this pattern better than I can, and I've saved it for this week's poll.

What has stayed with me more, is what happened next. Zug der Liebe cancelled its parade out of respect, and hundreds of thousands turned out for Pride in Hamburg. Before he went, I asked a colleague who had been close to where everything happened in Berlin whether he still felt safe going to the celebrations in Hamburg.

He said yes, and then asked what else he was supposed to do, live his life in fear? He was determined more than he’d ever been and said he wasn’t going to be anyone other than himself. More on all of it below.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: How do you feel about Germany's closed Sundays?

Germany’s Sunday closures aren’t going away just yet, but the debate around them remains fierce. As the government considers allowing longer opening hours for bakeries and libraries from 2027, and retailers push for wider reform, the conversation about convenience versus tradition is only growing. You can read more about the debate here, or take advantage of my guide to Sunday shopping in Berlin.

A total of 183 people voted, and the community was fairly split. While 42% think Germany’s closed Sundays are outdated and should be opened up, 30% want to keep the tradition exactly as it is. Another 25% landed somewhere in the middle, saying a limited number of shops opening would be enough. It seems many people aren’t looking for a seven-day shopping culture, just a little more flexibility.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. After the Berlin attack, most of the coverage stayed on one question, which was who the attacker was. This DW piece goes somewhere else.

A researcher who has spent years studying extremism points out that Islamist and far-right movements are not opposites so much as mirrors, sharing a hostility to queer people, a distrust of institutions, and the same aim of splitting society into two camps that cannot live together. Each treats the other as proof that coexistence is impossible, and he warns that fixating on the attacker’s nationality plays directly into that.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

Five German deep tech companies hiring now, from fusion and quantum to green hydrogen and reusable spacecraft:

1. Black Semiconductor (Graphene chips connected by light)

   Aachen | 36 jobs
   Analog transceiver design engineer, semiconductor materials category manager, photonics lab technician.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite/hybrid mix

2. planqc (Quantum computers from neutral atoms)

   Ulm & Munich | 18 jobs

   Quantum systems architect, senior accountant, people & culture working student.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

3. Proxima Fusion (Fusion energy from stellarator reactors)
   Munich | 41 jobs

   Head of licensing & regulation, computational engineer, enterprise AI intern.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

4. Sunfire (Electrolysers for green hydrogen)
   Dresden, Lingen, Solingen, Magdeburg | 54 jobs
   Sales manager, SAP working student, quality supervisor customer projects.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

5. The Exploration Company (Reusable capsules for space cargo)
   Munich & Düsseldorf | 64 jobs
   Site director, FPGA engineer, ecodesign working student.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

👋🏼 That’s not all: See our weekly-updated database of 400+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

A leaner week, but 33 open roles are still up for grabs. Last week, 6 funded startups across 4 German cities raised about €27 M, and 5 are hiring:

1. 5U AI (AI worker for freight forwarding) - $3.2 M
   Munich | 7 jobs
   Full-stack AI engineer, sales development representative, founder’s associate.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Onsite

2. Celsio (Power-to-heat provider for factories) - €1.2 M
   Munich | 2 jobs
   Founder's associate, business development & operations intern.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

3. metr (Smart metering and heating platform) - €10.5 M
   Leipzig | 1 job
   Senior key account manager.
   🇩🇪 | Hybrid

4. PadelCity (Padel sports franchise) - €12 M
   Various German cities | 12 jobs
   Coaches and club managers, mostly.
   🇩🇪 | Onsite

5. Willidrop (Vehicle logistics platform) - Undisclosed
   Frankfurt | 11 jobs
   Product engineer, carrier network manager, founder's associate.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

🧐 Key Insights

What last week's funding tells us:

1. The biggest hirer isn’t a tech company. PadelCity, a padel-court franchise, has 12 open roles, more than any software startup this week. A reminder that “startup jobs” in Germany doesn’t only mean engineers. If your background is coaching, hospitality, or operations, the roles are there, just not where the hype points.

2. The money went almost everywhere except Berlin. Six raises, four cities, and Berlin took just one. Munich pulled three, Frankfurt and Hamburg the rest, skewing toward energy, logistics, and industrial software. If you’ve been treating Berlin as the only place to job-hunt, the map keeps arguing otherwise.

💸 Job hunting? See our weekly-updated list of 339 funded German startups, and who's hiring now.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

The first salary advice many newcomers hear in Germany is to take whatever gets offered, because supposedly Germans dislike a counter offer. That is flat out wrong. Negotiation is expected here, and my rule is simple, never accept the first offer.

I wrote a full, honest guide to negotiating salary in Germany that walks you through when the conversation starts and how to research a fair range using real German resources. You will also learn what you can push for beyond base pay and the mistakes that cost people money, all drawn from more than a decade here as both a job seeker and a hiring manager.

It’s the guide I wish someone had handed me when I landed, and I have shared everything I know in it, including the times I tried to negotiate and failed, and the times I pushed past my comfort zone and won.

Advice this important should not sit behind a paywall. Knowing how to advocate for your worth is too valuable to gate keep. My complete guide to negotiating salary in Germany is free, it always will be, and I hope it helps you walk into your next offer knowing exactly what you are worth.

Bonus article: The simple trick to negotiating higher pay, one calm line and then silence, no three-paragraph justification required. Consider this your reminder to ask.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: If you have heard me talk about the financial adviser who helped me stop joking about working until I die and actually plan for my future in Germany, that is Expat Heroes, and their free English-speaking consultations are an easy first step if your own pension and insurance picture needs the same honest look mine did.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Setting up internet in Germany is … a whole thing. If you're moving or switching, PŸUR offers cable internet, TV, and phone, plus up to €190 for every friend you refer. Use my signup link to get started.

Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

🔊 Guides to help you settle in Germany.

Three guides for navigating a job change in Germany:

1. If you are weighing up an offer or just started somewhere new, probation periods in Germany explains how the Probezeit actually works, from shorter notice periods to what your employer can and cannot do before you are through it.

2. Thinking about moving on? How to quit your job in Germany walks you through resigning the right way so you protect your reputation, your references, and your next move.

3. The one to actually read before you hand anything in, notice periods in Germany breaks down exactly how much notice you owe, how it changes with time served, and how to count it so you do not accidentally tie yourself in for longer.

ℹ️ More where that came from:

• 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

• We also have a podcast. See our past episodes.

Our Events (+ Other Events)

🎟️ A weekly event round-up.

This week is about making something with your hands and looking up at the sky:

1. Aug 5: Cry Session: Ceramic Painting at Mao Mao (men-only) is a hands-on ceramic painting evening from Hot Boys Cry, a men-only space to slow down and connect. Paint a piece and collect it glazed a few weeks later, all materials provided. 18:30–20:30. €10.

2. Aug 6: Crochet Bag Workshop at Nomad Day Bar is a beginner-friendly session with Ania where you make a small bag from first stitch to finish. Small group, all materials included. 18:00–21:00. Only 2 spots left. €35.

3. Aug 12: The World You See: Solar Eclipse & Perseid Meteor Shower is a collective evening of sky-watching: an 80% partial solar eclipse, then the Perseids as day turns to night. Eclipse glasses provided, come and go as you like. 18:30–23:30. Free.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• The August changes that will actually affect your daily life? Fewer trains during the heat, higher regional ticket prices from August 1, a new EU AI-labelling rule, and a country-wide speeding crackdown.

• Do you actually know what "6-7" means, or are you ready to feel old? Germany's Youth Word of the Year 2026 shortlist puts the meme-born "6-7" up against "digga," "Macker," "crashout" and "ragebait," with the winner crowned on October 10.

• How is a hotter Germany actually affecting people here? RKI counted roughly 9,800 heat-related deaths by mid-July, a new study finds climate doubt has grown into what it calls a mass phenomenon, and near Berlin, residents and industry forces are battling to draw on the same stretched water supply.

• The EU’s exploring a satellite system that would automatically cap your car's speed at the local limit.

📈 Politics & Economy

• The community is carrying both grief and resolve at once, as Zug der Liebe cancelled its parade out of respect after the CSD attack in Berlin, while hundreds of thousands turned out for Pride in Hamburg to show that love wins and nothing else.

• The reasons the queer community feel threatened aren’t limited to the CSD attack, as hate crimes have risen roughly tenfold since 2010, Pride symbols are being blocked in public spaces, and the push to add sexual identity to Article 3 of the Basic Law is meeting resistance.

• Ever feel like nothing in Germany quite works anymore? You're not alone, as just 17% of people now trust the state to do its job, a record low, with pensions and the economy now the top worries.

• Is Germany's economy finally turning a corner? GDP grew 0.2% last quarter, just above forecasts and defying the fallout from the Middle East war.

• Germany just hit a milestone worth noticing! Wind and solar out-produced fossil fuels for the first time in 2025, at 44% of the country's electricity.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• The July jobless figures crossed 3 million as industry keeps slumping, but a chunk of that is the usual summer dip when apprenticeships end and hiring pauses, so a slow response right now is not necessarily about you.

• The €603 minijob may soon lose its tax-free, pension-optional status, so if that is how you top up your income, it is worth understanding now what full social-security contributions would mean for your paycheck and your future pension.

• Europe's working day is eating into more people’s personal time. While Germany has no standalone right-to-disconnect law yet, knowing that France, Italy, Spain and others do can help you push for clearer boundaries at work.

• Ever wondered what the top of the German pay ladder looks like? Lufthansa's CEO is estimated to take home €9 to €11 million a year, a useful benchmark next to the salary and pension debates hitting ordinary workers.

• A new study finds net migration has more than halved since 2023, driven by fewer asylum seekers, EU workers leaving and rising German emigration, though work-linked residence permits are still growing.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Need somewhere to escape the Berlin heat this month? Görlitz gives you a walkable, film-set old town 3 hours away (read my personal travelogue), while the North and Baltic Sea coastlines and a handful of small, car-free islands offer sea air and slow days … without the Sylt crowds.

• If you like your day trips a little eerie, a Lübars hay shed on Berlin's northern edge doubles as a fictional Highsmith crime scene, and a few hours away Route 46 lets you walk Germany's longest abandoned Nazi-era motorway.

• This DW portrait of 93-year-old high-wire artist Frieda Daniels is a moving reminder of a part of the Holocaust that gets far too little attention, the murder of an estimated 500,000 Sinti and Roma.

In Case You Missed It

📩 What landed with readers last week.

• Last edition: We featured 5 purpose-driven companies hiring, shared in-depth interviewing advice, and other news in Germany like how Berlin has the country’s largest rooftop farm, data on how hard freelancers work, and Berlin’s best rooftop bars. Read the last edition.

• Most read: Last week’s most popular links were my guide to the cost of living in Berlin, a map of where to move for higher pay, and a survey about 10 new Euro designs.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

On Saturday evening, as one of the most joyous and loving celebrations this city offers was drawing to a close, a vehicle drove into the crowd near the Brandenburg Gate. CSD is a day people come to in their fullest, freest selves, to dance, to love openly, to belong. That it was turned into a place of grief is a heartbreak that words struggle to hold.

There is no place for hate against anyone, ever. Not for who they love, not for who they are. We cannot let religion, politics, or fear be turned into weapons that tear us apart, because the answer to a day like this is not to retreat or to hide. It is to stand closer together, to care for one another, and to keep building the kind of world where this does not happen.

Ampli shared a similar message in their note this week, along with support resources worth passing on: Schwulenberatung Berlin for counselling and mental health support, Sonntags-Club for community, and MANEO for anti-violence and victim support.

And because defiance is its own kind of love, as one Berliner put it: “The best thing about Berlin is that it is gay as f*ck and it always will be, no matter how many whackos are gonna try to scare us into hiding our identity.” That spirit is exactly what refuses to be frightened into silence.

This openness is something Toronto, where I’m from, holds dear too. Twenty-one years ago this week, Canada became one of the first countries in the world to recognise same-sex marriage. Growing up in a city that made room for everyone teaches you that the freedom to love openly is worth defending, wherever you end up.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Does Germany make you feel wanted here?

Germany is facing a growing contradiction. While businesses continue to struggle with skills shortages, net migration has fallen sharply and more than half of the country's top earners have considered moving abroad in the past year.

Given this information, we asked whether people feel wanted here. 154 people voted, and the results paint a sobering picture. Nearly one in three (32%) said they don't feel wanted at all, and another 29% feel wanted only for the taxes they pay. A further 21% feel wanted but unsupported, while just 19% said they mostly feel welcome.

Given the country's ongoing need for skilled workers, these results suggest there's still a significant gap between attracting international talent and making people feel like they belong.

If you’re actually thinking of moving elsewhere, consider this list of where you should move for higher pay.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. From 2027, Germany is loosening its Sunday rules so bakeries and libraries can open longer, and retailers are pushing to have the whole sector follow.

It's a small change that touches something bigger, the “German Sunday” has long been a protected time off, a day for family, a walk in the woods, or simply doing nothing, and not everyone agrees it should give way to convenience.

Whether you treasure the quiet or simply wish you could just grab groceries after a long week, there's no wrong answer. And if you're stuck this Sunday, don't miss my guide to Sunday shopping in Berlin.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

Building on last week’s resonance, here are 5 more German companies on a mission beyond profit.

1. ARMEDANGELS (Fair, sustainable fashion)
   Cologne | 20 jobs
   Senior controller, frontend developer, retail working student.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

2. Choco (Reducing food waste across the supply chain)
   Berlin | 5 jobs
   Senior software engineer, enterprise account executive, workplace & culture intern.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

3. Clue (Reproductive & menstrual health)
   Berlin | 4 jobs
   Junior CRM manager, director of data & AI, VP of product.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

4. traceless materials (Plastic-free, home-compostable biomaterials)
   Hamburg | 9 jobs
   Head of commercial strategy, project director, product development working student.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite/hybrid mix

5. Vytal (Reusable, deposit-free packaging)
   Cologne & Berlin | 2 jobs
   Head of finance, senior strategic sourcing manager.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Hybrid/remote mix

👋🏼 That’s not all: See our weekly-updated database of 400+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

119 reasons to update your CV. Last week, 13 funded startups across 4 German cities raised about €238 M, and 11 of them are hiring:

1. Aampere (Used EV auction marketplace) - €4.2 M
   Munich | 11 jobs
   Head of engineering, sales executive, talent acquisition intern.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid/remote mix.

2. Augustus (Cross-border banking API) - $180 M
   Berlin & New York | 6 jobs
   Senior software engineer, growth associate, office & events working student.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

3. BeatSquares (Newsroom content automation tool) - $2 M
   Berlin | 6 jobs
   Senior backend engineer, account executive, team assistant.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

4. deltaVision (In-orbit satellite refuelling systems) - €10.2 M
   Munich | 24 jobs
   Spacecraft avionics and software lead, CAD/CAM programmer, robotic mechanisms intern.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

5. Deutsche Sanierungsberatung (Energy renovation advisory) - €10 M
   Berlin | 8 jobs
   Head of marketing, energy consultant, founder's associate intern.
   🇩🇪 | Onsite

6. kausable (Causal AI research lab) - €12 M
   Heidelberg | 1 job
   Team assistant.
   🇬🇧 mainly, 🇩🇪 a bonus | Work model unknown

7. Omio (Multi-provider travel booking app) - €8.7 M
   Berlin | 1 job
   Head of expansion marketing.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

8. Passionfroot (AI creator marketing platform) - $15 M
   Berlin | 3 jobs
   Senior/staff product engineer, finance lead, creator partnership manager.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

9. Sereact (AI for warehouse robots) - €6 M
   Stuttgart | 37 jobs
   Mechanical engineer, director of people & culture, product manager.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid/remote mix

10. Spread AI (AI for engineering teams) - Undisclosed
    Berlin | 6 jobs
    Senior product marketing manager, sales development representative, senior delivery manager.
    🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

11. telli (AI phone agent tool) - €13.1 M
    Berlin | 16 jobs
    Design lead, deployment strategist, AI venture development intern.
    🇬🇧 | Onsite

🧐 Key Insights

What last week's funding tells us:

1. A US-sized round hides a quiet truth about who Berlin builds for. Augustus raised $180 M, three-quarters of the week’s money, as a Berlin-New York company hiring in both. Passionfroot, telli, and Spread AI are also Berlin-built but chasing US or UK markets. Increasingly the engineering team sits here while the customers and money sit abroad, so the role is in Berlin but the mindset is transatlantic.

2. “Head of” and “Lead” are everywhere, which tells you the stage. Nearly every company is hiring a department head: engineering, marketing, design, finance, people. These are seed and Series A firms building their first management layer from scratch. If you’re a strong individual contributor wanting a first leadership title, this is the rare window to leap a rung, with no incumbent above you.

3. The robot company out-hiring everyone isn’t in Berlin. Sereact in Stuttgart has 37 roles, triple any Berlin company and a third of the week’s jobs. Stuttgart’s automotive roots give it a deeper robotics talent pool. If you’re an engineer fixated on Berlin, the biggest hiring push is 600 km south, where rent is lower and competition thinner.

💸 Job hunting? See our weekly-updated list of 333 funded German startups, and who's hiring now.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

One thing that catches newcomers off guard: in Germany, salary often comes up in the very first interview, sometimes right on the application. Don’t dodge it. Do your research and give a range you’re comfortable with, plainly.

The bigger shift is tone. German interviewers trust clear, factual answers backed by real examples far more than enthusiasm or a polished story. Keep it to a couple of minutes, and if you don’t know something, say so, “I don’t know yet, but I learn fast” beats bluffing every time. It reads as honest and self-aware, which is exactly what they’re looking for.

I cover all of this in real depth in my full guide to German job interviews, start to finish, every stage of the process, the questions to ask, the red flags to spot, how to handle salary and career gaps. It’s the guide I wish I’d had when I started interviewing here, drawn from years on both sides of the table as a job seeker and a hiring manager.

Bonus article: The three phrases highly successful people use at work, and why "I don't know" is a strength, not a weakness. It’s not just me saying this. 😉

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Meet Frank, your new bodyguard. Frank geht ran is a free stand-in phone number you can give out whenever a shop, form, or persistent stranger demands your digits. Anyone who dials it reaches Frank, who politely tells them to get lost.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Get groceries delivered to your home in minutes with Flink. Download the app & use promo code FLINK-3TDV5T to get €5 off your first order.

Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

🔊 Guides to help you settle in Germany.

Three guides for wherever you are in your Germany journey:

1. Newly updated with more schools this week, German-language schools in Berlin helps you cut through the options and pick the right fit for your level, budget, and schedule instead of guessing.

2. When you need a night off from the admin grind, how to watch English movies in Berlin decodes the OV/OmU/OmeU labels so you never get stuck watching Tom Cruise dubbed into German again.

3. And the one I want you to actually click this week, the guide I’m proudest of, my real cost of living in Berlin. These are my real 2026 numbers, not estimates, rent, insurance, groceries, and all the smaller costs that quickly add up. I keep it honest because deciding whether to build a life in Berlin is a big decision.

ℹ️ More where that came from:

• 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

• We also have a podcast. See our past episodes.

Our Events (+ Other Events)

🎟️ A weekly event round-up.

This week keeps the slow-summer, picnic-blanket energy going:

1. Jul 30: City Daze Walking Club Lates is an after-work nature stroll ending in a social, with conversation cards and a short breathwork pause along the way. Walk 19:00–20:30, then social till late. Pay-what-you-can.

2. Aug 2: Cake & Picnic Summer 2026 at a Berlin park is a bring-a-cake picnic where everyone shares homemade bakes, dietary options welcome. Bring a cake, your picnic gear and your own drinks. Limited to 40 spots. €5.50.

3. Aug 20: Silent Book Club, Session 44 at Viktoriapark is an evening of quiet reading on the grass, then chatting about what everyone’s reading. Meet 18:30 at the waterfall pool, bring a book, drinks and snacks. Free — waitlist only, currently full.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• For the first time since 2002, the euro is getting a full redesign, and the ECB is letting the public vote on 10 shortlisted note designs until 21 September, so you get a say in what's in your wallet.

• With a second 40°C heatwave heading for Berlin in early August, around 80 German towns are already limiting pool-filling, garden-watering and car-washing.

• Berlin summer is heating up, as the Volksbühne is opening a free 25-metre outdoor pool on its square from 7 August, just as some clubs bring in "no shirt, no service" rules that have Berliners gripped in an intense debate.

• DB will ban alcohol at all 5,400 German stations by mid October and starting September 1, it will come into effect at Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof and Gesundbrunnen.

• Berlin recorded more deaths than births for the fourth year running in 2025, even as Germany hit a record 593 cars per 1,000 people and Berlin stayed the least car-heavy at 330.

• From death strip to biodiversity haven, the former border where people once died fleeing is now a protected 1,400km Green Belt. And Berlin now has a supermarket with Germany's largest rooftop farm growing salads.

📈 Politics & Economy

• Chancellor Merz is reshuffling his government after CDU group leader Jens Spahn resigned over a surrogacy controversy.

• A wealth tax is back on the table, with the SPD set to push for it when parliament returns in the fall.

• With Berlin's 20 September election approaching and Die Linke leading at 22% just ahead of the CDU's 20%, here's who among us can actually vote, including a record 250,000 EU citizens and, for the first time, 16- and 17-year-olds.

• Some rare good news for Berlin renters, rents actually dipped 0.8% last quarter while Cologne jumped 6%, and the city's first "rent scan" found nearly half of listings asking illegally high rent, something it now plans to check monthly.

• Good signs for anyone job-hunting in tech or defence, as startups pulled in €5.3 billion in H1 with Berlin leading, the government set up a fund to back defence startups directly, and big firms pledged over €800 billion to revive the economy.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Because ofc, Germany's pension gap is stark, with over 60% of women retirees falling below the poverty line on their state pension last year, more than double the rate for men.

• If you're freelancing in Germany and feel like you never clock off, the data backs you up, with freelancers making up the bulk of those working 49-plus-hour weeks and employees averaging a cool 40.

• Following last week's poll on whether Germany makes you feel wanted, a new survey ranks it the 2nd-worst country for internationals to move to, yet 60% still say they're happy living here, which is the contradiction so many of us know well.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Enjoy now: VisitBerlin’s pick of the best rooftop bars, from Klunkerkranich to the Hotel de Rome. Someday maybe: Kinzo’s bold 100-metre swimming “canal” for Tilla-Durieux-Park, still just a proposal with no backing yet.

• Berlin’s century-old Zehlendorf “Parrot-Estate” just made the UNESCO World Heritage list. Further afield, WorldAtlas rounds up 8 German towns where time stands still, from Rothenburg to Beilstein.

• Haven't we all been here? One newcomer hit every Berlin cliché in one go, the all-black Berghain "uniform," the queue, the Soho House stop. It's a rite of passage, even if the black outfit was never the secret.

In Case You Missed It

📩 What landed with readers last week.

• Last edition: Dive into our last newsletter, where we covered how more than half of Germany’s top earners are thinking of leaving the country, the value of professional titles on CVs, and a pro tip about paying the so-called “TV Tax”.

• Most read: Our most clicked links were why Berlin’s airport is hopeless, why tenants need better protection from heat, and my new About page.

Corrections

🙊 Those times I just mess up.

• Last week I cited a migration statistic with the confidence of someone who had definitely read the Destatis table correctly. Turns out Reader Simon actually did. The correct net migration figure is 97,000, not 288,000.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

You may have noticed The Berlin Life looks a little different lately. I’ve been giving the whole site a facelift, and if you want to know how this all started (and who’s behind it), the new about page is where to go.

Last edition, I admitted that for the first time in 15 years here, I caught myself wondering whether I should go home. Turns out I'm nowhere near alone. Still no answer from me, but if you've been wondering the same thing, you're in very good company.

More on that below.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Do these reforms change how you feel about Germany?

A total of 116 people voted, and the proposed reforms have clearly struck a nerve. While 47% said it’s too early to judge, 41% said they’re already rethinking how they feel about Germany. Only 10% said the proposals haven’t changed their view.

The coalition’s plans include first-day sick notes, scrapping telephone sick notes, and extending some fixed-term contracts from two to four years. None of these measures are law yet, and all still require parliamentary approval. Even so, the results show that proposed policy changes alone can shape how people feel about their future here.

Read more about the coalition’s reform package, the planned sick leave changes, and why German voters remain sceptical.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. A new survey found that more than half of Germany's top earners have applied for jobs abroad in the past year, with 77% of would-be leavers planning to stay away for years or for good, citing higher pay elsewhere, better quality of life, and a tax burden 70% call too high.

The irony is that while its top earners eye the exit, Germany desperately needs skilled workers, yet bureaucracy, language barriers, and the housing market keep pushing the internationals it recruits back out. Over 288,000 more people left Germany than arrived from abroad within a year, the biggest net loss since 2017.

If you've been wondering whether to stay, you're not alone.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

This week, we're featuring 5 German companies with a mission beyond profit:

1. everdrop (Waste-free home cleaning products)
   Munich & Aachen | 13 jobs
   Senior designer, junior influencer marketing manager, conversion strategy & offer psychology manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

2. Klim (Regenerative farming platform)
   Berlin | 13 jobs
   Sr farm economics specialist, head of scientific modelling, certification specialist.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

3. nebenan.de (Social network for neighbourhoods)
   Berlin | 3 jobs
   Sales manager, senior sales manager, finance operations specialist.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

4. Tomorrow (Sustainable banking app for climate impact)
   Hamburg & remote | 1 job
   Senior IOS engineer.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

5. Too Good to Go (App selling unsold restaurant food)
   Berlin | 8 jobs
   Logistics manager, paid social team lead, key accounts specialist.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

👋🏼 That’s not all: See our weekly-updated database of 400+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

The week of June 5 was busy in startup land, as 21 companies across 13 German cities and towns took in about €595 M in reported funding.

14 of these companies need skilled talent for 116 jobs:

1. alqem (AI materials discovery platform) - €8 M
   Munich & remote | 3 jobs
   Magnet scientist, materials scientist, computational material scientist.
   🇬🇧 | Likely onsite for lab work.

2. Andercore (Industrial materials supply platform) - €30 M
   Berlin mainly, plus some other German cities | 41 jobs
   Growth associate, chief of staff - strategy & AI enablement, people operations manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid/onsite mix.

3. ARC Intelligence (Group financial reporting platform) - €4 M
   Berlin | 5 jobs
   Engineering intern, full-stack engineer, head of GTM.
   🇬🇧, 🇩🇪 a + | Hybrid

4. auxilius.ai (AI continuous auditing platform) - €1.3 M
   Munich | 2 jobs
   Founding product manager, application architect.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

5. Birdsview (Agentic e-commerce CRM) - €2.5 M
   Düsseldorf | 1 job
   Product engineer.
   🇬🇧 | Remote

6. FENKA Robotics (Service robot integrator) - €3 M
   Berlin & remote | 4 jobs
   Account manager, sales manager, robotic services technician.
   🇩🇪 | Hybrid

7. Finto (AI agents for accounting) - $3.4 M
   Munich | 7 jobs
   Founder’s associate, solution engineer, tech lead.
   🇬🇧 | Onsite

8. Fuchs & Eule (Building energy renovation consultancy) - €10 M
   Berlin | 7 jobs
   Startup intern, energy consultant, key account manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

9. Lissi (EU identity wallet API) - €3.5 M
   Frankfurt, Berlin, & remote | 5 jobs
   Product manager, account executive, technical pre-sales specialist.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

10. Proxima Fusion (Stellarator fusion power developer) - €411 M
    Munich | 29 jobs
    AI solutions engineer, computational engineer, lead recruiter.
    🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

11. QuantumDiamonds (Diamond-sensor chip inspection tool) - €91 M
    Munich & remote | 8 jobs
    Hardware engineering intern, head of finance, head of operations.
    🇬🇧, 🇩🇪 a + | Onsite

12. Skillcourt (Motion-tracking athletic training system) - €1.7 M
    Schweinfurt | 1 job
    Full-stack developer.
    🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧

13. Stenon (Handheld soil analysis device) - €18 M
    Potsdam | 1 job
    Embedded software engineer.
    🇬🇧

14. Vytal (Reusable tracked packaging system) - Undisclosed
    Cologne, Berlin, & remote | 2 jobs
    Head of finance, senior strategic sourcing manager.
    🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧

🧐 Key Insights

What last week's funding tells us:

1. Munich quietly took the week. Five of these fourteen are Munich-based, including both giants (Proxima Fusion at €411 M, QuantumDiamonds at €91 M) which account for 84% of the money. Berlin still wins on listings, but deep-tech capital has moved south.

2. Science degrees are back on the job board. Magnet scientist, computational materials scientist, hardware engineer. Not the usual growth-and-product mix, and these labs hire in English because the talent pool is global. Kind week if you have a physics or materials background.

3. The smaller the round, the more English you’ll hear. Every English-only company here raised under €10 M, while the German-required ones sell to German customers. Language requirements track who the customer is, not how international the office feels.

Note: I’m a little behind on updating my startup funding page. Updates for the week of June 12 will be up on my site tomorrow. Click the button below. ⬇️

💸 Don’t skip the list: See the 309 startups tracked this year with zero paywalls on one single page. Bookmark it and check back weekly.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

One of the most common gaps I see when reviewing CVs: no professional title at the top. Just a name, contact details, and straight into the work history. That’s a missed opportunity, because recruiters form a mental box for you within the first three seconds, and a headline title like “Senior Marketing Manager” or “Enterprise Delivery Leader” tells them exactly which box you belong in. It also helps you surface in the keyword searches recruiters run on LinkedIn and in their HR systems.

The formula is simple. Sum up who you are professionally in three to six words, place it right under your name, and make sure everything below supports it. Your summary and experience are the evidence, the title is the claim. And resist the urge to cram in every specialty you have. A title trying to say three things says nothing.

Most importantly, pick a title you can stand behind with confidence. If it feels like a costume, it will read like one in the interview too. Choose the version of your professional self that’s both true and aimed at where you want to go next.

Bonus article: The career ladder's first rung is moving, and practical AI skills now matter more than a degree.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: The Rundfunkbeitrag (the so-called “TV tax”) covers your whole household, so if you and your flatmates each pay €18.36, someone is overpaying.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: I use the American Express Green Card as my everyday card and earn points on everything from REWE to Zalando. Sign up through my link and get 10,000 bonus points after spending €2,000 in your first six months.

Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

🔊 Guides to help you settle in Germany.

Three guides for wherever you are in your Germany journey:

Restart your Deutsch with the right pick from German-language schools in Berlin, aim your job search at the fastest-growing jobs in Germany, and then read the guide I'm proudest of, the cost of living in Berlin.

I keep it brutally honest, with real numbers instead of the outdated "cheap Berlin" fantasy, because deciding your future here deserves the truth and not a sales pitch.

ℹ️ More where that came from:

• 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

• We also have a podcast. See our past episodes.

Our Events (+ Other Events)

🎟️ A weekly event round-up.

This week is proof that the best of Berlin summer happens on a picnic blanket:

1. Jul 23: Kariwurst Berlin at Markthalle Pfefferberg is a South Indian currywurst pop-up with ghee roast sauce, Kerala pickle, and vegan options. Limited portions daily. €9.90.

2. Jul 23: Silent Book Club at Tempelhofer Feld is an outdoor reading session on the grass, an hour of quiet reading, then book chat and picnicking. Free.

3. Jul 24: Charades meets Pictionary in Tiergarten is a playful evening of team games on picnic blankets, zero talent required. Bring vegan snacks and a blanket. Free.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Before you buy that portable AC unit, read whether your landlord gets a say, and take heart that calls for legal heat protection for tenants are getting louder.

• Deutsche Bahn in one story, a train to Sylt had no toilet paper, so an employee made an unscheduled supermarket run and was crowned employee of the month.

• More room to breathe on the tram, Berlin has launched its longest ever, a full 50 metres.

• Validation has arrived, The Economist officially wants to know why Berlin's airport is still completely hopeless.

• The Nordics won ranking season, Copenhagen kept its most liveable city crown and Sweden topped quality of life, Germany nowhere near either.

📈 Politics & Economy

• Merz has a plan for the AfD's rise, win their voters back rather than fight them, and Politico's deeper look asks whether the reformer act can work before it's too late.

• Berlin's housing fights are heating up, with new cost estimates for building on Tempelhofer Feld and an unprecedented expropriation showdown.

• The housing math is grim, Germany’s social housing stock has shrunk by half, so now there’s a push to turn empty office buildings into homes.

• One era ends, 1000s begin, Uber is buying Delivery Hero for €12.7 billion, while Germany just logged a record 3,000 new startup foundings in six months.

• Meanwhile in German tech, an ex-n8n founder wants to be the MrBeast of tech nerds and the Lidl billionaire is building a German answer to Big Tech, and yes, the women in this paragraph are still loading.

• Sweating through your un-airconditioned Altbau has a price tag, June's heatwave cost the German economy billions, and Merz is under fire for the lack of a heat plan.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• If you've ever wondered how workers in Germany actually push back, over half a million of them went on strike last year, mostly for better pay, and the next fight is heatwaves, with EU unions demanding the right to stop working when temperatures pass 32.5 degrees.

• Germany's IT job market just got tighter, with open roles down 22% and IT unemployment climbing from 3.7% to 4.5%.

• Before you panic about headlines, DW digs into whether German firms are really shifting production abroad, and what it means for your job security.

• Mark your calendars for 2029, that's when the EU's population is expected to peak before a long decline, and it's exactly why Europe needs workers like us.

• If you're ever between jobs here, this helps, ALG I claims are going "digital first", with video Jobcenter sessions and way less paper post.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Plan your Berlin summer weekend and pick your swimming spot from the city's best lakes, then later hit up Berlin's newest restaurant openings.

• Two free Berlin games worth your time: Ubahndoku, a daily Wordle-style puzzle for U-Bahn nerds, and a new Babylon Berlin mystery game landing with the show's final season this September.

• 2 ends of the German food spectrum, Labskaus, the divisive pink sailor's dish you have to see to believe, and Gurkensalat, the creamy cucumber salad you need to make this summer.

In Case You Missed It

📩 What landed with readers last week.

• Last edition: Read last week’s blast, where we reviewed the proposed new labour reforms, profiled AI companies hiring, doled out tips on CV skills, and highlighted 11 new openings in Berlin.

• Most read: The top 3 most read links were these photos of a very Berlin flat, news about the Spreepark reopening, and my roundup of 400+ companies hiring in Berlin right now.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

🇨🇦 I’ve been feeling extra Canadian this week. It was Canada Day on Wednesday, I’ve been cheering as my country hosts the World Cup, and then I learned Canada is finally joining Eurovision.

Tomorrow I’m on an early train to Munich for work, and I suspect I’ll spend most of the ride stewing over what happened in German politics this week. The coalition agreed on a reform package that made me genuinely angry. The full breakdown is below, but my honest first reaction? If Merz thinks making it harder to be sick and easier to be let go will win back frustrated voters, he’s writing his own ending and handing the AfD a win.

For the first time in my 15 years here, I caught myself wondering: should I go back home? Canada is having a moment, and Germany is choosing this. I don’t have an answer, but that’s what long train rides are for, I guess.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Do you trust Germany’s pension to cover your retirement?

A total of 103 people voted, and the results reveal very little confidence in Germany’s pension system. Nearly half (46%) said they’re on their own when it comes to retirement, while another 34% expect to rely on a mix of the state pension and personal savings. Just 4% said they’re counting on the pension alone.

With pension reform dominating the headlines (see what young and old Germans really think), it’s perhaps no surprise that many people already feel responsible for securing their own financial future.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. Germany's coalition agreed on a sweeping reform package this week, and before the headlines scare you, the most important thing to know is that none of it is law yet. Everything still needs draft legislation and a Bundestag vote expected in autumn, with January 2027 as the target for most changes.

Three pieces matter most for internationals: employers could demand a sick note from your first day off and phone sick notes would be abolished, fixed-term contracts without a stated reason would stretch from two years to four, and employees earning above roughly €177,000 could be bought out of their jobs without justification.

Employers call it the first real flexibility in decades, unions call it shifting risk onto workers, and voters aren't convinced it will fix anything. Until anything passes, your current rights apply in full.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

This week, we’re featuring 5 German AI-driven companies:

1. Black Forest Labs (Leading AI image generation models)
   Freiburg | 13 jobs

   Forward-deployed robotics engineer, commercial counsel, senior partnerships manager.

   🇬🇧 | Hybrid —> They help with relocation.

2. deepset (Enterprise AI application development platform)
   Berlin | 3 jobs
   Value engineer, site reliability engineer, growth marketing lead.
   🇬🇧 | Remote-first

3. Langdock (Enterprise AI workspace, GDPR-compliant)
   Berlin | 13 jobs

   Product marketing, platform engineer, AI adoption engineer.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite —> Very decent salaries.

4. n8n (AI-powered workflow automation)

   Berlin | 22 jobs

   Director of engineering, senior product designer, deployment strategist.
   🇬🇧 mainly | Remote-first

5. Peec AI (AI search visibility analytics)

   Berlin | 34 jobs
   Head of sales EMEA, senior backend engineer, people operations manager.

   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid —> They help with relocation and pay high salaries.

👋🏼 That’s not all: See our weekly-updated database of 400+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Last week, 7 German startups in 6 locations raised around €1.03 B. 5 of these are hiring for 156 roles:

1. Fusion Bionic (Laser surface texturing technology) - €5.8 M
   Dresden | 2 jobs
   Project manager, electronics technician.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Onsite

2. Nomerra (AI for private-market operations) - $2 M
   Berlin | 5 jobs
   Founding engineer, backend engineer, product development intern.
   🇬🇧 | Onsite

3. Theo (Property management service) - €25 M
   Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, + | 22 jobs
   Product engineer, property manager, client acquisition lead.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

4. Quantum Systems (Multi-domain autonomous defence systems) - €1 B
   Gilching, Berlin, Munich + | 125 jobs
   Training operations manager, flight test engineer, head of controlling.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite mainly

5. Sophia (AI ERP agents for manufacturers) - €1 M
   Freiburg & Berlin | 2 jobs
   Founding engineer, founder’s associate.
   🇬🇧 | Onsite

🧐 Key Insights

What last week's funding tells us:

1. One round swallowed the whole week. Quantum Systems' €1 B is 97% of the money and 125 of the 155 open roles. The safest berth on the board is a defence drone company, so weigh how you feel about the sector before the salary.

2. AI money is chasing the back office. Nomerra, Sophia, HelloTwin, and Entryzero all point AI agents at unglamorous work like accounting, ERP, and cyber risk, and they hire in English because they sell across Europe. One to watch if you're in software or product.

3. Every company here sells to businesses, not consumers; not one B2C play in the batch. German startup money has shifted to enterprise software, which tends to mean steadier revenue and safer jobs.

💸 Don’t skip the list: See the 288 startups tracked this year with zero paywalls on one single page. Bookmark it and check back weekly.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

The skills section on your CV has one job: to help a recruiter quickly confirm you have what they’re looking for. Place it near the top of your CV, after your profile statement and before your work experience. Think of the two sections as partners. The skills section highlights what you can do, and the experience section shows where and how you actually did it. Recruiters in Germany often spend less than a minute on a first scan, so the right keywords in the right place matter.

A simple way to structure this section is to split your skills into two groups: what you do and what you use. The first covers core competencies like stakeholder management or process optimization. The second covers tools and technical skills like Python, Salesforce, or AWS. This split makes your profile much easier to scan.

Less is more here. Aim for five to six skills per group, chosen for the specific job you’re applying to. Save the comprehensive list for your LinkedIn profile, and keep your CV focused on what makes your fit obvious at a glance.

Bonus article: And once your skills section is sorted, Canva's chief people officer shares the two AI-proof traits she considers a baseline for every hire.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Two things I did recently to make my home feel like new again were having my mattress deep cleaned by Clean030 and sending out my mattress topper and duvets for laundering with Wir Waschen.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: If you've been curious about Klarna, my invite link gets you a 20 € reward once you sign up for the Klarna Card and use it three times.

Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

🔊 Guides to help you settle in Germany.

Berlin summer means more time out and about, so three of our guides to bookmark:

Bike season is in full swing, so make sure you’re covered with bike insurance in Germany, find the right fit among German-language schools in Berlin if your Deutsch goals need a summer restart, and escape the heat at cinemas where you can watch English movies in Berlin.

ℹ️ More where that came from:

• 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

• We also have a podcast. See our past episodes.

Our Events (+ Other Events)

🎟️ A weekly event round-up.

This week proves you don’t need a pub, a pitch, or a drink to have a good time in Berlin:

1. Jul 7: Thought Experiments in Pubs: Park Edition in Berlin is an evening of deep conversation in Volkspark Friedrichshain, where small groups discuss philosophical scenarios around the theme of "force" and skip the small talk entirely. No philosophy background needed, and picnic blankets and snacks are welcome. Free, from 18:45 to 20:45.

2. Jul 8: Women Founders Meet & Greet in Berlin is a relaxed afternoon at Café Amelie in Prenzlauer Berg for women running businesses, building startups, freelancing, or just exploring an idea. No awkward networking, just genuine conversations over coffee. Free, from 12:00 to 15:00.

3. Jul 9: LOOSH x EVEN Sober Rave in Berlin is an alcohol-free party at EVEN Café with high-vibe DJ sets and free samples of the new LOOSH Recovery Spritz in cucumber lemon and strawberry mint. Dance, hydrate, and meet 120+ others already going. Free with registration, from 18:00 to 21:30.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• July brings 9 changes in Germany, including a 4.24% pension boost, a new €3 fee on parcels from outside the EU, the end of the fuel tax cut, and a July 31 tax return deadline you won’t want to miss.

• Nearly one in three 25-year-olds in Germany still lives with their parents, and sons are far likelier to stay than daughters (36% vs 23%), a gap that holds in almost every EU country.

• Berlin’s legendary abandoned GDR fairground Spreepark finally has a reopening date, complete with a restored Ferris wheel and a free ferry ride on your Deutschlandticket.

• Just in time for Pride, the BVG has permanently renamed Nollendorfplatz station with rainbow signage honouring one of Europe’s oldest queer neighbourhoods.

📈 Politics & Economy

• The AfD confirmed Weidel and Chrupalla as its leadership duo at its Erfurt congress while tens of thousands protested outside. A Left MP renewed calls to ban the party, though analysts say the unity on display masks a growing rift between rival wings. For the bigger picture, Mehdi Hasan's must-watch Head to Head grills AfD MP Maximilian Krah on "remigration" and whether the party is extremist.

• Berlin passed a precedent-setting rent register law forcing landlords to log rents in a central database, with AI scanning for exploitation and fines up to €100,000. Fittingly, Die Linke just handed out its most outrageous landlord awards.

• Behind on health insurance premiums? A court has ruled that Krankenkassen can’t block your health card over unpaid contributions, a ruling worth knowing about if you’re freelancing or between jobs.

• Remember the Halle lakeside pool turning away people who couldn’t speak German? After the backlash, it has backtracked on the rule.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• The German job market is cooling, but the full picture matters. Unemployment has crossed the 3 million mark for the first time in 15 years, industry is losing around 15,000 jobs a month, and a study warns up to 100,000 industrial jobs could go this year. The good news: that's still far below the nearly 5 million unemployed of 2005; economists say this is a slow cooling rather than a crisis, and the pain is concentrated in manufacturing, which is exactly why we track who's actually hiring every week.

• Over 33,000 Mercedes-Benz workers protested at every German site against unpaid longer hours and benefit cuts, with similar actions planned at VW and other carmakers in the coming weeks.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Berlin's first pan-African book bar, a cat café near Museum Island, and a laser maze at the Spy Museum are among the 11 new openings to check out in July.

• Bookworms, this one's for you, with Berlin's best literary events this month spanning poetry workshops, open mics, and book launches across the city.

• Craving a proper adrenaline cool-down? These 5 thrilling water parks include Europe's largest waterslide park, all in Germany's south and west.

• This beautifully designed Berlin home is peak Berlin living, and the photos are worth a slow scroll.

In Case You Missed It

📩 What landed with readers last week.

• Last edition: The main story was on Germany's pension reform, which ties retirement age to life expectancy and nudges it toward 70. We also featured 5 insurance companies hiring, 26 newly funded startups with 270+ roles, tips on rewriting your CV out loud using AI, and a court ruling protecting approved Elternzeit from dismissal. Read it.

• Most read: Last week's favourites included a map of air-conditioned spots in Berlin to help you beat the heat, our guide to companies in Berlin that are actively hiring, and which German cities have the happiest residents in 2026.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

A confession to kick us off: I’ve recently started working with a financial adviser to get my future in Germany properly sorted: pension, insurance, the whole picture. I have a company pension, which is something, but it’s very clear there is a lot more I should be doing. At one point I half-joked that at this rate I will be working until I die.

Then this week's pension reform news landed, tying retirement age to life expectancy and nudging it toward 70, and the joke stopped being funny. The state pension will not carry most of us, so it sent me back to the one thing more in my control, my career, which is exactly why I finally gave my own CV the same hard look I give my clients.

More on that further down.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Would you move to another German city for happiness?

A total of 119 people voted, and the results suggest that many readers aren't necessarily unhappy with Germany, but they may be questioning whether they're in the right place.

While 40% said they'd consider moving for the right job and another 26% are already thinking about it, only 29% said they love where they are and wouldn't move.

Sometimes the answer isn't leaving Germany, but rather finding a city that's a better fit. This may explain why our recent story on Germany's happiest cities in 2026 resonated with so many readers.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. We are living decades longer than we used to, and the government has noticed - a new 33-point pension reform would tie the retirement age to life expectancy, scrap penalty-free early retirement, and pull freelancers and politicians into the statutory system.

The politics are already heated, with Merz pushing to raise the retirement age while unions argue that “work until you drop” is the wrong fix for a problem driven by demographics.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

This week, we’re featuring 5 German insurance companies:

1. Adam Riese (Online insurance for everyday risks)

   Kornwestheim (Stuttgart area) | 4 jobs

   Senior full-stack developer, insurance sales rep, sales technology specialist.
   🇩🇪 | Hybrid

2. Eye Security (Insurtech-powered cyber protection)
   Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Munich | 14 jobs

   Full-stack engineer, product designer, customer success manager.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid & remote

3. Getsafe (Digital insurance for everyday life)
   Berlin, Heidelberg | 3 jobs
   Senior backend engineer, customer success outbound agent, sales consultant.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid & remote

4. Feather Insurance (Digital insurance for expats)

   Berlin | 1 job
   Growth marketing manager.
   🇬🇧 | Remote

5. Ottonova (App-based private health insurance)

   Munich & Cologne | 8 jobs

   Software engineer, claims processing team leader, inside sales representative.
   🇩🇪 mainly, 🇬🇧 a plus | Hybrid

👋🏼 That’s not all: See our weekly updated database of 400+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

For the week of June 15, 9 companies in 4 locations raised about €40.4 M between them, with 7 actively hiring for 43 open roles:

1. Causa Prima (AI agents for finance teams) - $10 M
   Munich | 4 jobs
   SAP / ABAP junior developer, senior backend platform engineer, product engineer - agent economics.
   🇬🇧 mainly, 🇩🇪 a plus | Onsite

2. Cortea (AI audit review platform) - €12 M
   Berlin | 10 jobs
   Founding talent lead, chief of staff, senior auditor.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

3. Qorelo (Embedded SAP migration tool) - €3 M
   Berlin | 6 jobs
   Founder’s associate, head of growth, solution architect.
   🇬🇧 | Onsite

4. reltix (Property and building administration) - €3 M
   Düsseldorf & Frankfurt | 12 jobs
   Finance intern, accountant, software engineer.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

5. Seqana (Satellite-based carbon credit measurement) - €3.2 M
   Berlin | 3 jobs
   Senior data product manager, client solutions manager, business development lead.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

6. toern (AI returns management platform) - €1 M
   Hamburg | 4 jobs
   Business development representative, customer success manager, marketing manager - growth & market expansion.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

7. WhyBrilliant (AI job-matching career assistant) - €1 M
   Berlin | 4 jobs
   Founding engineer, B2C growth hacker & GTM expert, founding growth & marketing lead.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

For the week of June 22, 17 companies across 8 places raised about €321 M between them, with 11 actively hiring for 229 open roles:

1. Almetra (AI factory production analytics) - €16 M
   Berlin & Munich | 16 jobs
   Account executive, manufacturing data analyst, senior robotics engineer.
   🇬🇧 mostly, 🇩🇪 a bonus | Hybrid & onsite mix

2. Finn (Car subscription platform) - €140 M
   Munich, Berlin, & remote | 43 jobs
   Data scientist, enterprise account executive, vehicle logistics manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid & onsite mix

3. Innok Robotics (Autonomous industrial mobile robots) - €3.3 M
   Regenstauf | 8 jobs
   Lead finance, DevOps engineer, field sales manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

4. JUPUS (AI assistant for law offices) - €13 M
   Cologne, Berlin, & remote | 11 jobs
   Account executive, senior applied AI engineer, onboarding manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

5. Maple Aviation (Electric medical cargo drones) - €4 M
   Ottobrunn | 12 jobs
   Senior account exec, remote drone pilot, chief engineer drone & delivery system.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid & onsite mix

6. mkind (AI robotics for factory automation) - €3 M
   Munich | 4 jobs
   Computer vision engineer, robot learning research scientist, sr robotics engineer.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

7. Mona AI (AI recruiting software for agencies) - €3.8 M
   Saarbrücken & Hannover | 3 jobs
   Senior and junior consultants - AI implementation & growth, marketing employee
   🇩🇪 | Hybrid

8. Planted (ESG and carbon reporting software) - €5 M
   Cologne, Berlin, Bavaria & remote | 1 job
   Sales specialist.
   🇩🇪 &/ 🇬🇧

9. Stark (Military drones and defence systems) - €500 M
   Berlin, Munich, & remote | 105 jobs
   Head of AI, strategic procurement manager, flight test pilot/operator.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid & onsite mix

10. Taktile (AI credit and risk decisioning) - $110 M
    Berlin | 18 jobs
    Enterprise account exec, sr product designer, lead forward-deployed engineer.
    🇬🇧 | Hybrid

11. VARM (Blown-in building insulation service) - €17.5 M
    Berlin | 8 jobs
    Head of marketing & growth, blown-in insulation specialist, sales manager.
    🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid & onsite mix

🧐 Key Insights

What the last two weeks of funding tell us:

• SAP and German-rooted enterprise skills remain in high demand, and they now hire in English. The pattern repeats across both weeks, from Causa Prima’s ABAP role to Qorelo’s whole product to Finn’s SAP analysts. It’s one of the rare deeply German domains that doesn’t demand fluent German.

• The big money tells you where the secure jobs are, but read the location. Stark, Taktile, and Finn account for nearly all open roles. Big raises mean more runway and clearer ladders, which matters most if your visa depends on the job lasting. Sadly, most of those roles sit in pricey, German-speaking Munich.

• Climate and deep tech are now careers for commercial and ops people, not just engineers. VARM, Planted, Almetra, and Maple Aviation want heads of marketing, sales managers, and finance leads, not only roboticists. The door is open for internationals right here.

💸 Don’t skip the list: See the 280 startups tracked this year with zero paywalls on one single page. Bookmark it and check back weekly.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

I took my own CV advice this week, and it was humbling. I finally did the thing I am always telling you to do, and honestly, I did not want to. I sat down and gave my own CV the same hard look I give my coaching clients, and there is something genuinely uncomfortable about turning your methods on yourself.

Humbling in a good way, though. The work was all there; I just was not telling the story well. I had written plenty about what I did in each role and barely anything about the impact, and I had left out parts of my story that earned a place on the page. Coaching people, it turns out, does not mean you give yourself the same clear-eyed read you give everyone else.

Here is the part worth sharing, because it actually worked. I uploaded my CV to an LLM along with two real job descriptions I was targeting, turned on voice mode, and just talked. Out loud, stream of consciousness, about what I really did in each role and all the context hiding behind those tidy one-line bullets. It held my spoken stories up against what I had written and showed me exactly where I was selling myself short.

The key is that I did not copy a single line word-for-word. I used it to see myself more clearly and reframe my bullets around impact and capability. So if you have been avoiding your own CV, try talking it through out loud instead of glaring at the page. You are almost certainly more impressive than your bullet points are currently letting on.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip (literally): Kalte Karte is a crowdsourced map of every air-conditioned spot in Berlin. Bookmark it before the next 41 degree day hits us.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Setting up internet in Germany is … a process. If you’re moving or switching, PŸUR is offering up to €230 off on cable internet, TV, and phone packages. Use my signup link to save.

Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

🔊 Guides to help you settle in Germany.

Germany has some of the priciest energy in the world, and the cost of living isn't exactly getting friendlier, so three of our guides to bookmark:

Start with what it really costs to move to Germany, then learn how to save energy (including keeping your flat survivable in a heatwave without AC), and find practical ways to save money.

ℹ️ More where that came from:

• 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

• Stay tuned! A new podcast episode is coming soon. In the meantime, see our past episodes.

Our Events (+ Other Events)

🎟️ A weekly event round-up.

This week leans into getting offline, whether that means browsing pre-loved designer bags, picnicking with an international crowd, or moving your body in the morning sun:

1. Jul 3: Sip & Shop Fobe.me Pop-Up at Lucy's The Deli in Berlin is a relaxed summer evening of pre-loved designer bags, with Lucy's The Deli laying on healthy snacks & drinks. Dig through the racks, and meet other fashion lovers. Free with RSVP, starts at 17:00.

2. Jul 3: Afterwork Cultural Picnic at Monbijoupark in Berlin is a relaxed, 2x monthly picnic. Bring your own drinks and snacks, connect with an international crowd, and practice whatever languages you like. Free, from 18:00.

3. Jul 12: FREE Summer Pilates Session in Berlin is a 50-minute outdoor class set to tropical beats and pairs mobility work with a bit of dancing. All levels welcome, with free fruit to keep you cool. Bring a mat and water. Free with RSVP, starts at 9:30.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Germany broke records this weekend, with a temperature of 41.5 C. As a publicity stunt (I think?!), the Berlin police sent out water cannons to spray crowds at tourist hotspots. DB even waived cancellation & rebooking fees during this time.

• Related: See how much hotter your German town has become since 1961 and an explainer on why most German homes do not have AC. Hope for the future is in solar-powered AC.

• New rail journeys include a Leo Express train from Frankfurt’s airport, all the way to the Polish-Ukrainian border via Prague and Krakow, including these stops in Germany. NS in the Netherlands plans to run new trains between Amsterdam and the Rhine-Ruhr.

• Non-EU parcels just got pricier, and from July 1, ordering from outside the EU will include a new €3 duty per item on packages worth up to €150. YouTube Premium prices in Germany are also set to go up.

• The Technical University of Munich is the only German university to crack the top 50 of the new QS World University Rankings for 2027.

📈 Politics & Economy

• As VW weighs cutting up to 100,000 jobs and closing four German plants by 2030, Tesla is adding 1,000 jobs at its Grünheide gigafactory near Berlin.

• On the economy, a top Polish economist argues Germany needs a bold, almost revolutionary overhaul, and how heatwaves and climate change are costing Germany billions.

• 6 German names made Sifted’s ranking of Europe’s 100 standout consumer startups, and fast-growing companies tend to be hiring, so worth bookmarking.

• 2 new reports spotlight discrimination in Germany, with studies on Berlin schools finding that 76% of recorded anti-Muslim incidents involve teachers and another study finding racism is an almost daily reality for Muslims across the country.

• A lakeside pool in Halle is now turning away people who cannot understand German, calling it a “safety measure” while critics call it what it looks like.

• A new report has declared the AfD unconstitutional, and within days 1.3 million people signed a petition urging parliament to take action ASAP.

• On a much lighter note, Die Linke MP Kathi Gebel went viral for telling an AfD MP that the clitoris has 3,000 nerve endings and he is still more sensitive.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Germany’s working-age population is set to shrink by 4.3 million by 2036 as boomers retire, birth rates fall, and tougher migration policy deters foreign workers, which is exactly the labour gap that keeps the door open for skilled internationals.

• A new court ruling confirms that once your Elternzeit is approved, you are protected from dismissal for the eight weeks before it even starts, and that protection holds even during probation.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• From August 7 to October 1, the Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz turns into a free open-air pool with a 25 m swimming lane running right down the middle of the street. Also: Berlin’s best outdoor pools.

• The Berliner rounds up the month’s best events, from Fashion Week and CSD to open-air festivals, lakeside film screenings, jazz at the Gasometer, and a mango festival.

• Germany’s most innovative museums for 2026, including a smell-and-taste museum in Lower Saxony and a community-run Alpine museum in Bavaria.

In Case You Missed It

📩 What landed with readers last week.

• Last edition: The main story was on the 2026 Happiness Atlas, which placed the German city of Erfurt at the top of the list. We also highlighted 5 climate tech companies hiring, and 5 newly funded startups hiring for 250+ roles. Plus tips on getting out of career ruts, health insurance claims (get money back!), and the most in-demand jobs. Read it.

• Most read: The stories you liked most last week covered an overview of Europe’s take-home pay by country, the fastest-growing jobs in Germany, and how DB released cheap tickets for Berlin<> Hamburg trips.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

I finally had an MRT scan on my knee, and it turns out it’s a bone bruise. What struck me most was how easy it all was: a quick orthopedic appointment, the scan done, and no surprise bill or worry about coverage. Which is why the proposed healthcare cuts further down sit uneasily with me. The same system that just sorted out my knee is the one now under real pressure.

On a brighter note, I finally have my electronic ID. No more carrying my passport around with my PR sticker inside, and best of all, no more queuing in the non-EU lines when I fly home to Germany. That’s a big win!

All this has me daydreaming, which brings me to this week’s headline. Every so often I wonder if I’d be happier in another German city, and for me it’s always Hamburg. So the Happiness Atlas, with smaller cities on top, landed close to home. And handily, DB just dropped a pile of €15 Hamburg to Berlin tickets, so I may be testing my theory soon.

Which is what this week’s poll is about - Would you move to a different German city to be happier? I’d love to know.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Would you move to another European country for better take-home pay?

This poll attracted 123 votes and the results were surprisingly clear. Nearly half of respondents (47%) said they would move to another European country for better take-home pay if the right opportunity came along, while another 25% are already actively considering it. Only 21% felt Germany is still worth it despite the financial trade-offs, and 7% said they're already planning to leave.

One reader noted that falling immigration and rising rents are creating a worrying combination for Berlin employers who depend on international talent. If skilled workers increasingly feel they can build a better life elsewhere, compensation may become an even bigger factor in where people choose to live and work.

Germany currently ranks 9th in Europe for take-home pay after tax according to this recent ranking.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. If you have ever wondered whether life might feel better in a different German city, the 2026 Happiness Atlas is a gentle nudge to think it through, with Erfurt on top and the big, expensive cities further down than you might expect. It’s a reminder that a strong economy and a good life are not always the same thing - see what the rankings mean and where every city landed.

Last week, we asked if you would move to another European country for better take-home pay, but this week, we ask …

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

This week, we’re featuring five German climate tech companies:

1. enerkii (Subscription solar power for factories)
   Munich | 5 jobs
   Energy product manager, founder’s associate, account executive.
   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

2. FION Energy (AI-optimized industrial battery storage)
   Berlin | 2 jobs
   IoT platform engineer, founding account executive.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Onsite

3. Freshflow (AI produce replenishment platform)
   Berlin | 11 jobs
   Founder’s associate, back-end engineer, senior product manager.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Onsite & remote

4. metergrid (Rooftop solar for apartment tenants)
   Stuttgart, Hamburg, & Berlin | 4 jobs
   Project manager - operations, team lead - operations, sales dev rep.
   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Hybrid or remote (flexible)

5. Terra One (AI-operated grid-scale battery storage)
   Berlin | 2 jobs
   Head of power operations, account manager.
   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

👋🏼 That’s not all: See our weekly updated database of 400+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Hot damn! Over this past week, 6 German startups across 5 locations collectively raised around €1.5 B in fresh funding.

5 of these startups are hiring for a whopping 258 roles:

1. GALVANY (Smart heat pump installation service) - €10 M

   Berlin mainly | 21 jobs
   General counsel/head of legal, accountant, senior data engineer.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite —> both role dependent

2. Isar Aerospace (Builds and launches satellite rockets) - €270 M
   Ottobrunn | 70 jobs
   Mission analysts engineer, manager electronics engineering, project manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite mostly

3. Neura Robotics (Builds cognitive humanoid robots) - €1.2 B
   Metzingen & Munich | 152 jobs
   AI data engineer, engineering manager, key account manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite mostly

4. Tawo (Builds data centers and infrastructure) - €4.5 M
   Berlin | 14 jobs
   Electrical planner, head of finance, student trainee - people operations.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite mostly

5. Tokura (Develops outpatient surgery centers) - Undisclosed
   Berlin | 1 job
   Founding Engineer
   🇩🇪 | Onsite

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Five of the six startups build or install physical things in the real world like rockets, robots, heat pumps, surgery centers, and data center infrastructure. Hardware and deep tech are back in a big way, and these jobs are mostly onsite because you can’t assemble a rocket from your kitchen table.

• Climate and energy continue to dominate, but the angle is shifting. GALVANY and Tawo are both energy plays, but from opposite ends. One helps households cut heating bills, the other builds the power-hungry infrastructure that AI runs on. It’s a snapshot of Germany's twin pressures right now - decarbonizing homes while racing to build compute capacity.

• Funding size tells you what kind of company you are joining. This week is a clean lesson in reading the signals. Big raises (Neura & Isar) means structured teams, established processes, and clearer career ladders, while smaller raises means you are early, scrappy, and shaping things as you go. Neither is better, so choose your own adventure.

💸 Don’t skip the list: See the 250 startups tracked this year with zero paywalls on one single page. Bookmark it and check back weekly.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

A roundup of some great career advice articles about getting out of career ruts, how to really land a job, and how to negotiate with the best of them:

1. In a recent newsletter, we mentioned that only 11% of Germans are feeling engaged at work. Here are four practical tips to get out of a career rut.

2. Do you send thank you notes after job interviews in Germany? We recommend it. One American woman landed a high paying job by sending a 90 day onboarding plan, outlining what she’d achieve in that time.

3. When you get your next job offer, we recommend negotiating your salary and total compensation package. Leverage these five tips to negotiate like a professional.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: If you have dental insurance, cleanings & checkups are fully reimbursed. Did you know you can make a claim for professional teeth cleanings with your health insurance once per calendar year? I submitted my claims on Friday and on the same day, received confirmation that both reimbursements were on the way. Now, I’m walking away €40 richer. Note, the reimbursement amount varies by Krankenkassen.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: 🚿 If the hard water in Berlin is destroying your skin and hair, try Hello Klean. Over the past 18 months I’ve been using their filtered shower head, I’ve seen big improvements. The increased water pressure is also a bonus.

Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

🔊 Guides to help you settle in Germany.

1. You may have seen ads promising that Germany will pay you to study for free. The truth is more complicated, so I wrote this guide to give you the honest picture. It explains who really qualifies for the Bildungsgutschein, how to apply, and how to find a good school, so you do not waste your time or get misled.

2. The job market is changing fast, and it can feel scary not knowing where to focus. I made this guide to give you something solid to hold onto, featuring 25 careers that are growing in Germany this year. You’ll see honest salary numbers, where the jobs are, and tips for changing paths if you want to.

3. Good research can be the thing that gets you the job, and it can also save you from a workplace that would make you miserable. This guide walks you through 10 clear steps to understand any German company, write applications that show real interest, and ask smart questions in your interviews.

ℹ️ More where that came from:

• 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

• Stay tuned! A new podcast episode is coming soon. In the meantime, see our past episodes.

Our Events (+ Other Events)

🎟️ A weekly event round-up.

This week’s Berlin event round-up is focused on moments that get you away from screens and out there connecting with people, enjoying art, and experiencing leisure.

• Jun 20: Philosophy Salon at SEE OUR VISION in Berlin reimagines the old tradition of the philosophical salon for modern city life, with three rounds of small-group conversation, reshuffled groups so you meet someone new each round, and drinks afterward to keep the ideas going.

• Jun 28: 1-Hour Reading Rave at Weinbergspark in Berlin is The Offline Club's first reading event in the city, a laid-back hour of phones-off reading on the grass with live music, open to anyone who wants to slow down. Come alone or bring a friend. Free with RSVP, starts at 11:30.

• Jul 7: Belonging Without Othering in Berlin brings together organisers, artists, educators, researchers, and curious neighbours for an evening of honest conversation about belonging. Expect shared tables, open dialogue, and meeting new people. Pay what you can, suggested €15.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Foodwatch runs an annual competition where you can vote on Germany’s most misleading foods of the year. Think gummies to spice up your sex life and matcha yogurt with only … 0.1% matcha. Read the overview and vote here.

• 2025’s most popular baby names in Germany were once again Noah and Sophia. Mohammed remained in the top three across five German states.

• DB released 1000s of €15 tickets for journeys between Hamburg and Berlin. Book your tickets now!

• Berlin’s popular burger chain, Burgermeister, is going big by expanding to Vienna. Mocha Milk Bar on Karl-Marx Alle also reopened recently - watch this video offering a look at the location’s storied history.

• Berlin Club Memes just threw some serious trillionaire shade at Elon Musk. 😂

📈 Politics & Economy

• Europe’s rearmament is reshaping German industry, with Deutz pivoting from farm engines to military ones and Mercedes-Benz moving into anti-drone vehicles.

• Berlin’s ninth annual Creative Bureaucracy Festival brought together public servants showing how a functioning, more empathetic state can be built, from a mayor who made his town hall paperless to a Dutch method that saves money simply by listening to the people the system is meant to help.

• SoftBank is reportedly in early talks to put over $300 million into a roughly $800 million round for Munich’s Agile Robots, which already employs more than 3,200 people across Germany, China, and India. This fast-growing industrial AI company is one to watch if you’re after robotics or engineering roles.

• Staff at Berlin-based Pleo were affected by recent layoffs.

• Healthcare workers and unions recently protested against a reform that would cut the services covered by statutory insurance, limit paid sick leave, and raise co-payments, as insurers face a deficit expected to reach 15 billion euros by 2027.

• German students are protesting after a promised increase to BAföG student aid was shelved, with much of the anger aimed at Research Minister Dorothee Bär, who suggested students are “privileged” and do not really need more support.

• Fuel discounts in Germany will conclude by month end and not be extended any further.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Germany’s happiness comes in at about €92,000 annually, a figure only 10% of the population achieves. Meanwhile, the “median gross salary (before tax) for 2025, including bonuses, was €54,066.” More at The Local (paywalled).

• Ever wondered if you are being paid fairly? New EU rules would give you the right to find out, but Germany has missed the deadline to bring them in (because of course!), delaying salary transparency even as women earn 15.6% less per hour on average.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Discover how the Stasi secretly built East Germany’s only arcade machine at a Berlin exhibition running until June 30.

• At a German university, volunteers are sorting and transcribing more than 60,000 donated love letters dating back to the 1700s. The group even meets monthly to read them aloud and discuss the stories with one another.

• Ever wondered what €53,000 a night gets you? Germany’s most expensive hotel suite, Munich’s Ludwig Suite, tops a list of the country’s priciest stays, alongside Hamburg’s Fairmont Vier Jahreszeiten at €8,000 and Berlin’s Hotel Adlon at around €10,000.

• With Pride season here, a guide to LGBTIQ+ Berlin’s bars, clubs, and rainbow neighbourhoods.

In Case You Missed It

📩 What landed with readers last week.

• Last edition: Jump into last week’s blast for 5 transportation companies hiring right now, plus 14 recently funded startups hiring. Plus, LinkUsup is now free for our community, an updated relocation company list, and more.

• Most read: You all really wanted to know what cheeky name the youth of Germany have for Chancellor Merz (hint: they are NOT fans), why billions of untouched Euros remain sitting in dormant German banks, and how getting you driver’s license in Germany may soon be cheaper.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Being stuck at home with a busted knee last week gave me a lot of time to think. Somewhere between icing my knee and doom-scrolling, I found myself doing what a lot of us do when Germany tests our patience - mentally auditioning other countries.
If I get my German citizenship, I could technically live anywhere in the EU, and lately I have been wondering whether I actually would.

This week’s edition digs into exactly that question, because new data just dropped on where European countries actually rank for take-home pay after tax, and Germany’s position might surprise you.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: How would you describe your current level of engagement at work?

This poll painted a revealing picture of work life in Germany right now. Most people are not deeply engaged or inspired. They’re showing up, doing their work, and trying to get through the week. That aligns closely with new Gallup findings showing only 11% of workers in Germany feel engaged at work. According to the report, this isn’t about culture or laziness, but poor management and workplace disconnect.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. If you’re thinking of fleeing Germany for relocation elsewhere in Europe, see this ranking of which countries offer the most take-home pay after tax.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

This week, we’re featuring five German ground transportation companies:

1. Flix (Budget intercity bus & train travel)
   Berlin & Munich | 59 jobs
   Senior data platform engineer, senior HT ops manager, senior recruiter.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

2. FREE NOW (Taxi and ride-hailing app.)
   Berlin & Hamburg | 30 jobs
   General manager, AI engineer, senior internal comms manager.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid/remote mix

3. MOIA (Shared electric ride-pooling)
   Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Wolfsburg, Munich | 53 jobs
   Release manager, office manager, junior accounting manager.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

4. Uber (On-demand rides and deliveries)
   Berlin | 17 jobs
   Business dev intern, implementation lead, partner growth manager.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

5. Voi (Electric scooter and bike rental.)
   Berlin & Hamburg | 27 jobs
   Operations strategy manager, B2B sales manager, e-bikes mechanic.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

👋🏼 That’s not all: See our weekly updated database of 395+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

The month of May closed with 8 German startups across 6 locations pulling in a combined total of around €226 M in funding.

7 of them are hiring for 77 roles:

1. allO (All-in-one restaurant management software) - €12 M

   Berlin, Hamburg + | 16 jobs
   Product operations manager, sales development rep, support agent.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

2. Focused Energy (Sun-powered carbon-free electricity) - $240 M

   Darmstadt & Berlin | 25 jobs
   Supply chain engineer, events & engagement manager, laser architect.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Hybrid/onsite, role dependent

3. Nenna AI (AI governance and anonymization) - Undisclosed

   Berlin | 3 jobs
   Platform engineer, AI solution architect, software engineer.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Remote, with monthly mtgs in Berlin

4. nu:legal (On-demand affordable legal documents) - €1.3 M
   Potsdam | 5 jobs
   AI engineer, senior software engineer, founder’s associate intern.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Remote, hybrid mix.

5. Pacifico Biolab (Fermented meat substitute production) - €7 M
   Berlin | 2 jobs
   Food science intern, fermentation R&D intern.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

6. Reo (Circular cosmetic container recycling) - Undisclosed
   Heilbronn | 2 jobs
   Working student - marketing, field service support (mini-job)
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

7. welevel (AI-generated co-op survival game) - Undisclosed
   Munich | 24 jobs
   Senior animator, senior gameplay programmer, operations manager.
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite

June opened with 11 funded startups spread across 3 locations, bringing in roughly €46.3 M between them.

6 of them are hiring for 56 roles:

1. Bayshore (AI legal compliance automation) - €6.9 M

   Munich | 2 jobs
   Software engineer - AI native apps, senior associate - legal AI
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Remote & onsite mix

2. ContextFab (Industrial AI margin detection) - Undisclosed

   Munich | 1 job
   Product engineer
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Hybrid

3. encosa (Smart battery energy cost) - €25 M
   Munich | 9 jobs
   Account exec, marketing manager, senior project manager.
   🇩🇪 | Hybrid

4. Freshflow (AI produce replenishment platform) - $10 M
   Berlin | 11 jobs
   Founder’s associate, senior product manager, growth manager (freelance)
   🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Remote

5. happybrush (Sonic toothbrush direct-to-consumer) - Undisclosed
   Munich | 3 jobs
   CRM manager, graphic design trainee, sales/acct mgmt intern.
   🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | Onsite

6. travelträger (Roof box bike rental) - Undisclosed
   Münster | 30 jobs
   Service point assistants (all 30 are mini-jobs)
   🇩🇪 | Onsite

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Legal tech is on a run. Bayshore, nu:legal, and LawX all raised cash, covering compliance automation, affordable document generation, and AI practice management. If you have a background in law, legal ops, or AI engineering, watch these companies.

• AI governance is emerging as its own category. Nenna AI and Bayshore both raised on the premise that companies need help managing, anonymizing, and complying with AI systems. This is a niche that barely existed two years ago.

• The founder’s associate role remains in demand. It’s one of the most accessible entry points for internationals who want broad exposure, fast learning, and a real foothold in the German startup scene. Both Freshflow and nu:legal are hiring.

💸 Don’t skip the list: See the 250 startups tracked this year with zero paywalls on one single page. Bookmark it and check back weekly.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

Big news! LinkUsUp is now free. If you’ve been on the fence, now is the time to join.

It’s a professional networking platform built for people in Germany, whether you already live here, are planning to move here, or just want to connect with someone for a coffee chat, mentorship, or a conversation with a fellow professional who gets what it is like to navigate work life here.

Sign up, build your profile, and start connecting. I‘ll be sharing the full story behind the pricing change in an upcoming edition.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: WirWaschen takes the one chore nobody enjoys off your plate entirely. Book online to have your laundry picked, washed, folded and returned the next day. Available in Berlin, Hamburg, and beyond, it’s a service that genuinely buys back your weekend.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Manage your insurance with Getsafe, an app-first provider built for exactly the kind of flexible, paperwork-light setup that makes life easier when you’re navigating a new country. Use my link and code LVKL-HKMG to claim your gift.

Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

🔊 Guides to help you settle in Germany.

• The right relocation company can make or break your first months in Germany. I just overhauled The Best Relocation Companies in Berlin with updated listings and sharper guidance on matching your situation to the right support.

• Need legal help too? My updated Best Immigration Lawyers in Berlin pairs well with it.

• Stay tuned! A new podcast episode is coming this week. 👀

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Our Events (+ Other Events)

🎟️ A weekly event round-up.

Our event theme this week takes us across Germany, from a blockchain party in Berlin to a music bingo night in Hamburg to a mindful riverside walk in Munich.

• Jun 9: Music Bingo at Sonnendeck St. Pauli in Hamburg is a mid-week after-work social with three themed rounds of song-clip bingo, prizes, and plenty of singing along. €9.75, doors at 18:30.

• Jun 18: LOVE BLOCK Party at The Blockspäti is a night of music during Berlin Blockchain Week with free BBQ, an open bar, alcohol-free cocktails, flash tattoos, and a lineup of seven DJs. Free entry with RSVP.

• Jun 20: Rose Garden & Isar Mindful Walk in Munich is a gentle morning stroll through the rose garden and along the Isar with the Longevity Munich community. Easy pace, fresh air, good conversation. Free to attend.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• In positive transit news, there’s a new Berlin to Oslo train route with only one transfer, the S15 in Berlin debuts on June 15, and Flix increased bus frequency to BER. Related: An overview of the DB’s summer promotions.

• The long-awaited opening of Germany’s largest Hindu temple in Berlin is here, and you can see what it looks like in this video from DW. Or visit yourself, of course.

• Could Berlin host World Pride in 2032? Yes, please. Much better than hosting the Olympics, imho.

• The government just approved a law that could soon see German clubs reclassified as cultural venues, potentially saving them from future closures.

• Sadly, not everyone is protected, and long-standing Berlin institutions continue to suffer, as The Circus Hotel is closing this fall.

• You might have recently seen some Berlin influencers pedalling Ray-Ban AI sunglasses, #anzeige. Potsdam wants to ban the devices in swimming pools, but I’d vote for banning them entirely, as there are way too many creepy possibilities.

• Germany’s joining the modern world (kind of), phasing out 2G. But when will they phase out faxes?

📈 Politics & Economy

• Berlin’s rent has gone up 7% since 2024, and a third of renters are paying more than 30% of their wages in rent.

• Meanwhile, one German retiree donated his land, valued at €10 M, for affordable housing construction, and a lesbian community housing project opened in Berlin.

• Everything’s getting more expensive, but driving lessons may soon get significantly cheaper thanks to some recent reforms.

• Europe’s first Apple development center will open in Berlin.

• The government sees the country’s brain drain and has rolled out various programmes and policies to encourage young people to stay.

• The youth of Germany are not happy with the current chancellor, and a very unflattering term about him could become a “word of the year”.

• How to help out the German economy? My hot take is to release the billions of euros sitting in dormant accounts and use them for the public good.

• Die Linke is proposing that internationals in Germany should be able to vote after 5 years of living here.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Destatis reports that fewer people are moving to Germany than ever before, with immigration dropping 13% in 2025 compared to the year before. Berlin lost 12,000 residents, while Brandenburg saw the biggest wave of newbies.

• Data suggests European companies struggle to attract non-EU talent to the continent due to complex regulations, language barriers, and more. Despite being a bureaucracy-loving nation, most German companies reported few problems.

• Sifted created a list of Europe’s top 100 consumer tech startups, and 6 of them are German. Similarly, 3 of these top 10 startups striving to improve employee happiness at work are German. A hint of where to direct your job applications.

• Between 85-89% of new German citizens in 2025 chose to keep dual citizenship.

• A new global pay gap study of freelancers shows that women charge significantly less than men for equivalent work. See this piece (paywalled) for how this impacts women in Germany.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• An overview of CSD and Pride events across Germany this summer, plus a 2026 guide to Germany in the World Cup.

• Germany hasn't won a World Cup since 2014, but a YouTuber from Munich defended his title in Britain's Hill Cheese Roll, which feels like it should count for something?!

In Case You Missed It

📩 What landed with readers last week.

• Last edition: We learned that only 11% of Germans are engaged at work, got advice on using AI with your job applications, and that Germany remains a popular country for people to immigrate to at 5th worldwide. 👉 Read it.

• Most read: The community really dug our guide to saving money in Germany, the best podcasts to learn German (paywalled), and the top new openings in Berlin.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Last Friday, I visited my local Bürgeramt to transfer my permanent residency permit from my old Canadian passport to my new one. The appointment was surprisingly fast, the staff were kind, and I walked out with an eID instead of a sticker in my passport. It was, by any measure, a genuinely good experience with German bureaucracy, which is not something I say often.

It also got me thinking about this week’s main topic. New Gallup data shows that only 11% of workers in Germany are actually engaged at work, meaning the vast majority are either going through the motions or actively checked out. Those Bürgeramt staff clearly were not in that 89%.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Where does your salary rank in Germany?

This week’s salary data sparked quite the discussion in our community. Many readers were shocked to learn that €24,608/month places someone in Germany’s top 1%, with one person commenting: “Wait, one person out of 100 takes home 25k a month? Are you sure? That’s... a lot.”

At the same time, others pointed out that salary numbers alone rarely tell the full story. As one reader noted, “A single with €3,000 net income is not the same like a family of four.”

Our poll reflected that complexity too, with many readers feeling financially “comfortable,” while others still felt their earnings were lower than expected for life in Germany.

👉 Geek out on the full report from the Ministry of Finance.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. New Gallup data shows only 11% of employees in Germany are engaged at work, and a companion analysis argues this is not a cultural quirk but a management failure costing the economy an estimated $164 billion a year in lost productivity.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack. Or sign-up for LinkUsUp, a new way to connect with other professionals in Germany.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: The last newsletter covered income distribution across Germany, our guide to the best immigration lawyers in Berlin, five sustainable food companies hiring right now, and debated whether or not Germany “is over.

• Most read: Popular links last week included our list of companies hiring in Berlin, the episode of Brooklyn Coffee Shop featuring a Berliner, and The Berliner’s Mogg sandwich review.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

🧺 Our event theme for this week is simply getting out and meeting new people with similar interests, be it playing chess, connecting with other internationals, or eating foods with friends while watching a movie.

• May 27: Amateur Chess 2.0 at Schnelle Quelle is an evening of drinks and chess with strangers, no skill required and no pressure to be good. Show up, sit across from someone you've never met, and see what happens. €5 for players, free for spectators.

• May 30: Potluck Picnic: Flavours of Home at Mauerpark is a bring-a-dish afternoon where everyone turns up with something that means home to them, whether that's a family recipe, a childhood staple, or just something you love to make. Food, stories, music, and a blanket on the grass. Free with one dish to share.

• Jun 7: Films for Foodies: Spotlight on Malaysia at Kino & Bar in der Königstadt is a film screening followed by traditional Malaysian snacks from Seri Melayu. The film is a 2014 story about a father confronting his daughter's engagement to a Westerner. Stick around for Teh Tarik and appetisers. Suggested donation €14.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• If your job search in Germany feels like shouting into a void, some of it might be fixable. This podcast episode covers seven tips for finding work in Germany, from why laser-focusing your applications beats applying to everything, to the smaller cities where companies offer free meals, on-site doctors, and on-site daycare just to attract talent.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Germany can feel expensive until you know the system. This guide to saving money in Germany covers 20 practical ways to keep more of your cash, from supermarkets worth switching to and loyalty programs most internationals never bother joining, to the prepaid SIM trap, the Pfand system, and why filing your tax return is one of the smartest things you can do.

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Do you find it difficult to make friends in Berlin as an international? Ones that are here to stay longterm. People who you can bond with and rely on during the good times and bad. If having a close-knit circle of friends is something you want, apply to join Inner Circle and get connected now.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: We partnered with Spotahome to make your Berlin apartment search a little less painful. Use code TBL15 for 15% off your first booking.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

This week, we're featuring five German fintech companies:

1. Moss (Automated corporate spend management)

   Munich & Berlin | 30+ jobs

   Account manager, senior brand designer, techops engineer.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Mainly hybrid.

2. N26 (Mobile bank reimagining money’s relationship)

   Berlin | 26 jobs

   Director of marketing, head of data science/generative AI, IT audit manager.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid.

3. Raisin (Marketplace unlocking barrier-free savings)

   Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg | 35 jobs

   Enterprise IT services engineer, head of relationship mgmt, AI engineer.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid.

4. Scalable Capital (Robo-advisor making investing accessible)

   Munich & Berlin | 98 jobs
   Compliance expert, AI platform engineer, incident manager.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid.

5. Trade Republic (Mobile bank democratizing wealth creation)
   Berlin | 45+ jobs
   Senior technical product manager, market operations associate, senior IT security engineer.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid.

👋🏼 This is anything but a scraped job board. It’s a curated, weekly updated database of 395+ Berlin companies hiring right now, designed to help internationals cut through the noise and focus on employers actually worth applying to.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Over the past week, 13 German startups took home around €203 M in funding, across seven locations.

Job seekers, get your applications on. Nine of them are currently hiring for a combined 112 roles.

1. allseven (Curated health supplement bundles) - €170 K
   Caputh | 1 job
   Working student - social media.
   🇩🇪 | Remote with some office days in Berlin or Hamburg.

2. bunch (All-in-one fund operations platform) - €30.1 M

   Berlin | 11 jobs

   Senior fund operations manager, post merger integration lead, Manager of IT support.

   🇬🇧, 🇩🇪 a plus | Hybrid.

3. ClearOps (AI supply chain connectivity) - €8.6 M

   Munich | 6 jobs

   Account executive, solutions engineer, working student - events & recruiting.

   🇬🇧 &/ 🇩🇪 | Hybrid.

4. Eterno (Modern medical office buildings) - $100 M

   Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich + | 61 jobs

   Head of customer activation /onboarding, workplace experience manager, project manager - cloud.

   🇬🇧 working language & 🇩🇪 required for some roles | Hybrid, with remote options.

5. Feldwerke (Agricultural solar panel systems) - €12 M

   Munich | 10 jobs

   Entrepreneur in residence, project manager, business development rep.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid.

6. Getquin (Investment portfolio tracking app) - €12 M

   Berlin | 10 jobs

   Ad manager, content creator, senior/lead product manager.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Onsite mainly.

7. LawX (AI legal practice management) - €7.5 M

   Berlin | 3 jobs

   Legal engineer, data engineer, working student.

   🇩🇪 | Hybrid, with remote options.

8. Qurie (Refrigerant-free electrocaloric cooling) - €2.2 M

   Freiburg | 1 job

   System developer.

   🇩🇪 | Hyrbid.

9. Unframe (Managed AI delivery platform) - $50 M

   Berlin | 9 jobs

   Senior GTM recruiter, VP of marketing, channel manager - EMEA.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 + other languages like French, Spanish, & Dutch | Mostly remote.

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Health is having a moment. Allseven, Eterno, Femi-ON, and Getquin all raised this week, spanning supplements, medical real estate, femtech hardware, and investment wellness. Whether you work in clinical, ops, or product, this sector is putting money to work right now.

• Finance and compliance is hot too. Bunch, Getquin, and ComplyDo all raised in the same week, covering fund ops, portfolio tracking, and regulatory compliance. If your background touches any of these areas, three companies just got fresh capital at the same time.

• Eterno is the week’s dominant employer with 61 of the 112 available roles. More than half the jobs this week come from a single company building out medical office infrastructure across Germany, so if healthcare operations, project management, or tech are your thing, start there.

💸 Other funded startup lists tell you a company name and a number, while we tell you who's actually hiring, how many roles are open, what languages you need, whether it's remote or onsite, and what the trends actually mean for your job search.

231 startups tracked this year, 234 funding rounds, zero paywalls, one single page. Bookmark it and check back weekly.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

Applying for jobs is stressful, tedious, and honestly not fun, so yes, use AI to speed up the process, make it more efficient, and free up your headspace for the things that actually matter.

Alas, there is a problem. If you let AI do all the work, the person that shows up in your job application is not really you. AI has a way of making everyone sound the same, using the same words and phrases, and somewhere in that process you lose yourself. Being authentic is one of the most important things you can do in a job application, because the version of you that appears on paper needs to be the same one that walks into that first interview.

I spoke to a recruiter a few months back who told me something that stuck with me. He said AI makes candidates look so impressive on paper that he gets genuinely excited to bring them in, and then the interview happens and reality does not match what was written. That’s a huge waste of everyone’s time and it can really damage your chances.

So use AI to help you, but make sure the application still sounds like you and stays truthful about your experience. Do not just say what you can do, back it up with data and real examples from your work history, because that’s what will set you apart.

If you want help improving your CV or job applications for the German market, I’ve got you. 👉🏼 Learn more or book a session here.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• June brings changes for people in Germany, including the end of fuel tax relief, new EU pay transparency rules requiring employers to publish salary ranges in job ads, and stricter food labelling rules.

• New Destatis data shows smoking rates in Germany have barely moved since 2021, with around 19% of people still lighting up.

• Amazon is funding IoT leak detection across 500 buildings and wetland restoration in Bavaria’s Spessart Forest, together aiming to replenish nearly 370 million litres of water annually.

• FlixTrain is doubling its services by 2027 and Eurowings is stepping in to cover routes Ryanair is abandoning in Berlin. Meanwhile, Berlin's new S-Bahn CEO is promising cleaner trains and progress on the long-delayed S15 line.

• E-bike commuting is booming but Berlin is on track to build just 8.1 kilometres of new cycle paths this year. Germany is simultaneously offering up to €6,000 in EV subsidies for households looking to go electric by car instead.

📈 Politics & Economy

• A new proposal would build 21,400 apartments around Tempelhofer Feld, shrinking the beloved open space by a third. For the first time a majority of Berliners appear to support the move.

• Germany’s Labour Minister has warned that by 2030 no job in Germany will be untouched by AI, and is proposing that nearly two-thirds of working adults receive AI training at least once a year as a result.

• Berlin-based Dunia Innovations has unveiled a €280 million gigalab that uses AI to speed up the discovery of new materials for clean energy and sustainable chemicals.

• Consumer watchdogs have forced Starbucks to add a clearly visible no-tip option to its card terminals in Germany.

• Germany’s rapid military build-up is raising concerns among civil liberties advocates that expanding defence spending and security measures could come at the cost of basic rights.

• Despite 36 years of reunification, eastern German retirees now earn €309 a month less than those in the west, a gap that is widening rather than closing,

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• The lack of affordable apartments hits immigrants hard. Internationals spend more of their income on rent than Germans, are more apt to land in a homeless shelter, and face blatant racial discrimination in the application process.

• Remitly conducted their Immigration Index 2026 report, highlighting the best countries to move to, and despite everything … Germany came in 5th.

• Despite leaked reports suggesting Germany’s pension commission plans to raise the retirement age to 70, the government insists nothing has been decided.

• Germany’s liberalised visa rules were designed to attract international talent, but a new report warns they have also made non-EU students and trainees vulnerable to exploitation.

• Almost 310,000 people obtained their German passport in 2025, reaching an all-time record.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• If you’re looking for something new to do in Berlin during June, check out these 11 new openings.

• From classic spots like Schlachtensee and Müggelsee to clear turquoise water at Liepnitzsee, these five Berlin lakes are worth a swim.

• For those rainy days, bookmark the best German-language films of all time for culture and language learning, plus the top podcasts to practice your listening.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Nobody talks about money in Germany. Not at work, not with friends, definitely not at dinner. But the new income data that came out this week made me realize how many of us are quietly wondering if we're earning what we should be.

That's actually one of the things I love about this week’s newsletter sponsors, the Inner Circle (more on them below). Having a small group of people you trust enough to talk about the stuff nobody talks about openly.

This week's poll has us plunging straight into the topic.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Is requiring native-level German for jobs in Germany actually fair?

This conversation touched a real nerve and became one of the most-engaged polls we've ever run, pulling in 300 votes, our highest count yet. While 63% said native-level German requirements depend on the role, nearly one-third felt they cross into discrimination territory.

Many internationals understand the importance of learning German, but still struggle with the feeling that "native-level" can become an impossible benchmark rather than a practical requirement.

Some of the stories and perspectives shared in the comments on our LinkedIn page are well worth reading, so jump into the discussion and see what people are saying.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. New government data reveals what it actually takes to be a top earner in Germany, and the thresholds might surprise you. Head to the Immigration & Labour section for the full breakdown.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Join our chat on Substack. Or sign-up for LinkUsUp, a new way to connect with other professionals in Germany.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: Dig into our last issue for a tip about how content creators can legally protect their online presence, plus news about how it's taking longer than ever for unemployed managers to find new roles in Germany. We also featured 5 German companies specializing in physical and mental health that are currently hiring.

• Most read: The story of a laid-off Canadian dealing with unemployment, why submitting cold applications isn’t a bad idea, and photos from a Japanese photographer who tool pictures of a ping-pong table from the window of his Leipzig apartment.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

🎲 Our event theme for this week is … things that happen, like connecting with humans, learning languages, playing games and having drinks.

• May 19: Deutsch Happens! at 1820 Bar is a casual language exchange evening for all levels, from “Hallo, wie geht’s?” to full sentences, with games and activities to get you talking. Berlin is famously terrible for actually practising German, so here’s your excuse. Free.

• May 23: Sip Happens! Saturday Social at Cassiopeia Sommergarten is a relaxed evening in one of Berlin’s best outdoor venues for meeting new people, whether you’re a long-time resident or just passing through. Free.

• May 26: Board Gaming Happens! at Electric Social is a midweek board game night with drinks, food, and a mix of classics and party games. Catan, Scrabble, Cards Against Humanity, and whatever you bring yourself. Free.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• If someone has ever told you not to negotiate your salary in Germany because it's rude, that advice is wrong and it could be costing you thousands. This podcast episode covers when salary talks actually happen, what is negotiable beyond base pay, how to research fair ranges, and the mistakes that put candidates at a disadvantage, including a few from my own 10-plus years of working here.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Navigating German immigration without the right lawyer is a gamble you don't want to take. I just did a major update to The 15 Best Immigration Lawyers in Berlin, where nobody paid to be included, so the list reflects who is actually good rather than who has the biggest marketing budget. Fees and languages are listed upfront, free resources for LGBTQI+ refugees and refugee women are included, and the FAQ covers the 2024 citizenship law changes, visa refusal rules, and more.

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Making real friends in Berlin is hard. Especially for internationals in their 20s to 40s. No one to call in an emergency and no group that truly has your back.
  That’s why we created Inner Circle, a highly-vetted group of 8 individuals who meet regularly. You meet the same people, have deep conversations and over time, they become people you can rely on. Limited spots available. Apply now to join.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Setting up internet in Germany is … a process. If you’re moving or switching, PŸUR is offering up to €230 off on cable internet, TV, and phone packages. Use our signup link to save.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

This week we're featuring five German companies making food more sustainable that are looking for talent right now:

1. Formo (Animal-free dairy using fermentation)
   Frankfurt | 4 jobs
   HR specialist, dairy application technologist, senior people operations manager.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

2. Infinite Roots (Mushroom-based meat alternatives)
   Hamburg | 4 jobs
   Product marketing manager, strategic finance analyst, customer service & order mgmt.
   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

3. KoRo (Affordable bulk natural food products)
   Berlin & remote in Germany | 15 jobs
   Senior media buyer, expert packaging engineer, senior backend PHP engineer.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

4. Planet A Foods (Cocoa-free chocolate ingredients)
   Munich | 8 jobs
   Food scientist intern, process engineer, strategic buyer.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Onsite

5. Project Eaden (Plant-based whole-cut steak alternatives)
   Berlin | 5 jobs
   Electrical & facility technician, mechatronic engineer, operations working student.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Onsite

👋🏼 This isn’t a scraped job board. It’s a curated, weekly updated database of 393+ Berlin companies hiring right now, designed to help internationals cut through the noise and focus on employers actually worth applying to.

Berlin Companies Hiring

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

This week, 8 German startups raised approximately €159 M across 5 locations.

If you are job hunting, 4 of them are currently hiring for a combined 52 roles.

1. Eyeo (Privacy-first ad blocking platform) - €40M

   Berlin, Cologne, or remote | 1 job

   Group senior accountant.

   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Mostly remote with the HQ in Berlin, an office in Cologne.

2. n8n (Visual AI workflow automation) - €60M

   Berlin | 20 jobs

   Head of security, senior cloud engineer, senior lifecycle marketing manager.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Remote first, with some roles needing onsite/hybrid presence.

3. NVision (Real-time enhanced medical imaging) - $55M

   Ulm | 11 jobs

   Field service engineer, scientific project manager, social media manager.

   🇬🇧, 🇩🇪 a plus | Remote option, with some roles needing onsite/hybrid presence.

4. Parloa (AI customer service automation) - Undisclosed

   Berlin | 20 jobs

   Strategic engagement mgr, team lead - enterprise engagement, principal applied scientist.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Remote option, with some roles needing onsite/hybrid presence.

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Clera raised $3 M to help people skip the traditional job application process entirely. A VC-backed startup whose whole product is direct founder introductions. Whether you use it or not, the signal is clear and the conventional “apply-and-wait” pipeline is broken enough that someone raised millions to replace it.

• n8n and Parloa account for 40 of the 52 open roles between them. Both are Berlin-based, both are hiring across engineering and go-to-market. If you’re in DevRel, solutions engineering, or enterprise sales, this is a two-company job fair.

• Half the funded companies this week aren’t hiring at all. Early-stage money doesn’t always mean immediate roles, but it does mean hiring in 3 to 6 months. Bookmark them now, follow the founders on LinkedIn, and be first in line when the careers page goes live.

💸 Other funded startup lists tell you a company name and a number, and then leave you to figure out the rest. We tell you who's actually hiring, how many roles are open, what languages you need, whether it's remote or onsite, and what the trends actually mean for your job search.

218 startups tracked this year, 221 funding rounds, zero paywalls, one page. Bookmark it and check back weekly.

Funded German Startups

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

Each week, I dole out tips to help you cope with the job search or being employed as a foreigner in Germany. This week, three stories caught my eye that say something real about where the job market is heading and how it treats the people in it:

1. Humour: If you’ve ever vented about your job over a Feierabendbier, Japan has formalized the concept. A bar in Yokohama features career counselors who serve free drinks to anyone thinking about quitting and then listen to you figure out your next move.

2. Hope: Stockholm AI startup Lovable just announced that every employee gets an automatic 10% salary raise on their work anniversary with no negotiation required, because their take is that people get more valuable the longer they stay and shouldn't have to fight to prove it.

3. Hint: Quantum computing job postings have tripled since 2011 and Germany already leads globally with 12 master's programs in the field. If you're in STEM and wondering where to specialize, this is the talent gap that hasn't even peaked yet.

If you want help improving your CV or job applications for the German market, I’ve got you. 👉🏼 Learn more or book a session here.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• A record 161,000 people left Berlin in 2025, mostly young families who can't find housing big enough to raise kids, while 122,000 of the 186,000 new arrivals came from abroad. In fact, 87% of workers in Germany’s big cities say finding affordable housing is “pure luck” and ads like this sure don’t help.

• Is Germany over? This video says so. The below-replacement birth rates and rapidly aging population are creating a growing imbalance between workers and retirees that will put serious pressure on pensions, healthcare, and jobs.

• Germany ranked 25th out of 37 countries for child well-being in UNICEF's latest report, with children's life satisfaction, academic performance, and social skills all declining.

• DB is on a roll and their latest offering is a new €99 family ticket for groups of up to five (with at least one child) on long-distance trains between late June and mid-September, with seat reservations included.

• The journey of Timmy, the humpback whale, came to a tragic end after he was found dead off the coast of Denmark. RIP, Timmy!

📈 Politics & Economy

• Nvidia is expanding into Europe and eyeing Germany for AI startups, with the head of its startup programme saying "Germany is not late" on the AI boom. Nvidia, a single tech company, is more valuable than Germany’s entire economy.

• Business start-ups in Germany rose 2.8% in Q1 2026 while closures fell 5.7%, even with the Iran war and high energy costs. If you've been thinking about starting something, you're not alone.

• On the flip side, it’s a year in and Merz‘s promised “economic turning point” hasn’t materialized. Bankruptcies are at their highest since the financial crisis and business confidence is at COVID-era lows.

• Berlin’s Bürgerämter finally hit their 14-day appointment target for the first time in March, only 2.5 years late.

• Unsurprisingly, Berlin's car-free and ad-free referendum campaigns both failed. The Autofrei initiative collected 140,000 of the 175,000 signatures needed, while the ad-free campaign managed just 43,000, a quarter of what was required.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• New government data breaks down where your salary sits in Germany: €24,608/month puts you in the top 1%, €9,291/month in the top earners, €6,530/month in the top 20%, and one in five people earn less than €1,538/month.

• Related, is sage wisdom about being realistic with salary expectations and doing your research, as well as a deep dive into Germany’s salary pyramid.

• Nearly 20% of Berlin’s 17,946 active tech jobs don’t require German, and senior roles are 3.3 x more likely to be English-only than junior ones. Dive in for the company list/

• The integration course freeze that locked 30,000 people out since January is being partially reversed from June 1. If you’ve been waiting to start or continue a course, spots are opening back up.

• Darina is launching her Berlin-based wearable objects brand Berliney Studio this summer and needs a creative assistant for social media and content. Portfolio builders, hit her up on Threads.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Berlin’s legendary Mogg, forced to close their doors in 2023, recently made a comeback in a new location. Yes, the hype is real as the pastrami sandwiches are out-of-this-world good. On a side note, the number of people acting like they personally unearthed Mogg from obscurity is getting out of hand. 🫠

• Berlin-born ultrarunner Arda Saatçi went viral after running 600km from Death Valley to Santa Monica Pier in 123 hours, watched live by over a million people, then celebrated with his mum and an ice cream.

• Berlin, the only city on earth where you can receive adverts in your mailbox, like this? I heard these are normal in Seattle too.

• There was finally a Berlin related episode of Brooklyn Coffee Shop and it’s as cliche, weird, and funny as you’d expect.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

After spending the last five months dealing with a partial electrical failure in my flat (the TL;DR: a neighbour’s renovation work caused a levelling compound to leak into my fuse box and short out half my circuits), I finally have power in every room again.

I also sorted out my Canadian passport situation, and replacing my German residency permit card is next on the list.

Germany put me through it this winter, and I stayed anyway. This edition is about exactly that …

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Honest take: Is Germany’s best economic days behind it?

41% of the 172 who voted think Germany’s best economic days are behind it. Yet 21% still rate it above the rest of Europe for stability, social systems, and quality of life. Both things are true at once.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll. Weigh in and then head to the Job Search section where we get into what you can actually do when a job ad is written to filter you out before you even apply.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about things as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: In our last edition, we shared news about how Google Translate now lets you practice pronunciation (perfect for German learners!), train tickets for as low as €6.99, and Germany slipping in global prosperity rankings.

• Most read: The most on fire reads were those day trips from Berlin, how to answer the interview question “tell me about yourself”, and the new interactive block exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

🌳 This week’s list of featured events focuses on getting away from your keyboard and out of the house:

• May 13: Got a brain with too many tabs open? Wandering Minds is a casual walk through Volkspark Friedrichshain for people who want to skip small talk and think out loud together. Free.

• May 17: Run Wild at Schlachtensee is a 14km trail run through forest and woodland paths at a relaxed 6:30/km pace. Swim in the lake after if you're keen.

• May 27: F*ck the Small Talk is a facilitated evening of deep conversation and games with strangers who are also tired of being asked what they do and where they're from. From €18.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• Most people assume unsolicited job applications are a waste of time in Germany. I used to be on the fence too, until I watched several of my coaching clients land jobs this way.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Making friends in Berlin is harder than people expect. I share 8 ways that actually worked for me, including the nights I walked into a bar alone and faked confidence until it was real.

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: In Germany, your website legally needs a physical address in the Impressum. For women especially, that’s a real safety concern. I use Impressum-Privatschutz to rent a business address for €9.99 a month. Recommended by lawyers, 10 minutes to set up.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals🐈 Pet owners in Germany: I use Petolo for my 8-year-old cat Burt, and they had no issue insuring an older pet. First month free plus a €30 Amazon voucher through my link.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

This week's carefully curated selection focuses on German companies building tools for physical and mental wellbeing:

1. 7Mind (Meditation and mindfulness app)
   Berlin | 4 jobs
   Team lead B2B sales, senior back-end engineer - Golang, senior sales manager.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

2. inne (At-home progesterone ovulation tracker)
   Berlin | 2 jobs
   Head of customer success, senior embedded software engineer.
   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Remote and hybrid an option.

3. Kaia Health (Digital musculoskeletal therapy app)
   Remote in Germany/EU | 16 jobs
   Senior AI infrastructure engineer, senior HCP sales representative, head of product.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Mostly remote with some Germany specific roles offering hybrid.

4. MindDoc (Mental health therapy app)
   Munich, Berlin, remote in Germany | 7 jobs
   Psychotherapists (CBT), ML data engineer, working student - marketing content/web.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Mostly remote, with offices in Berlin & Munich

5. XbyX (Plant-based menopause wellness platform)
   Berlin & remote | 2 jobs
   Head of performance marketing, customer advisor (nutrition & women’s health)
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid when based in Berlin, min 2 days a week in the office

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, check out these 390+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

12 German startups raised a collective €99 M in disclosed funding this week across 7 locations.

If you are job hunting, 8 of them are actively hiring for 94 roles:

1. Avelios Medical (Hospital operations automation platform) - Undisclosed

   Munich | 44 jobs
   Executive assistant, senior product designer, senior accounting manager.
   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Onsite

2. eleQtron (Quantum computing hardware) - €57M

   Siegen & Hamburg | 13 jobs

   Founder’s associate, senior project manager, VP of software engineering.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

3. Enviotech (AI-powered smart street lighting) - €1M

   Frankfurt & Munich | 3 jobs
   Lead embedded sys’s engineer (x2), public governance & procurement specialist.

   🇬🇧 | Work model not specified

4. Invertix (AI solar portfolio management) - €1.7M

   Munich | 14 jobs

   Founding GTM lead, ML researcher, founding product manager.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Emphatically onsite.

5. LiveEO (Satellite-based infrastructure monitoring) - €28M

   Berlin | 9 jobs

   Engineering manager, business dev reps (x2), senior full-stack engineer.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

6. Onyx Biotech (AI drug manufacturing simulation) - Undisclosed

   Munich | 5 jobs

   Head of IT, founder’s associate, backend algorithm developer.

   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

7. Primogene (Functional nutrition ingredient manufacturer) - €4.1M

   Leipzig | 2 jobs

   Biocatalysis scientist & scientific business dev/innovation associate

   🇬🇧 | Work model not specified

8. ViViRA (Prescription back pain app) - Undisclosed

   Munich, Berlin, Dortmund, Hamburg, Frankfurt | 4 jobs

   Customer success manager, sales manager, people operations manager.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid, with some remote options

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Founder's Associate appeared in three separate companies this week. This generalist-operator role is becoming a fixture in the German startup hiring playbook. If you're early-career and want a front-row seat to how a funded startup runs, search for it by name.

• Avelios Medical posted 44 jobs from an undisclosed round. That's nearly half of all open roles this week from one company. If you're in healthcare operations, product design, or finance and are fond of Munich, this is your strongest lead.

• Quantum, satellites, biotech nutrition, AI drug simulation. This week's roster reads like a research lab directory. If you have a hard-science background, 7 of 12 funded companies need domain expertise that no generalist can replicate.

💸 All funded startups, all in one place: Get the lowdown by checking out our list of all 211 German startups that received funding this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

If you have ever been knocked out of a job application because your German was not Muttersprachliches Niveau, you are not imagining things.

Telma Popova put it into words recently in a post that struck a nerve: requiring native-level German for roles like software engineering is not a language requirement, it is effectively a citizenship filter. Worth a read and worth adding your voice.

You cannot control how companies write their job ads, but you can get smarter about how you respond. I cover exactly that in this podcast episode, including how to read job descriptions strategically and when to apply anyway.

If you want help improving your CV or job applications for the German market, I’ve got you. 👉🏼 Learn more or book a session here.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Amazon opened registration for the free Alexa+ beta in Germany on May 7, bringing its generative AI voice assistant to Echo devices.

• A sign of the times in Berlin? In 2025, tourist numbers were down 3.5% from the previous year and Das Gift, one the city’s classic comedy/live music venues is closing.

• Munich’s beloved river wave is back, bringing joy to local surfing professionals and tourists who watch and cheer for the incredible athletes. See my photos.

• Berlin’s Senate approved a €4.8 billion Olympic bid featuring an opening ceremony at Tempelhofer Feld, a golden ramp at the Brandenburg Gate, and 2,400 new apartments, with a final city decision coming in the fall.

• Germans reserving sun loungers with a towel at dawn is a known stereotype. One man just took it to court and won.

• Timmy, the humpback whale we were all cheering for, likely passed away after massive efforts to rescue him and return him to the North Sea.

📈 Politics & Economy

• The US is threatening to end visa-free travel for EU citizens unless Europe hands over its police databases by year-end.

• One year into his chancellorship, Friedrich Merz has an approval rating of just 19%, the lowest of any postwar chancellor, and the AfD is capitalising.

• One of Germany's richest men, 91-year-old billionaire Reinhold Würth, warns that Germany is caught in a deindustrialisation spiral.

• Germany is debating a sugar tax on soft drinks and high-sugar foods, with 60% of the public in favour but critics calling it a nanny state overreach.

• Germany is positioning itself as a data center powerhouse, but the reality is that Frankfurt’s grid is already maxed out, new connections take up to 7 years, and operators are falling back on gas.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Layoffs abound, with VW subsidiary cutting 1,200 jobs in Berlin, BioNtech slashing 1,860 jobs, and DeepL cutting 250 jobs). In another loss to the Berlin startup scene, Native Instruments was acquired by a US firm.

• A fellow Canadian shares what happened after she was laid off in Germany, from the visa panic and months-long battle with the Arbeitsamt to the unexpected new chapter that followed.

• Germany’s government will introduce a draft law in June replacing the eight-hour daily limit with a 48-hour weekly maximum, a move trade unions are firmly against.

• Senior managers accepting a severance package in Germany are discovering that finding a new role now takes an average of twelve months, four times longer than it used to.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Maultaschen are Swabia’s most treasured comfort food, and legend has it they were invented by a monk who hid meat inside pasta dough during Lent, hoping God wouldn’t notice.

• A postwoman in the Spreewald has been delivering mail by boat for 15 years, covering 65 households and 600 letters a week across one of Germany's most unusual postal routes.

• A Japanese photographer spent five years documenting a ping pong table from his Leipzig apartment window. See his incredible work.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

A lot of people I talk to are feeling pressure right now, and honestly, I am too. Between a shaky economy and bosses increasingly outsourcing their thinking to AI, you wonder and worry what the future has in store.

💪🏼 2 small wins worth sharing: The Berlin Life just hit 7,000+ followers on LinkedIn, and LinkUsUp has a shiny new home at linkusup.app.

Finally, your hot tip for the week: Google Translate now lets you practice pronunciation out loud and gives you feedback. Your new way to practice German. Thank me later. 😂

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: When you apply to jobs in Berlin, what usually happens?

Berlin’s job market is feeling really brutal at the moment. 54% of you said applications usually end in automated rejections, while 31% hear nothing back. Only 8% are making it to the final rounds, which puts the current frustration into perspective.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about things as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: Our last newsletter was all about who’s hiring, including 385+ companies hiring in Berlin, 5 healthcare companies, and 12 funded startups. Plus lots of the usual news.

• Most read: The most read article was about Germany’s ongoing saga with Timmy, the stranded humpback whale. Positive news on Timmy below. ⤵️

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

👩🏻‍🚀 This week’s list of featured events focuses on women in tech:

• May 6: If you're a woman working in or curious about AI, this one's for you. Femella and Needle are hosting a dedicated networking evening from 18:00 to 22:00. Register ahead of time, as spots are approval-based.

• May 19: Not ready to automate your work life yet? Start with your real life. Women+ in Automation at Impact Hub Berlin is a beginner-friendly evening of demos, hands-on building, and good company. It's full, but join the waiting list.

• May 21: If you're a female founder in deep tech, or someone serious about backing them, this one is worth registering for. Women in Deep Tech Berlin is a curated drinks reception connecting Pre-Seed to Series A founders with active investors.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• If you've ever accepted a job offer without pushing back because you were afraid of seeming difficult, this episode is for you. I share what I've learned negotiating salaries in Germany from both sides of the table, including the mistakes I made along the way. 🔊 Listen.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• "Tell me about yourself" sounds simple, but it's the interview question many candidates mess up. I put together an 8-step structure to help you nail a focused, 2-3 minute answer, with a real example and a free cheat sheet to download. 📖 Read the guide.

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Not many people know this, but I've been running a travel blog at cherylhoward.com since 2010. Every one of these 18-day trips from Berlin is a place I've visited myself. Hopefully, one of them becomes your next adventure.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: I use the American Express Green Card as my everyday card and earn points on everything from REWE to Zalando. Sign up through my link and get 10,000 bonus points after spending €2,000 in your first six months.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

Germany is rapidly expanding its defense capabilities. Here are some defense tech companies looking for skilled talent right now:

1. ARX Robotics (Autonomous ground vehicle systems)
   Munich & Berlin | 34 jobs
   Head of people programs, program manager, accountant.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | On-site/hybrid mix

2. Helsing (Defense AI company)
   Munich & Berlin | 77 jobs
   AI research engineers, director of finance, senior commercial manager.
   🇬🇧 mainly, 🇩🇪 a plus | On-site primarily with some roles allowing hybrid or remote.

3. Isar Aerospace (Sovereign rocket launch vehicles)
   Ottobrunn/Parsdorf | 79 jobs
   Senior real estate specialist, mission analysis engineer, senior fluid system engineer.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | On-site

4. Quantum Systems (AI-powered drone manufacturer)
   Munich/Gilching | 119 jobs
   Electronics technician, front-end engineer, certification manager.
   🇬🇧 mainly, 🇩🇪 a plus | On-site/hybrid mix, role dependent

5. STARK Defence (Attack drones and loitering munitions)
   Berlin & Munich | 87 jobs
   Senior forward deployed engineer, procurement manager, public affairs manager.
   🇬🇧 mainly, 🇩🇪 a plus | On-site/hybrid mix

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, check out these 385+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Over the past week, 14 German startups raised a collective total of around €232 M across 12 locations.

12 of these startups are actively hiring for 76 jobs:

1. BeatSquares (Multi-channel AI news publisher) - Undisclosed
   Berlin | 2 jobs
   Senior back-end engineer, sales development rep.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

2. BioThrust (Damage-free cell cultivation system) - Undisclosed
   Aachen | 2 jobs
   Intern (e-technology development & incubator production), sales intern.
   🇩🇪 | Onsite

3. Cirql One (SAP AI governance software) - €5 M
   Heidelberg | 3 jobs
   Senior back-end engineer, senior product designer, senior product engineer.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

4. CMBLU (Water-based flow battery storage) - €50 M
   Alzenau | 17 jobs
   Inhouse council, quality development expert, lab systems engineer.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

5. dehaze (AI patient risk detection) - €3.2 M
   Munich | 4 jobs

   Founders associate, full-stack engineer, medical lead.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

6. mbiomics (Living bacterial cancer treatment) - €30 M
   Neuried | 1 job
   Junior computational scientist.

   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

7. odacova (Personalized cafeteria nutrition app) - Undisclosed
   Dortmund | 2 jobs

   Founders associate, sales development rep.
   🇩🇪 | Hybrid

8. Patronus (Elderly smartwatch emergency alarm) - €11 M
   Berlin | 5 jobs
   Business development manager, people partner, customer success agent.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 (but mostly German) | Hybrid

9. Primogene (Health nutrition ingredient developer) - €4.1 M
   Leipzig | 2 jobs

   Biocatalysis scientist, scientific business development & innovation associate.
   🇬🇧 | On-site/hybrid mix

10. QuoIntelligence (European cyber threat intelligence) - €7.3 M
    Frankfurt | 5 jobs
    Associate technical project manager, account exec, senior data engineer.
    🇬🇧 | Fully remote

11. Sereact (Autonomous warehouse robot intelligence) - €93 M
    Stuttgart | 26 jobs
    Strategy & execution manager, chief of staff, technical support engineer.
    🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid with remote options

12. SPREAD AI (Manufacturing AI for factory floors) - €25 M
    Berlin | 7 jobs
    Forward-deployed engineer, senior enterprise marketing manager, senior delivery manager.
    🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid mostly

💸 All funded startups, all in one place: Get the lowdown by checking out our list of all 199 German startups that received funding this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

If you have been applying for weeks and the silence is starting to feel personal, hear this - it is very likely not about your qualifications or your CV.

Germany is not one job market. Some sectors are actively hiring, and some cities have far more open roles than others, but most people are not talking about that. The internationals finding traction are the ones who figured out where the actual demand is. Fintech in Hamburg and Frankfurt, green energy and engineering outside the obvious hubs, and healthcare almost everywhere.

Before you rewrite your application materials again, take a step back and look at where you are sending them and which sectors you are targeting. A small shift in geography or industry focus can make a much bigger difference than you might expect.

If you want help improving your CV or job applications for the German market, I’ve got you. 👉🏼 Learn more or book a session here.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• The usual roundup of changes coming to Germany this month, including DB ticket price freezes, fuel tax cuts, and a new platform for EV subsidy applications.

• Despite feelings that Berlin’s public transit often feels like a disaster, the BVG’s reliability has increased from 93% to 98.6% during the first quarter of this year.

• A new train will connect Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, and Copenhagen. Also, DB is launching a new last-minute ticket pricing scheme, and you can book tickets for as low as €6.99.

• Timmy fans can exhale a little as the stranded humpback whale has been released into the North Sea, but marine experts say he still faces challenges ahead. 😭

• An awkward headline for eco-conscious Germany, as the country ranked number one globally for exporting plastic waste last year.

📈 Politics & Economy

• A telling snapshot of modern Germany, as 81% of people say wealth is unfairly distributed, while the country has also slipped out of the world’s top ten richest nations on a new prosperity ranking. It’s not all bad; Germany’s economy still excels in some areas.

• Germany’s cabinet has approved the first outlines of its 2027 budget with higher defence spending, major investment in transport, digitalisation, and hospitals, plus nearly €200 billion in planned borrowing to fund it all.

• Most Germans do not trust their pension to cover retirement, as fresh debate grows over living standards in old age.

• Germany’s heating law shake-up could bring relief for tenants, with landlords expected to cover part of the future costs of new fossil fuel heating systems.

• Germany has approved major health reforms aimed at lowering insurance costs, including a sugar tax, higher prescription co-pays, cuts to admin spending, and less free cover for some non-working partners.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Germany is more multicultural than some would think, with 1 in 4 residents having an immigration history.

• Germany’s labour market stayed sluggish in April, with unemployment still above 3 million.

• Remote work is holding strong in Germany, with about 25% of employees working from home in 2025, way above the EU average.

• If you were hired from abroad in 2026, your employer must now tell you about free support services from the government-backed Fair Integration programme, which helps with contracts, wages, holidays, dismissals, social security, and workplace rights.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• What to do in Berlin during May: The Berliner and Visit Berlin both have great round-ups.

• If you’ve ever wanted to get up close and personal with the world’s most infamous oligarchs in the form of robot dogs with life-like Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg heads, check out Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie.

• One of Berlin’s coolest new art openings is at Hamburger Bahnhof, where a massive installation lets visitors build, move, and explore among 400,000 wooden cubes.

• Beatles fans, this one’s for you. Hamburg is opening a new free exhibition with rare letters and unseen photos from the band’s wild early days.

• May 5 is Germany’s national bread day, and residents claim their bread is the best. Related, Irish butter is cheaper in Germany than in Ireland.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Job searches in Germany are taking longer than ever and sometimes it’s hard to know who’s hiring. We got you, as this week is all about where Berlin companies are actually hiring right now.

Before jumping in: Are you free this Thursday, May 7? Come hang out with some cool Berliners. Our next Community Mixer will be a small, informal evening for meeting people, chatting, and building your network. Join us.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: What part of applying for jobs in Germany confuses you the most right now?

Applying for jobs in Germany feels like a mystery. The biggest confusion right now is cover letters at 31%, closely followed by whether to include a CV photo at 30%. Language choice and formatting also come up often, showing that even the basics can feel unclear.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: Last week, we dispelled German job search myths, highlighted 135+ climate tech companies, and covered news like Union Berlin hiring its first female coach, how Taco Bell is coming to Germany, and one woman’s incredible €10 Aldi haul. 👉🏼 Read it.

• Most read: Two links tied for last week’s most popular - our guide on the fastest growing jobs in Germany and our guide about 2-column CVs.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

• May 1: Spend Labour Day outside with a 10 km hike through Werder Havel followed by the Baumbluetenfest, a spring blossom festival with food stalls and fairground vibes. Bring €2 cash and your own snacks.

• May 3: Artist Joseph Marr launches his new monograph documenting an 800 kg melting sugar heart from Berlin Art Week 2024, with a film screening, DJ sets, and signed copies for sale. Free entry.

• May 9: Grab your camera and head to Grunewald for a nature and wildlife photography meetup around Teufelsee. Capturing all forms of life around Teufelsee starts at 14:00.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• How to quantify or qualify your professional achievements on your German CV. It’s not always about numbers, like increasing sales or saving money - it’s about being able to communicate the direct impact of your work. 🔊 Listen.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Not sure where to start your job search in Berlin? This free guide lists 385+ companies hiring across tech, healthcare, climate, fintech, and more, all with direct links to their career pages.

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Whether for your coffee table or a thoughtful gift, Take Me to the Lakes highlights some of the best lakes around Berlin.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: 🐈 Pet owners in Germany - Petolo offers solid insurance coverage. Your first month is free, plus you'll receive a €30 Amazon voucher when you signup through my link.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

Germany needs 500,000+ healthcare workers by 2030. Here are some of the health tech companies in need of skilled talent:

1. Ada Health (Health symptom assessment app)
   Berlin | 1 job
   Senior AI engineer.
   🇬🇧 | Remote in Germany

2. AMBOSS (Medical knowledge learning platform)
   Berlin & Cologne | 20 jobs
   HubSpot specialist, junior account executive, medical project manager.

   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid, remote work is an option
   

3. Avi Medical (Digital primary care clinics)
   Munich, Hamburg, Berlin + | 43 jobs
   Founder’s associate, full-stack engineer, expansion intern. + physician jobs.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 - primarily German | Hybrid, remote work is an option

4. EGYM (Smart fitness equipment platform)
   Munich & Berlin | 49 jobs
   Revenue analyst, quality engineer - hardware development, graphic designer.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Hybrid
   

5. TeleClinic (Online doctor consultation platform)
   Germany | 4 jobs
   Customer support lead, information security lead, senior back-end engineer.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Remote in Germany

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, check out these 385+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

While the weeks before and after Easter were slow, the German startup world certainly picked up pace the week of April 13, with 16 companies across 7 cities bringing in around €84 M in reported new funding.

12 of these startups are actively hiring:

1. Blocks (AWS cost optimization platform) - $6 M
   Berlin | 7 jobs
   Senior platform engineer, sales account executive, executive assistant.
   🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Onsite
   📝 They help with relocation.

2. brainjo (VR therapy for ADHD) - €2 M

   Regensburg | 1 job

   Executive assistant.

   🇩🇪 | Hybrid

3. EVANIUM (Water-soluble botanical extract technology) - €2.2 M

   Regensburg | 1 job

   Business operations manager.

   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Home office an option.

4. GitButler (Multi-branch Git version control) - $17 M

   Berlin | 3 jobs

   Gerrit developer, senior TypeScript developer, senior Rust developer.

   🇬🇧 | Remote work is possible.

5. lively (Senior independent living communities) - Undisclosed

   Duisburg | 1 job

   House buddy.

   🇩🇪 | Onsite

6. Nesto (AI hospitality workforce management) - €11 M
   Karlsruhe | 4 jobs
   Full-stack developer, cloud operations manager, cloud solutions engineer.
   🇩🇪 | Hybrid

7. Openlaw (Digital notary and incorporation) - $3.3 M

   Munich | 2 jobs
   Sales development rep, digital notary assistant.
   🇩🇪 | Remote

8. Peak Quantum (Error-reduced quantum computing chips) - €2.2 M
   Garching | 2 jobs
   Quantum design engineer & quantum measurement engineer.
   🇬🇧 | Hybrid

   📝 They help with relocation.
   

9. smartvillage (Customizable business event venues) - Undisclosed

   Munich & Berlin | 5 jobs
   Location management, people & culture manager, data science engineeer.
   🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Onsite

10. SPiNE (Utility grid control app) - €3 M
    Munich | 4 jobs
    Front-end engineer, sales manager, software tech lead.
    🇬🇧 & 🇩🇪 | Hybrid

11. Synera (AI engineering workflow automation) - €35 M

    Bremen | 11 jobs

    UI/UX designer, head of engineering, sales development rep.
    🇬🇧 &/or 🇩🇪 | Remote in Germany.

12. XO Life (Pharma patient digital therapy) - €4 M

    Munich | 4 jobs
    AI/ML engineer, full-stack engineer, mobile/front-end AI engineer.
    🇬🇧 | Remote

Over this past week, 9 more German companies in 7 cities raised about €52 M in funding. Get the lowdown by checking out our list of all 182 German startups that received funding this year. The 9 new additions are marked with a 🆕 emoji.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

• For the Berliners out there looking for local companies offering jobs in English, be sure to check out and bookmark this list from Talent Berlin.

• Synthesia, an AI video platform, is planning to open a Berlin office and they will be hiring a lot of newbies. See their career page.

If you want help improving your CV or job applications for the German market, I’ve got you. 👉🏼 Learn more or book a session here.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Berlin’s CSD celebrations just got bigger, and it will now be a 2-day party. Berghain also lost serious street cred, slipping down to spot 21 in DJ Mag’s annual list of the world’s top clubs.

• Ryanair is closing its base in Berlin this October, also cutting flights by 50%. Lufthansa will axe 20,000 flights due to jet fuel prices. Frankfurt’s long-awaited Terminal 3 opened on April 22.

• Berlin’s tourist numbers are down in comparison to other European cities. Will a new program to turn tourists into litter pickers attract do-gooders to the city?

• How the effort to save Timmy, the humpback whale who’d been stranded on Germany’s Baltic Coast, reflects the general angst of the nation. The response has been weird, to say in the least.

• Google Maps ratings in Germany just got more legit. Google now displays how many take-down notices the business issued in an effort to curtail bad reviews.

• Berlin’s public transit ticket machines recently stopped accepting cash due to a system glitch, with some suggesting they be phased out completely.

📈 Politics & Economy

• Berlin’s pushing for the country’s first ever rent registry, requiring landlords to register data on 1.75 million apartments so authorities can flag and prosecute instances of illegal rents.

• The government passed economic relief measures, including a reduced fuel tax and the option for employers to award a tax-free relief bonus. The latter is problematic, because employers are not obligated to give out the bonuses.

• A German court says the public broadcasting fee (Rundfunkbeitrag) is legal despite complaints of political bias.

• The AfD is polling higher than any other party in Germany for the first time. And not on my 2026 bingo card, former Green party leader Anna Baerbock was on The Daily Show (watch the full interview).

• Germany’s DeepL is in hot water for going all in on AWS, as customers aren’t keen on having their data stored on US owned tech. Related: Canadian Cohere acquired German Aleph Alpha to create a transatlantic “sovereign AI” alternative.

• Shrinkflation is real and the company who makes Milka chocolate bars is now in court for reducing the size, but not the price.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Tesla says they are adding 1000 new jobs at the Gigafactory. Not sure this is a flex, after laying off 1,700+ staff back in January.

• No more guessing salaries! A new EU law will force companies to disclose pay ranges during hiring, bringing more transparency to the job market.

• German companies are turning to in-person “speed dating” events to help fill thousands of vacant apprenticeship roles.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• If you need a break from Berlin chaos, these 11 bike routes take you straight into nature. Think lakes, forests, and peaceful paths.

• Thinking of a Dresden weekend trip? This video from DW highlights what’s worth seeing beyond those perfectly filtered photos and videos.

• A German shipbuilder is working on a “Tesla of the Seas” with a battery powered cruise ship.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

If you've been doom-scrolling LinkedIn job advice lately, you've probably seen people speaking with total authority on topics they don't fully understand. It's exhausting, and it's making an already stressful job search even harder. 😭

This week, I'm calling out some of the worst offenders and giving you the context you actually need. More below. 👇🏽

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: What’s your biggest barrier to changing jobs in Germany?

For most of you, the challenge isn’t knowing what to do next; it’s the language. 148 people weighed in, and a full 70% said German requirements are the biggest barrier to changing jobs, far outweighing concerns about skills or the job market itself. It’s a shared hurdle across the community. 💛

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

There's a lot of conflicting advice floating around about job applications in Germany right now, and it's creating unnecessary stress for people who are already navigating a tough market.

This week, we're tackling some of it head-on (keep scrolling). But I also want to hear from you directly. What's been the hardest to figure out? Your answers will help shape future guides so we can cut through the noise together. 💪🏽

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: Our last edition broke down the 25 fastest-growing jobs in Germany and which AI companies are actually hiring. We also got into €74 M in startup funding, wages jumping 4.5% (for some), and the most German headline of the year: robot lawnmowers banned at night so hedgehogs can roam free.

• Most read: The most popular link was our guide to the fastest-growing jobs in Germany, which reveals the 25 roles expanding right now and why a 70% skills match is all you need to apply.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

• Apr 17: Start your weekend early with Pilates, Run & Bagels. Warm up with a 20-minute reformer session, hit a 5K with the group, then wind down with bagels and chill vibes. Hosted by Zaya Club in Kreuzberg.

• Apr 25: Cherry blossom season is here and this 10 KM hike takes you through the prettiest pink corners of Berlin, including Japan Eck and the TV Asahi Cherry trees along the Mauerweg. Easy, flat, and only €3.

• 🍻 May 7: Come hang out with us. The next Berlin Life Community Mixer will be a small, informal evening for meeting people, chatting, and building your network in a way that feels natural. €10 (first drink(s) included).

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

If you’re unsure whether to include a photo on your German CV, I break it all down in this guide and podcast episode, when it helps, when it doesn’t, and how to decide based on the company you’re applying to.

⚠️ Quick reality check: There's a lot of loud, oversimplified advice online about working in Germany right now. You'll see people confidently say "never include a photo" or "it's not done here anymore," and it's just not that clear-cut.

Germany's job market is traditional in ways that don't always make sense, and ignoring that can cost you.

Before you take advice at face value, ask yourself some questions. Has this person actually worked in HR here? Have they hired anyone? You don't need more noise. You need context that helps you make the right call for your situation.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

Looking for meaningful work at a company that’s actually doing something about climate change? This guide covers 137+ German climate tech startups that recently raised funding and are actively hiring.

👉🏼 Inside you’ll find:

• A breakdown of which sectors are growing fastest (energy, sustainable mobility, circular economy)

• Where the jobs are (Berlin leads, but Munich, Hamburg, and smaller cities have strong opportunities too)

• What roles are in demand and what they pay

• Real talk on international hiring and whether you need German

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Use Kleinanzeigen for literally everything, like furniture, bikes, apartments, even jobs. It's basically Germany's Craigslist, but better. I have some friends who've furnished their entire apartments with second-hand finds in great condition.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Setting up internet in Germany is … a process. If you’re moving or switching, PŸUR is offering up to €230 off on cable internet, TV, and phone packages. Use my signup link to save.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

Climate tech is a growing sector, so I’ve picked out some of the key players from our guide that are currently on the lookout for some skilled talent:

1. 1KOMMA5° (AI-powered home energy systems) - Hamburg, Berlin, Munich with other roles nationwide | 298 jobs 💡 Senior full stack software engineer, electrician/electronics technician, junior SEO manager. Remote and hybrid possible for some roles, while many obviously require you to be onsite. EN &/or DE.

2. Bees & Bears (Renewable energy installment financing) - Berlin | 6 jobs 💡 Senior finance manager, finance intern, growth manager. German and English fluency is essential. Hybrid.

3. Feld Energy (Solar panels on farmland) - Munich | 15 jobs 💡 Working student - office management, head of battery storage. Hybrid, with fully remote possibilities. German is required, English is a plus.

4. OroraTech (Satellite wildfire detection AI) - Munich | 2 jobs 💡Senior manager tenders and proposals, senior financial accountant. English and German are both crucial. Hybrid.

5. trawa (B2B renewable energy platform) - Berlin | 11 jobs 💡Head of product, customer success manager - renewable supply, partner manager - sales network development. Hybrid, but office first. German & English needed.

📝 Note: A lot of these jobs require both English and German, which is actually great news if you've been learning. Your language skills give you a genuine edge in a competitive market, and companies here really value candidates who can work across both. See our guide to German language schools in Berlin.

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, check out these 350+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Last week was another short one and most people were off on holiday. We saw two German startups attract new funding, one in Karlsfeld and another in Münster, bringing in a combined total of €18.5 M.

Both are hiring:

1. Conxai (AI for construction industry) - €5 M | Karlsfeld (hiring in Munich) | 9 jobs 🚀 Senior product manager (agentic AI), cloud & infrastructure engineer, head of finance. English alone is fine. Hybrid.

2. Pixel Photonics (Quantum single-photon detectors) - €13.5 M | Münster | 2 jobs 🚀 Accounting expert and team lead photonic packaging. English alone is also fine. Remote and in lab.

🫣 There’s more: Updated weekly, see the full list of 157 German startups that have received funding so far this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

There’s advice circulating online right now that you should never use a two-column CV because it will get “lost” in an ATS. Like a lot of job search advice on LinkedIn, it’s oversimplified and missing important context. In Germany, two-column CVs are standard and are what recruiters here expect to see. Telling people to avoid them entirely ignores how hiring actually works in this market.

I’ll be honest, that the conflicting advice out there frustrates me. One person says never use columns, another says always use them, and none of it comes with nuance. I see this confusion in the people I coach. They come to me stressed, second-guessing a CV format that was perfectly fine, because someone online spoke with authority on a topic they didn’t fully understand. It wastes people’s time and energy when the job search is already hard enough.

So here’s what’s actually true, based on years of using HR systems myself - recruiters and hiring managers always see the candidate’s CV. The original file is right there. It doesn’t disappear into the abyss. Yes, some systems try to parse your CV into structured fields, and complex layouts can cause issues with keyword matching. But the recruiter still has access to your actual document. Not every company even uses those parsing features. Plenty of hiring teams in Germany review applications manually, and some now explicitly promise human eyes on every application. The reality is messier and more human than the fear-based advice suggests.

If you want the full breakdown of when two-column CVs work, when to use a simpler layout, and how German ATS tools actually handle your application, I wrote a guide that goes deeper.

If you want help improving your CV or job applications for the German market, I’ve got you. 👉🏼 You can learn more or book a session here.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Berlin often feels eternally broken, but in good news, the escalators at the city’s main station (Hauptbahnhof) are now in working order.

• The EU’s DiscoverEU programme is giving away 40,000 free travel passes to 18-year-olds, with applications open until April 22.

• Absolutely delightful! SchwuZ, Germany’s oldest queer club, is returning to Berlin with a fun party lined up in May. They are currently searching for a new venue to call home.

• 👩‍🚀 You didn’t know, but now you do. A Berlin-built satellite recently went to space under NASA’s Artemis II moon mission.

• Some people are unhappy with the rather useless nightly closing of Görlitzer Park. Activists dressed up as Easter bunnies and handed out actual keys (and small chocolates!) to people so they could go ahead with partying in the park.

• Fuck yeah. 💪🏽 Union Berlin just hired their first female coach, who will be the first woman to step into that role across any of European football's top professional men's leagues.

• The wolf that bit a Hamburg woman has been released back into the wild.

• We recently reported how a German went to NYC and then sued a restaurant for their tacos being too spicy (he lost his case). Now the US is importing its fast food chain, Taco Bell, into three German cities - Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Cologne. I bet that the German appetite will find their tacos vomit-inducing, and their business will do as well as Walmart did. —> On why Walmart failed? See this PDF.

• With 1 in 6 couples unable to conceive children on their own, the debate on egg cell donation is being talked about again. Could Germany make it legal?

📈 Politics & Economy

• The new governing coalition promised to slash German bureaucracy and two thirds of Germans surveyed said they haven’t seen any tangible change.

• Not paying for your transit ticket can land in you jail in Germany for up to a year. Authorities want to change it from a criminal offense to a civil one.

• The Berlin government wants to force businesses to allow at least one form of card payment. High merchant fees hurt small businesses, but it also allows some bad players to commit fraud at scale by not reporting their actual revenues.

• The German authorities are walking back a recent military service regulation requiring men of a certain age to report when they are leaving the country for more than 3 months. Misinterpreted and overblown by most media outlets, the government plans to simplify the policy.

• Similarly, the proposed austerity measures to address problems with German health insurance proved to be so unpopular that the government is abandoning plans to totally scrap free health insurance for spouses. They will instead charge a flat monthly fee of €225, which still places a new, unexpected financial burden on families.

• Life in Germany is getting more costly by the day, but look at the haul one woman got for €10 at Lidl. She says it’s not fake news and she supplied the receipt.

• If you hated the AfD, here’s even more reason to despise them as they continue to push for migration, and normalizing ties with Russia to the point where they want to teach it in schools again and expel all Ukrainians from the country.

• Betting on elections is illegal in Germany under gambling law, but some platforms still allow Germans to wager on political outcomes. I wonder how many people will make money from today’s elections in Hungary. 🤨

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Despite the growing power of the AfD, new dual-citizenship and other laws remain in place for now.

• The kids are not alright, as one in five young Germans plans to leave the country for various reasons.

• Germany has renowned labour laws, but its applied rather selectively. A new report highlights how workers in precarious jobs are increasingly pushed into the spotlight during labour disputes, while still lacking real security or fair conditions.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• As a workaround for strict alcohol laws in Northern Ireland, Germany’s Lidl is opening its first-ever pub,

• 🚬 Most UFO sightings in Germany aren’t happening in secret labs; people outside having a cigarette are reporting them.

• If you've struggled to maintain friendships while adjusting to life in Germany, Stammtisch might be the answer. This German tradition of meeting at the same time and place on a recurring schedule (no RSVPs, no guilt if you miss one) is now catching on abroad as a low-pressure way to stay connected.

• Some people are easily but hilariously impressed with German products, like these color-brightening cloths from Dr. Beckmann.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

March was a lot, to say the least. In recent newsletters, we talked about job insecurity, people leaving Germany, and whether we’re happy here. All relevant and necessary to discuss, but there’s been an overarching theme of heaviness.

With all the focus there, we didn’t get into where Germany’s job market is actually growing. While some sectors are struggling, others are thriving and rapidly expanding.

I spent several hours over the weekend digging into LinkedIn’s report on the fastest-growing jobs in Germany, which highlights which roles are booming, which skills are in demand, and where opportunities exist right now, even when everything feels uncertain. I also added some of my own insights, plus related salary info.

So this week, let’s zero in on the data on what is growing, plus what to do about it.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Which recent headline in Germany frustrates you the most?

What’s weighing on people right now is clear, and 66% of you said headlines linking crime to immigration are the most frustrating, followed by healthcare changes affecting spouses (25%). Compared to that, things like taxes or speed limits feel almost irrelevant.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: Our last edition was full of good stuff like why job seekers shouldn’t use LinkedIn’s Easy Apply, all of the different changes happening in Germany this month, and heated discussions about sin taxes on booze and cigarettes, possible speed limits on the Autobahn, and cutting spousal healthcare coverage.

• Most read: The most read article was all about Berlin’s sudden sandwich craze, which sees people lining up in queues rivalling that of Berghain.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

• Apr 14: Pineapple on pizza. Crocs with socks. Nickelback. If you have strong opinions, this one’s for you. Hit up this pub quiz night where you can argue, laugh, and maybe win something. €5, all proceeds go to charity.

• Apr 15: A midweek walk through Kreuzberg and Neukölln, with a twist. City Walk Berlin includes an optional “blind walk” experience where you’re guided through the city with your eyes closed. Donations welcome.

• May 7: Come hang out with us. The next Berlin Life Community Mixer will be a small, informal evening for meeting people, chatting, and building your network in a way that feels natural. €10 (first drink(s) included).

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• If salary conversations stress you out, this one’s for you. I explain how salary negotiation really works in Germany, what’s fair to ask for, and how to approach it with confidence.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

Inside, you’ll find salary benchmarks for the fastest-growing roles, which sectors are desperate for talent right now (i.e., healthcare needs 500,000 workers by 2030), and how your current skills might translate even if you’ve never worked in these fields before. There’s also a breakdown of where these jobs are concentrated and which companies are hiring in each sector.

I made this because so many of you have told me you feel uncertain about your career path in Germany. You want security but don’t know where to look. You want to pivot but don’t know if it’s realistic. This guide shows you both where the opportunity is and how to go after it with what you already have.

It’s meant to help you feel less stuck and clearer about your next move. ⬇️

The Fastest Growing Jobs in Germany

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Download Vinted (formerly Kleiderkreisel). It’s one of the easiest ways to buy and sell clothes in Germany, and people actually use it a lot.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Setting up internet in Germany is … a process. If you’re moving or switching, PŸUR is offering up to €230 off on cable internet, TV, and phone packages. Use my signup link to save.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

Since AI is hot, hot, hot right now, let’s focus on AI companies hiring in Germany:

1) Aleph Alpha (Sovereign European AI solutions) - Heidelberg | 4 jobs 💡Executive assistant to the CEO, chief of staff to the CRO, senior AI researcher. English required, with German being a bonus. Hybrid.

2) DeepL (AI-powered language translation) - Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne | 30+ jobs 💡Product gtm specialist, senior staff data engineer, corporate account executive. Mostly English, German is helpful though. Hint, hint. Hybrid.

3) Edgeless Systems (Secure confidential‑computing AI) - Berlin & Bochum | 5 jobs 💡 Director growth, senior systems engineer, AI business development intern. EN &/or DE. Hybrid.

4) Helsing (AI for defense & security) - Berlin & Munich | 80 jobs 💡Deployed AI engineer, graphic designer, financial accountant. EN &/or DE. A mix of onsite/hybrid, role-dependent.

5) Langfuse (LLM engineering platform) - Berlin & Munich | 9 jobs 💡Senior front-end engineer, dev rel engineer, product designer. Mostly remote, and English alone is sufficient.

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, check out these 350+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Money was still flowing last week, even though it was a short one, and approximately €74 M in reported funding was raised by 7 startups across 5 cities in Germany.

These are the ones hiring right now:

1) cuisyn (Restaurant acquisition and operations) - Undisclosed | Frankfurt | 42 jobs 🚀 Hospitality jobs include cook, junior buyer, and restaurant manager. EN &/or DE required.

2) ecoworks (Prefabricated building energy retrofits) - €23 M | Berlin | 8 jobs 🚀 Junior architectural planner, senior architectural planner, and junior sales development manager. German fluency essential. Remote first.

3) Midas (Tokenized real-world asset investments) - €43 M | Berlin | 3 jobs 🚀
Senior full-stack developer, lead security engineer, and head of risk. English is sufficient. Remote almost anywhere.

4) Nature Robots (Autonomous agricultural robot navigation) - €4 M | Osnabrück | 4 jobs 🚀 Finance & operations manager, project manager, robot software engineer. There are more roles listed, but they are quite dated. EN &/or DE required. Hybrid.

5) PENEMUE (AI social media protection) - €1.7 M | Hamburg | 1 job 🚀 Full stack developer. Hybrid. German fluency a must.

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• cuisyn posted 42 jobs from a single undisclosed round. More open roles than the rest of the week combined. If you're in hospitality and live in Frankfurt (or want to move there), this is your sign.

• Midas raised €43 M and is hiring remote "almost anywhere." Rare for this funding level, nab a crypto-adjacent infrastructure role with no office requirement.

• It was a short week, and it felt like one. Only 5 of 7 funded startups are actively hiring, and aside from cuisyn, there are just 16 roles across 4 companies. If nothing here fits, use the quiet week to polish your CV. The pipeline always picks back up.

🫣 There’s more: Updated weekly, see the full list of 155 German startups that have received funding so far this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

3 things to know about Germany’s fastest-growing sectors:

• Your skills transfer better than you think. Project management in retail works in healthcare. Customer success in SaaS translates to logistics. Operations experience from any industry applies to sustainability startups. Hiring managers in expanding sectors care more about what problems you solve than where you’ve solved them. Look at what you do, not just where you’ve done it.

• Apply at a 70% match. Growing sectors create new roles constantly. Most people still don’t know what a forward-deployed engineer does. There are no perfect candidates because a perfect experience doesn’t exist yet. If you have 70% of what they’re asking for, apply anyway. They need people and will train to fill the gaps.

• Target funded, growing companies. A fast-growing company in a growing sector equals stability. Before applying, check if they raised funding recently, if they’re expanding teams, and how many roles they’re hiring for. One role might be a replacement. Ten roles signal growth. This takes five minutes and tells you if the opportunity is real.

👉🏼 Related career guides: German Climate Tech Startups Hiring Now & The Best Funded Startups in Germany to Work For in 2025 (still relevant).

If you want help improving your CV or job applications for the German market, I’ve got you. 👉🏼 You can learn more or book a session here.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• The government is building a new digital “citizen app”, where you’ll be able to book appointments, submit applications, and handle things like address changes, all in one place

• Germany might decriminalise fare dodging, which means riding without a ticket could stop being a criminal offence and become more like a fine instead.

• A tale of two headlines in Berlin’s club scene, Renate is finally reopening, while sex-positive venues face Instagram blocks.

• 👀 We just came off a nice long weekend, but more 3 more public holidays are coming soon.

📈 Politics & Economy

• On the housing and rental crisis front, rent prices for new listings in Berlin are rising faster than existing contracts. The government is on it (hopefully?!):

  • Germany is putting €360 million into turning unused office space into housing, a step toward fixing the housing crisis, but not a quick solution for high rents.

  • The government is reviewing rental laws to close loopholes in rent control, including stricter rules on furnished apartments, short-term leases, and clearer rent breakdowns.

  • Berlin is expanding housing plans in Siemensstadt, where thousands of new flats are being added as part of a long-term project to create an entirely new neighbourhood for living and working.

  • To tackle the housing shortage, Germany may launch a federal housing company with 51% state ownership, designed to build more affordable homes faster.

• Inflation in Berlin is hitting everyday costs, and a proposal to cut VAT on healthy food to ease grocery bills is on the table.

• Um, yeah. Confidence in the German government is low, with 84% of voters saying they’re unhappy with how things are going.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Wages in Germany are rising by around 4.5% in 2026, with the average salary sitting at about €53,000, but with fewer workers entering the market, opportunities and competition will depend more on your field than before.

• Side hustles are on the rise in Germany, with a record number of people starting businesses alongside their main job as living costs increase.

• Some Black Americans say moving to Germany changed their relationship with healthcare, from avoiding it to finally being able to use it.

• As retirement age continues to increase while life expectancy slows, taking part-time roles can significantly impact your future, with pension losses of up to €200,000 reported.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• In very German news, mayors want robot lawnmowers switched off at night so hedgehogs can roam in peace. 🥹

• Even David Bowie wasn’t impressed with everything Berlin-inspired, including U2’s Spider-Man musical era.

• Scientists revisited a 9,000-year-old grave in Germany and found that earlier assumptions about human origins were completely wrong.

• Germany might soon send an astronaut to the moon, which is something no European has ever done before.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Before we get into this week’s newsletter, please allow me a moment of shameless self-promotion. Nobody’s going to do it for me, so here I am.

• I built LinkUsUp, a networking platform for professionals in Germany. No algorithm, no feed, no LinkedIn energy. Just search by city, role, and language, and find people who are actually open to meeting. If you’re job searching or building your network here, this is what it’s for.

• If you’re in Berlin this Thursday (April 2nd), I’m hosting a community mixer at BRLO Brwhouse in Schöneberg. Small crowd, good food, craft beer, and zero agenda. Whether you just arrived or you’ve been here forever, come say hi. I’d love to meet you.

OK, self-promotion over. Let’s get into it. 😬

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: How happy do you feel with your life in Germany?

This one felt very real: most of you are somewhere between staying and still deciding. 40% like life here for now, 31% are actively evaluating, and only 24% feel fully settled. Germany, it seems, is often something you grow into.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: If you missed our last newsletter give it a read. We talked about how Germany moved up on the World Happiness Index, the German CV mistakes people need to stop making, Germany’s data center push, and the most popular terrace cafés in Berlin. 👉🏼 Read it.

• Most read: Like me, readers are big fans of Alexander Skarsgård and were eager to gaze at photos of him attending a screening of Pillion at Kino International in Berlin. 👉🏼 Read it.

🗓️ 3 Cool Berlin Events

• Apr 2: Dating apps are basically rolling the dice, so why not roll some real ones? Kiez Date's Game Night Dating brings together 30–40-year-olds for a curated evening of games, chatting, and maybe a match or two. €18. 🎟️ Attend.

• Apr 12: A proper Indian street food pop-up in Berlin. Chaats & Chats takes over Café Neukölln with traditional chaat dishes, all priced under €6. 🎟️ Attend.

• Apr 19: A phone-free Sunday morning in Mitte. The Offline Club takes over Art City People Café for a few hours of reading, journaling, doodling, and optional socialising. Bring a book, leave your screen at the door. €7.50. 🎟️ Attend.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• Think cold applications in Germany are a waste of time? We disagree. This episode breaks down why Initiativbewerbungen actually work and how to do them right. 🎧 Listen.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Plan your 2026 time off now. Our guide to Berlin's public holidays includes every date, bridge day strategy, and tips to turn four vacation days into a full week off. 👉🏼 Read it.

• I used to say "expat" all the time … until I asked our community how the word actually made them feel. Here's why I stopped using it and why you should too. 👉🏼 Read it.

• Got a bike in Germany? You probably need insurance. We compared the best providers, broke down what actually matters, and found options starting at €2/month. 👉🏼 Read it.

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Use CHECK24 to compare everything from health insurance, internet, electricity, and even car insurance. You can save hundreds a year just by switching providers.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: We partnered with Spotahome to make your Berlin apartment search a little less painful. Use code TBL15 for 15% off your first booking.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

1) Cybus (Factory data integration software) - Hamburg (fully remote) | 3 jobs 💡Customer success engineer, solution architect, senior technical product manager. German (C1) and fluent English.

2) DUDE CHEM (Green pharmaceutical chemical manufacturing) - Berlin | 3 jobs 💡Chemical reaction engineer, senior process chemist, senior project manager. Hybrid. English is sufficient, DE a plus.

3) Elucidate (Financial crime risk platform) - Berlin | 1 job 💡Forward deployed engineer. Mostly onsite with clients. English only.

4) Lucanet (Financial planning software for CFOs) - Munich, Berlin, and/or remote in DE | 26 jobs 💡Senior manager strategic projects, product marketing manager, senior solution engineer. EN &/or DE needed, role dependent.

5) TKMS (Naval defense & shipbuilding) - Germany wide & remote | 376 jobs 💡Procurement planning manager, lean manager, expert contract manager. German and/or English required.

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, check out these 350+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Last week, 14 German startups across 9 locations cities collectively raised €202 M in reported funding. These are the ones hiring right now:

1) AV8 (Natural coconut water beverage) - Undisclosed | Cologne | 1 job 🚀 Working student - social media & brand marketing. German skills a must. Hybrid.

2) blue activity (Microorganism-based cooling water treatment) - €8.5 M | Heidelberg | 1 job 🚀 Sales & service engineer. Home office. German only.

3) Dash0 (Developer application performance monitoring) - $110 M | Solingen - remote in Germany | 2 jobs 🚀 Enterprise solution architect, talent acquisition intern. English is cool.

4) Entrix (AI battery energy trading) - €43 M | Munich | 13 jobs 🚀 Senior legal/general council, market operations manager, technical program manager. EN &/or DE. Hybrid (3 days a week in the office).

5) JUUZ (Zero-sugar protein soda beverage) - Undisclosed | Munich | 4 jobs 🚀 Founder’s associate, sales director, social media & content manager. Onsite (with remote flexibility). English.

6) Kewazo (Automated scaffolding lifting robots) - Undisclosed | Munich | 2 jobs 🚀 Founder’s associate – finance, accounting & investor management & supply chain manager. Onsite. English essential, German skills a plus.

7) Logistikbude (Digital returnable packaging management) - €5 M | Dortmund | 5 jobs 🚀 Account executive, senior customer success manager, senior key account manager. Remote/home office friendly. German only.

8) Wellster HealthTech (Multi-brand telemedicine platform) - €10 M | Munich | 5 jobs 🚀 Ruby on rails developer, telemedicine doctor, operations and supply chain coordinator. German and English. Hybrid.

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Munich dominated, with 5 of the 8 hiring companies for ~24 roles. This week, the job market is in Bavaria.

• Dash0 in Solingen (population 155K) is hiring fully remote in Germany. The biggest round this week came from a city most people couldn't find on a map. 😉

• Three beverage startups raised capital in a single week (AV8, JUUZ, NALU). If you have brand, social media, or sales experience in food & drink, this is an unusual cluster worth jumping on.

🫣 There’s more: Updated weekly, see the full list of 148 German startups that have received funding so far this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

Don’t rely only on LinkedIn’s “Easy Apply.” Take an extra minute to check the company’s careers page and apply there instead. Many jobs on LinkedIn are already expired, duplicated, or no longer active. You don’t want to spend time applying for something that isn’t actually open.

Applying directly also gives you more control over your application. You can upload the right documents, answer questions properly, and make sure everything is complete. It also helps your application reach the place where the hiring team is actually reviewing candidates.

This part really matters: when you apply on the company website, you are often competing with fewer people. Your application goes straight into their system, not through a large pool of quick applications. It takes a bit more effort, but it can improve your chances.

If you want help improving your CV or job applications for the German market, I’ve got you. 👉🏼 You can learn more or book a session here.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Changes are happening in Germany this April, including new border checks, salary increases, and tech rules you might not expect. Worth a quick read so nothing surprises you.

• Lufthansa is planning a major expansion at Munich Airport and are aiming to handle 10 million more passengers a year.

• A potential change to Germany’s alcohol laws, as the government wants to scrap the rule that lets 14–15 year olds drink with a guardian.

• A new law aims to ease pressure on emergency services in Berlin with better coordination and smarter call handling.

• Recent wildlife stories include a tiger cub in Berlin, a fox found during a U-Bahn check, a wolf appearing in Hamburg, and a stranded whale in the Baltic Sea. 😭

📈 Politics & Economy

• Germany’s conservatives are once again (!) linking immigration with crime, while debates grow about whether they’re moving closer to the far right.

• The Deutschlandticket was more popular than ever in 2025 , a new price index mechanism will determine future price changes, and the Greens are arguing that a return to a €9 ticket could help curb rising consumer prices.

• Germany’s inflation rate hit 2.7%, driven by rising energy prices and people across the country are bracing for further price hikes. Even chocolate Easter bunnies are 25% more expensive.

• Germany's healthcare disaster has the government considering scrapping free insurance for non-working spouses, introducing "sin taxes" on tobacco, alcohol, and sugar, and overhauling a system widely seen as too expensive and broken to leave alone.

• You’ve probably heard about the no-speed-limit Autobahn, but the debate around it is still ongoing. Even with climate and energy pressures, many in Germany see it as a question of “freedom”.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Job searching can feel isolating, especially in Berlin. Someone created a simple WhatsApp group for people to connect, share leads, and support each other through it.

• A small drop in unemployment this month, but zoom out and the picture hasn’t changed much. Germany still has over 3 M people unemployed, and hiring remains slow.

• Without hiring from India, one butcher says his business wouldn’t exist. As visas jump from 20k to 90k, Germany’s reliance on international workers is only growing.

• Almost 1 in 10 workers in Germany works at night, especially in industries like transport, security, and healthcare.

• I mentioned before that Germany might cut integration courses and now there’s growing pressure to reverse that decision. Critics warn the freeze could leave thousands without access to German classes.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Berliners are lining up like it’s Berghain … but for sandwiches.

• Quick myth-buster: German chocolate has nothing to do with Germany.

• Germany makes whisky? Yep, and this guide explains how the scene is growing, what to expect, and where it stands compared to the classics.

• Thinking of foraging this spring? This map highlights where to find wild garlic in Berlin, with what to watch out for, including protected areas and toxic lookalikes

• Not everything in Berlin is broken. Some things are getting better, thanks to its residents.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Spring has sprung. Berliners are coming alive, even smiling and being friendly sometimes. Everyone is outside standing like sun-worshipping yogis.

A new study shows that people in Germany are happy. While spring lifts the doom and gloom of winter, does it colour our perception?

Think about it. Do you feel happy with your life in Germany? Is it where you see yourself long-term? Do the benefits of staying outweigh the cons?

For me, I’d say I’m mostly happy here. How about you? Tell us your feelings in today’s poll. 👇🏼

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: What do you value most about living in Germany?

Work-life balance came out on top (35%), with many of you also valuing Germany’s healthcare system (23%). But more than a quarter (27%) said they’re still figuring things out, a reminder that settling into life here takes time, and not everything clicks right away. 💛

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: In our last edition, we shared how to get to know your neighbours, a chart showing what Americans value vs Germans, income inequality across East vs West, and all about a German taking on spicy tacos. 👉🏼 Read it.

• Most read: Most of you were curious about catching a glimpse of the Northern Lights over Germany. 👉🏼 Read it.

🗓️ 3 Cool Berlin Events

• Mar 26: Take a Trip Into [AI x creativity] brings together Berlin’s AI + creative scene for panels, a live case study, and networking at Acht Kino. Free, but only a few spots left. 🎟️ Attend.

• Mar 26: Trust is the real currency and Trust as currency in communications. This event breaks down how to build it, with talks from Spotify, LinkedIn, & more. Free. 🎟️ Attend.

• Mar 29: A new way to make friends in Berlin. Berlin Brunch Club: Make New Friends keeps it small (4–6 people), curated, and conversational - over brunch, of course. 🎟️ Attend.

🍻 Events from The Berlin Life - YES!

• Apr 2: We’re hosting a community mixer at BRLO Brewhouse in Schöneberg. A small, intimate crowd where everyone is welcome. Meet local people and expand your social circle. Eat good food and drink craft beer. Will I see you there?

Register for the Event

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• “Toxic positivity” around job hunting in Germany? Let’s talk about it. The realities, the barriers, and what actually helps. 👂🏼 Listen.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Trying to find work in Germany? This Berlin-focused guide is packed with advice that works well beyond the capital too, especially if you’re navigating visas, German-language expectations, job sites, networking, and the tougher realities of the market. 👉 Read it.

ℹ️ More where that came from: 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Download Too Good To Go. It helps you save money on food by picking up discounted leftovers from local spots.

• Recommended newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Get groceries delivered in minutes with Flink. Use promo code FLINK-3TDV5T to get €5 off your first order.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

1) Almirall (Skin-focused pharmaceutical company) - Hamburg & Reinbek | 20 jobs 💡 Commercial training senior manager, product manager atopic dermatitis, customer engagement manager. Primarily DE, some EN required. Hybrid.

2) getolo (Digital health insurance platform) - Berlin | 24 jobs 💡Senior data analyst - finance, engineering manager - claims, sales manager (french speaking). Hybrid, with an office in Mitte. EN &/or DE.

3) Knowunity (AI tutoring for students) - Berlin & Munich | 12 jobs 💡Growth intern, AI engineer, finance analyst. Onsite. DE &/or EN.

4) Omio (Transport comparison platform) - Berlin | 9 jobs 💡Tax specialist, senior product designer (UI/UX), head of data strategy & insights. EN &/or DE needed. Mostly hybrid.

5) tacto (Industrial procurement AI platform) - Munich | 23 jobs 💡Customer value - team lead, senior account executive, senior software engineer. Onsite 4 days a week. EN &/or DE.

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, check out these 350+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Last week, 7 German startups across 5 cities collectively scored €153 M in fresh new funding. These are the ones hiring right now:

1) Bounti (AI frontline team platform) - €4 M | Berlin | 10 jobs 🚀 Customer experience lead, chief of staff, senior product engineer. Salary ranges are posted with the jobs. DE &/or EN.

2) Eternal.ag (Autonomous greenhouse harvesting robots) - €8 M | Cologne | 3 jobs 🚀 Executive assistant, GTM intern, robotics engineer. English alone is cool.

3) Level Nine (Nanozyme renewable chemical catalysts) - €4 M | Berlin | 1 job 🚀 Senior process engineer. EN a must, + B1 German.

4) Upvest (Brokerage infrastructure API platform) - €108 M | Berlin | 28 jobs 🚀 Head of compliance, senior launch manager, director of engineering. Hybrid. EN &/or DE.

5) WeSort.AI (AI waste sorting technology) - €10 M | Würzburg | 5 jobs 🚀 Founders associate, technical sales manager, software engineer. Onsite, in office. German speaking skills essential.

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Upvest's €108 M accounts for 71% of this week's total and 28 of the ~47 open roles. If you're in compliance, engineering, or launch/ops, apply.

• German is the gatekeeper more than usual. Only Eternal.ag is fully English alone. If you've been putting off that B1 certificate, this is your nudge.

• Biotech raised €19 M this week and posted zero jobs. If oncology, immunology, or biotech ops is your lane, bookmark them now. The roles are coming.

🫣 There’s more: Updated weekly, see the full list of 134 German startups that have received funding so far this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

A brief rant about CV mistakes I keep seeing people make. This is shared with love, but I’ve been reviewing job applications lately and wow, we need to talk:

• Bold ≠ better: Only bold headlines (and maybe job titles). If most of your text is bolded, your CV becomes hard to read. It’s like you’re saying that everything bolded is important, which actually makes nothing important.

• Language mismatch: English job where the job description says only English is needed? Submit your application in English. German job? Apply in German. This sounds obvious, but it signals a lack of attention to detail.

• The 4-page CV: Please don’t. Keep it to 1–2 pages max. And instead of listing what your job was, show what you actually did with it - your impact, your contributions, your value.

👉 I’ve got full guides here if you want to fix this properly:

• How To Write A German CV That Will Get You Interviews

• Avoid Making These German CV Mistakes

• Do You Really Need to Quantify Everything on Your CV?

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Germany climbed 5 spots to 17th in the World Happiness Report, partly thanks to rising satisfaction in the former East.

• Germany has recorded its lowest marriage rate since 1950, with fewer couples tying the knot than at any point in modern history.

• Mayor Wegner has criticized plans to make parts of Berlin car-free.

• GoVolta has launched direct trains from Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen to Amsterdam. Also, Munich’s public transit now shows real-time delay and departure data directly in Google Maps.

• A small German village is running almost entirely on its own renewable energy & Forbes takes a look at Rostock’s quiet sustainability journey.

• Alexander Skarsgård showed up in Berlin looking very pretty in purple. A touring comedian shares what he learned performing across Germany. Also, a painting that once shocked German society is returning to Berlin.

• A Berliner found her stolen bike listed for sale online, so the police arranged to meet the seller.

• Reminder: clocks spring forward in Germany next Sunday. You’ll lose an hour of sleep but gain an hour of evening daylight.

📈 Politics & Economy

• Germany is aiming to double its AI data centre capacity by 2030, part of a push to establish the country as a major player in AI infrastructure.

• Germany's taxpayer association is warning the coalition against raising the top income tax rate, calling it a "rotten compromise."

• Germany’s SCHUFA credit score system has launched a new, more transparent scoring method.

• The new German coalition wants to investigate potential food price gouging as the Iran conflict drives up energy costs.

• Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner may have lied twice about his crisis response during the January blackout.

• Volkswagen is pressing ahead with major job cuts despite a rebound in orders.

• The German government is planning to cut funding for 200 democracy-promotion projects in a major overhaul of its civic engagement programs.

• Instagram accounts are trivializing the Holocaust through memes, edits, and “aesthetic” content.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• A new study finds more than 1 in 3 people in Germany hold openly racist views, with with Black and Muslim residents reporting the highest rates of discrimination.

• Germany's Digital Minister warns AI will cause "dramatic job losses" across entire industries, and floats universal basic income as a potential cushion.

• Only 49% of employees in Germany are now covered by collective bargaining agreements. A historic low that continues a decades-long decline.

• Berlin has opened a Business Office in Bengaluru to help Berlin startups enter the Indian market and attract Indian companies and IT talent to the city. Meanwhile, Indian students are increasingly ending up exploited in Germany.

• Germany has launched a new "WE-Fair" alliance to promote ethical recruitment of skilled workers from abroad. YET … Berlin's Justice Senator says the city's positive action law to boost migrant representation in government jobs is "unconstitutional".

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Spring is here, so head to these 11 sunny café terraces across Berlin or check out the best waterfront restaurants in the city.

• Sicilian pizzeria Rasoterra has landed on Uhlandstraße, bringing contemporary-style pizza with artisan doughs and local Italian ingredients.

• A new book tells the story of everyday Berliners trying to stay decent (and alive) during WWII. Also, genetic testing has confirmed the skeleton in Magdeburg Cathedral almost certainly belongs to Otto the Great.

• The story of Osman Kalin, a Turkish guest worker who built a garden and hut beside the Berlin Wall. Now tended by his son, it will soon be a museum.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Skipping the usual personal updates to talk about an exciting opportunity: I don’t often talk about my day job, but my team at Flix is hiring and we need someone cool to join our group. Are you a skilled support engineer? If yes, please apply.

Note - I’ll only provide referrals to people I know personally, have worked with before, and feel confident recommending.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: How much German do you actually use at work?

Workplace language in Germany is a mixed bag. Just over half of you (55%) work fully in English, while others use a mix of German and English. For 16%, German is simply part of the job.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: Last week, we dug into how Checkpoint Charlie is getting a face lift (ideas welcome!), that Germans aren’t so into social media compared to our neighbours, Berlin rent stabilized (at least for now), and how much you need to live a dignified life in Deutschland. 👉 Read it.

• Most read: The most popular story was how a new Berlin S-Bahn line is launching on March 30. The S15 will connect Wedding into HBF. 👉 Read it.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Berlin Events)

• Mar 21–22: The Berlin Chocolate Festival is back at KOMPLEX, with 2 days of tastings, workshops, and international chocolate creations for kids, adults, and yes, dogs too. Just €5 a day. Free for under 16s.

• Mar 26: A full day of focused work in good company. That's the idea behind QueerNext's first co-working day at CIC Berlin. Bring your laptop, join a shared lunch, and be around like-minded people. €10 for a ticket.

• Mar 31: Who gets to shape tech? Women Techmakers Berlin is asking and answering. Lightning talks, honest conversation, and networking at Ojin AixHaus in Mitte. Free entry.

🍻 Apr 2: The Berlin Life is hosting a community mixer at BRLO Brwhouse in Schöneberg. A small, intimate crowd. Meet local people and expand your social circle. Eat good food and drink craft beer. €10, with the first drink included.

Register for the Event

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life as they happen.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• German CVs still expect a photo. Most countries banned that years ago. We get into why the tradition stuck, when you actually need one, and how to not tank your chances either way. 👉 Read it.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• The Ultimate Guide to German job Interviews

• Why Knowing Salary Ranges In Germany Is Essential

• German Climate Tech Startups Hiring Now

ℹ️ More where that came from. 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Nobody tells you about nebenan.de when you move to Germany, but they should. It's a verified neighbourhood network where you can find a trusted handy person, grab free furniture, and meet your neighbours.

• Recommend newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: Join me and over 500,000 users who love Getsafe. Sign up with my link and use code LVKL-HKMG to claim your gift.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

1) Delivery Hero (Multi-country food delivery) - Berlin | 68 jobs💡Principal product manager, data scientist, director - global payroll. Hybrid. English/

2) mrge (Commerce ad platform network) - Berlin & Hamburg | 3 jobs 💡Publisher account manager, senior manager - advertising/sales, working student - business development. Hybrid. DE &/or EN.

3) Slyce (Automated food delivery campaigns) - Berlin | 2 jobs 💡Senior data analyst & founder’s associate. English is fine, German a plus. Hybrid.

4) Voyfai (AI freight forwarding platform) - Berlin | 3 jobs 💡Senior manager - post merger integration, senior AI engineer, expansion manager. English.

5) Wonderful (AI agents for enterprises) - Berlin | 2 jobs💡Deployment strategist & forward deployed engineer. Onsite. German, C1. They recently raised €150 M, so follow their career page.

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, check out these 350+ Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

Last week, we saw 13 German startups in 8 locations bring in a reported €177 M in fresh new funding. These are the ones hiring right now:

1) AIRMO (End-to-end methane detection service) - €5 M | Berlin | 10 jobs 🚀 Senior embedded systems engineer, marketing intern, atmospheric scientist. DE &/or EN.

2) finperks (Gift card API aggregation platform) - €3.4 M | Berlin | 4 jobs 🚀 Inside sales manager/France, business development manager/France, junior business development manager/France. French/English. German a bonus. Hybrid, 80% in office.

3) heycare (Unified employee assistance platform) - €4 M | Höchstadt | 2 jobs 🚀 Accountant, sales development rep. EN/DE essential. Remote and/or in office.

4) Neuramancer (AI deepfake detection software) - €1.7 M | Rosenheim | 1 job 🚀 AI engineer. EN/DE. Hybrid.

5) Qdrant (Rust vector search platform) - $50 M | Berlin & remote in Germany/Europe | 9 jobs 🚀 Compliance officer, senior software engineer - cloud platform infrastructure, VP of cloud engineering. English and

6) RAYDIAX (Hybrid CT-angiography imaging system) - €7.5 M | Magdeburg | [#] jobs 🚀 No jobs atm

7) Remi Health (Digital sexual health clinic) - €3 M | Berlin | 5 jobs 🚀 Marketing manager, operations manager, executive assistant to the founder. DE/EN. Hybrid.

8) Seven Education (School management software platform) - €95 M | Berlin, Koblenz, Hamburg | 3 jobs 🚀 Senior acct manager, head of support, integration engineer. EN/DE. Hybrid.

9) Telura (Deep geothermal drilling technology) - €4 M | Munich | 2 jobs 🚀 VP of geothermal systems & field development & VP of subsurface & geomechanics. English is fine.

10) Tower (Multi-tenant data orchestration platform) - €5.5 M | Berlin | 10 jobs 🚀 Forward deployed engineer, technical writer, account executive. English.

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• The physical world is funding up and climate/deep tech money is flowing into things you can touch. Scientists and engineers with domain expertise are in demand in ways a prompt engineer isn't

• French speakers have a rare edge this week. finperks is hiring 3 France-facing roles from Berlin - French essential, German a bonus. Not a common ask in the German startup scene, and that scarcity works in your favour.

🫣 There’s more: Updated weekly, see the full list of 127 German startups that have received funding so far this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

• Asking about company culture in an interview almost always gets you a PR answer. Adam Grant has a better question and one that makes people tell you stories instead of slogans.

• Skip Canva. A clean, simple, text-based resume is still what hiring managers actually want. Forbes has the full breakdown on format, fonts, and page count.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Good to know about BER: the airport shuts down completely tomorrow, March 18, due to a Verdi strike. Also, this summer Ryanair is cutting several popular international routes from Berlin.

• Recent travel by train wins includes the Berlin night train to Paris launching March 26 and the Berlin-Hamburg line back online in June.

• Berlin students are taking the housing crisis into their own hands by converting an empty university building into apartments.

• Not everything in Berlin is broken, as the city is testing free period products in public buildings. It’s a genuinely good idea.

• 🐷 A Berlin boar went shopping, ignored a blowgun, and left on its own schedule.

📈 Politics & Economy

• One in eight people living in Germany reports having faced discrimination. DW breaks down where, how, and who is most affected, and the numbers are not reassuring.

• Nearly 24,000 German companies went under in 2025, which is the highest in over a decade. If your employer is a small or medium-sized business, this context matters.

• Germany was finally showing signs of economic recovery. Then the Iran conflict happened. Here's what it means for jobs, energy prices, and the outlook for 2026.

• The government has a plan for the fuel price crisis - stations can only raise prices once a day now. Some Germans are just driving to Poland instead.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• Keen to work alongside some influential women? Bookmark this list of Europe’s top 100 female founders and this list of 7 female founded startups in Germany.

• More than 7.7 M workers in Germany bring home less than €15 an hour, with women being especially affected. Related - the income divide between East and West Germany pervades, with “Westerners” earning an average €6,000 K more per year.

• Paywalled (but worth the subscription): 560,000 jobs need to be filled in Berlin by the year 2035, but which jobs will be in demand and which will fade. Berlin's Senate Skilled Labour Strategy 2035 sets out where the gaps will be and how the city plans to fill them.

• Research says German workers are checking out, costing the economy up to €142 billion in lost productivity. Problems are said to stem from poor leadership.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Ali Darwich, a gay Muslim influencer with Palestinian and Lebanese roots, opened his home for an inclusive Ramadan Iftar and AP took some joyous photos.

• 😂 A German tourist traveled to the US and tried some tacos. Despite eating not 1 but 3 tacos, he went on to sue the restaurant, claiming the tacos were way too spicy his bland taste buds.

• If you missed the Yayoi Kusama when it was in Berlin a few years back, head to Cologne’s Museum Ludwig. The exhibition is running until Aug 2026.

• You may still have a chance to see the Northern Lights in Germany this month. Look to the skies around March 21.

• Berlin to Dresden by bike just got an official route. File under ambitious weekend plans.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Finally sent off my Canadian passport application. About €200 to renew it from abroad … an unofficial foreigners tax nobody warns you about. Worth it, obviously but my wallet cries. 😭

I also tried a very unusual fusion spot in Berlin’s Kreuzberg, Antonello's Cevicheria & Street Food, where Sicilian meets Peruvian. I had some steak and a Pisco Sour and it was super good.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Would you stay in Germany long-term if you could work anywhere?

Oh, damn. Only 31% of you would stay in Germany without hesitation if you could work anywhere. The other 69% are somewhere between "still figuring it out" and already gone.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: Our last newsletter went into a lot, from how foreigners power Germany’s job market, to how Saxony is oddly considered one of the most welcoming regions on the planet, & how prevalent racism across Germany. 👉 Read it.

• Most read: A deep dive into what job applications actually need to look like in Germany in 2026, from CVs to cover letters to navigating AI screening. 👉 Read it.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Berlin Events)

• Every Thu: Meet new people over Belgian beers in Mitte. No agenda, just good conversation at Hermans. Free, except buy your own beer obv.

• Mar 18: Paint like Georgia O’Keeffe in F-HAIN in a watercolour session inspired by her bold florals and flowing forms. €27 for the class.

• Mar 24: Can games actually change how people think and work? This Friedrichshain meetup is finding out. Facilitators, designers, and the just-curious welcome. Free.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• Not seeing the right role listed? That's not the end of the road in Germany. This episode breaks down why cold applications are actually welcomed here - and how to send one that gets a response.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Before you quit, get promoted, or sign anything, read this. Notice periods in Germany are longer and more legally binding than most internationals expect.

• Just accepted a job offer in Germany? Read this first. Understanding how probation periods work here could save you a lot of confusion.

ℹ️ More where that came from. 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: If you have pets like me and want to have some of your furniture deep cleaned, I recently used Clean030. A family owned business operating in Berlin and Brandenburg, I highly recommend using their services. 🛌🏼

• Recommend newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: New to Germany and about to take your first FreeNow ride? Save 50% (up to €10) with referral code 4f7etyths.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

1) A Color Bright (Digital design studio) - Berlin | 1 job 💡Working student - CMS & email marketing. DE/EN skills required. Onsite.

2) Alpas AI (AI supplier sourcing software) - Berlin | 5 jobs 💡Account manager, senior AI engineer, solution engineer. EN &/or DE. Hybrid. If you’re up for a challenge, they offer a zero-boredom at work guarantee. 😅

3) HOLY (Sugar-free powder drinks) - Berlin, Munich, Bremen, Nuremberg, & remote. | 29 jobs 💡 Senior social media manager, legal council, junior video editor, and more. DE &/or EN. A nice office in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg, and flexible working hours.

4) Orbem (AI-powered MRI scanning) - Munich | 18 jobs 💡 Director of people & culture, supply chain manager, machine learning engineer. EN is cool. Home office allowed. They provide visa & relocation support.

5) PPRO (Cross-border payments localisation) - Berlin & Munich | 14 jobs 💡Engineering manager - cash flow, VP of engineering, senior software engineer positions. English working language. Hybrid. A pet friendly office.

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, see these Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

12 German startups. 7 cities. Around €1.2B in fresh funding. Not a bad week to say in the least. 🤯

1) cargo.one (AI freight rate management platform) - €17 M | Berlin | No jobs atm

2) Cellbox Solutions (Portable cell shipping incubators) - €3.5 M | Cologne | No jobs atm

3) Diligent AI (AI compliance automation agents) - €2.1 M | Berlin & London | No jobs in Berlin atm

4) DivTax (Automated dividend tax reclamation) - €1 M | Hamburg | 2 jobs 🚀 Founders associate positions for growth/GTM and product/finance. Office first. EN is sufficient.

5) Emproof (Embedded software protection platform) - Undisclosed | Bochum | 1 job 🚀 Head of sales. Hybrid. EN/DE skills required.

6) Flink (Instant grocery delivery service) - $100 M | Berlin mostly & across DE | 81 jobs 🚀 Senior analytics engineer, product analyst, paid media manager. EN &/or DE - role dependent. Hybrid.

7) Glitter Spritz (Sparkling aperitivo beverage brand) - Undisclosed | Berlin | 3 jobs 🚀 Jr sales manager, sales manager - B2B & telesales, sales & business dev internship. German. Hybrid. Free quarterly drinks worth €175.

8) Lio (Agentic AI procurement system) - $30 M | Munich | 33 jobs 🚀 Events marketing manager, AI implementation manager, head of engineering. English. Onsite.

9) Minit Games (TikTok-style instant gaming app) - €1.7 M | Hamburg | No jobs atm

10) Neura Robotics (Cognitive humanoid robotics platform) - €1 B | Metzingen & Munich mainly | 107 jobs 🚀 CEO Office intern, teleoperation software engineer – NEURAGym, junior manager M&A. EN &/or DE. Onsite.

11) Noxon (Non-invasive muscle-computer interface) - Undisclosed | Munich | 7 jobs 🚀 Regulatory affairs manager, applied machine learning engineer, and electrical engineer PCB design. EN &/or DE needed. Onsite.

12) UniverCell (Custom battery cell gigafactory) - €30 M | Flintbek | 7 jobs 🚀 HR administrator, process engineer - cell manufacturing, mechatronics maintenance technician. DE crucial. Onsite.

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• AI is getting sector-specific. cargo.one, Lio, and Diligent AI are using AI to go deep into freight, procurement, & compliance. Domain knowledge, plus technical skills is gold.

• Noxon raised an undisclosed round for a muscle-computer interface. Frontier tech, quiet raise, and no jobs just yet. Follow their journey if it sounds interesting to you.

• Neura Robotics raised €1B and is hiring 107 people … in Metzingen. If you've been waiting to join a generational company early, this could be the one. Just be ready to leave Berlin.

🫣 There’s more: Updated weekly, check out these 114 German startups that have received funding so far this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

Not your average job board: Calibre Careers is where creative and luxury brands post roles, including jobs in Germany.

Unsure where to start your job search in Germany? I built a guide with 100+ resources covering tech, startups, creative, healthcare, hospitality, public service, and job boards designed specifically for foreigners.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Good news if you live in Berlin's southeast. The S15 launches March 30.

• Telekom and SpaceX have announced a partnership to expand satellite internet coverage across Germany. 😒

• Checkpoint Charlie is getting a redesign, and Berlin wants your ideas on how to make it more historically meaningful and less of a tourist trap.

• Tresor just became Berlin's first club with lockers … a not so shiny upgrade that lands a little differently after recent layoffs.

• Endometriosis is finally getting attention in Germany, as hospital treatments are up 50% since 2014.

• Turns out Germans are not big on social media with 59% using it, compared to 90% in Denmark.

• You’ll soon need to pay to enter the cathedral in Cologne.

📈 Politics & Economy

• Freedom of speech is under threat: 3 Berlin bookstores were excluded from a bookshop prize for being “too left”. The Berlinale director almost lost her job for showing Palestinian content. Many writers left The Berliner due to their editorial policy to limit Palestinian voices.

• Our least favourite billionaire threats to Berlin’s Gigafactory staff paid off, as the union failed to win control of the works council. IG Metall accused Tesla of interfering in the election.

• Google opened an AI center in Berlin, while Siemens is planning to build a “factory of the future”, while Schwarz Digits (Lidl’s parent company!) is pushing to become Europe’s go-to cloud provider.

• Change is needed to help working women: The spousal tax system is keeping married women in PT work, costing the economy 175,000 potential FT jobs.

• If you're renting in Berlin, a rare silver lining: asking rents are finally stabilising, but remain painfully high. Also, 25% of the German population do not have any savings.

• German students continue to protest military build-up, while conscription is looking likely. Workers at a factory in Berlin’s Wedding are also unhappy to be making munitions.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• 1 in 3 EU immigrants are thinking of leaving Germany. An analysis as to why internationals leave after 5-10 years in the country. Perhaps it’s due to high levels of discrimination.

• To exacerbate the problem, the AfD light CDU wants to tighten the rules around getting German citizenship, with stricter language and income requirements.

• Related: The AfD recently published a demand on their website for all immigrants to speak “fluid German” in order to get citizenship. 🤡

• If you’re wondering why FT roles feel harder to find, PT employment just hit a record 39.9% of the German workforce.

• In this age of massive layoffs, it’s essential to know your employee rights in Germany. Read this guide before you sign any termination agreement.

• How much do you need to live a dignified life in Germany? A recent study confirms at least €2000 net / month.

• Nearly 1 in 4 workers in Deutschland work from home.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Important to see and experience in Berlin: a Ukrainian museum opened inside a WWII air raid bunker, and DW followed the traces of German colonial history across the city.

• German winemakers are considering ditching plastic bottles for glass. Germany also grew a record-breaking amount of vegetables in 2025, and the onions alone are thriving.

• Slay! Someone built a website where you can bet on how late your Deutsche Bahn train will be.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

Spring is finally here. Did you enjoy the warm weather & sunshine this weekend? I did, by having a last brunch at Hallesches Haus. The 2 for 1 mimosa special helped keep the sadness about their café closure at bay.

Before we dive in, I saw this on Threads: She Belongs Abroad is looking for 3 ambitious international women in Germany to share their story on her podcast. If that's you, send her a DM.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: How secure do you feel in your job in Germany right now?

Turns out it’s not just me. Only 16% of you feel secure in your job in Germany right now. The other 84% are somewhere between nervous and already updating their CV.

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: 94% of Berlin rents are illegal, Germany has a lot of billionaires, why Germany can't build things on time, IT salaries are climbing, & strong opinions about how men should pee. 👉 Read it.

• Most read: A major S-Bahn tunnel extension means the Straße des 17 Juni is closing for years. The district's response? Make it a play street. 👉 Read it.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

• Mar 3: Catan, Cards Against Humanity, cold beer, strangers who become friends. Board Gaming Happens is free and exactly what midweek in Berlin should look like.

• Mar 7: For International Women's Day, Outrun The Patriarchy is a 6 KM protest run through Berlin. Free, open to everyone, all paces welcome.

• Mar 19: No phones, small talk pressure, doom-scrolling. The Offline Club is a phone-free afterwork hangout in Berlin. Think books, people, & a soft drink. €8.50.

💖 Shoutout: New to Berlin? 4some is a social app that matches groups of 4 to go do things together, built by internationals who get it. They're looking for women in their 20s-30s to try it out.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• If you've ever struggled to quantify your impact at work, this episode is for you. Your accomplishments are CV-worthy even without the numbers.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Nobody tells you about mail forwarding when you move here. Or where to actually shop on Sundays in Berlin. Or which Berlin blogs are worth your time. We did. 😏

ℹ️ More where that came from. 60+ guides on living and working in Germany.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: Check out these five rental market realities that internationals don’t expect when they move to Germany.

• Recommend newsletters: 20% Berlin.

• Weekly deals: Spoiler alert. Contents insurance in Germany is worth having. GetSafe is what I use and they're fast when it counts. Get €15 off your first policy with my link.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

1) ABOUT YOU (Online fashion retail platform) - Berlin & Hamburg | 90 jobs 💡 Working student onsite content, head of engineering, senior buyer. Hybrid & offsite, role dependent. Mostly English.

2) DeepL (AI-powered translation software) - Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, & Munich | 50 jobs 💡Forward deployed engineer, field marketing specialist, research scientist. Hybrid, with some remote roles. English is fine for most roles.

3) RobCo (AI-powered modular robotics) - Munich | 8 jobs 💡Principal concept engineer - pre-sales robotics solutions, head of people & culture, senior enterprise account exec. Hybrid. DE & EN skills required.

4) smartclip (TV ad-tech platform) - Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne | 10 jobs 💡Data engineer - AI, business product manager - data products, UI engineer. Mostly remote. German is a must have.

5) Spaceteams (Custom software development agency) - Hamburg | 2 jobs 💡Senior software engineer, agile product & team coach. Mostly remote. EN & DE skills essential.

Volunteer: Want to add "shaped European politics with good design" to your portfolio? Volt Europa is looking for a volunteer graphic designer for their digital communications team.

Attention Designers: A brand designer role just landed at Notabag in Frankfurt via Design Made in Germany, a dedicated job board for designers across Germany worth keeping on your radar.

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, see these Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

A busy week for German venture capital: 13 newly funded startups spread across 8 cities, pulled in a combined reported €94 M.

1) Ark Climate (Municipal climate management platform) - €2.1 M | Munich | 6 jobs 🚀 Customer success & product lead, GTM intern, consulting intern. Onsite. DE & EN skills.

2) Avelios Medical (AI hospital operating system) - Undisclosed | Munich | 45 jobs 🚀 Automated software tester, senior accounting manager, office manager. EN & DE a must. Onsite.

3) Benefits-Manager (Tax-optimized employee benefits system) - €500 K | Magdeburg | No jobs atm.

4) Einklang (Battery-as-a-Service for industry) - €2.2 M | Cologne | 1 job 🚀 Junior sales manager. German required, EN a plus. In office.

5) FLEXOO (Printed electronics contract manufacturing) - €11 M | Heidelberg | 7 jobs 🚀 AI engineer, head of printing ops, HR generalist. EN &/or DE. Hybrid.

6) Foodforecast (AI food demand forecasting) - €8 M | Cologne & Berlin | 2 jobs 🚀 Customer service consultant, Ruby developer. Remote. EN, Dutch, and/or German needed.

7) ISPTech (Safer spacecraft propulsion systems) - €5.5 M | Ludwigsburg | 6 jobs 🚀 Project manager, propulsion engineer, technician MAIT. EN &/or DE. Onsite.

8) Oska (Chronic disease telehealth coaching) - €11 M | Meerbusch | 5 jobs 🚀 Full-stack AI engineer, senior full-stack TS engineer, acct exec. EN &/or DE. Remote work.

9) Secfix (Automated security compliance platform) - $12 M | Munich | 6 jobs 🚀 Sr product engineer, acct exec mid-market, info security specialist. DE required for all but one role. Remote work.

10) Tytan Technologies (Autonomous counter-drone interceptors) - €30 M | Munich | 23 jobs 🚀 Contracts & bid manager, technical ops engineer, drone technician. DE &/or EN. In office.

11) VoiceLine (Voice-activated sales AI assistant) - €10 M | Munich | 16 jobs 🚀 IT project manager, talent acquisition partner, head of sales. En &/or DE. Hybrid.

12) YOU(th) (Smartphone preventive health monitoring) - $4.5 M | Berlin & Munich | 5 jobs 🚀 Medical product manager, sr product designer, data scientist - all founding roles. Onsite, very generous salaries. EN.

13) Zahnheld (Affordable sonic toothbrush company) - Undisclosed | Biberach | No jobs atm.

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Defence tech is producing more jobs than almost anything else right now. i.e. The defence industry around Lake Constance is growing fast.

• Healthcare is also hot. Three of this week's raises are in health tech. If you're in product, engineering, or clinical roles, health tech deserves a second look.

• Deep tech pays, but you need to be willing to go onsite. ISPTech, FLEXOO, & Tytan all raised this week and are all hiring onsite only. The roles are niche and well-funded.

🫣 There’s more: Updated weekly, check out these 99 German startups that have received funding so far this year.

Get Work at a Startup

Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

Frequent job changes in Germany don't have to be a red flag. This guide covers how to own your story - from what to cut from your CV to how to answer the "why did you leave" question without over-explaining.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• March just dropped changes that directly affect you. Here's what's new. Also: the TV tax is likely rising in 2027.

• Saxony (yes, that Saxony) has been named one of the most welcoming regions on earth. Make of that what you will.

• In Germany, saying yes on the phone or at the door can be enough to lock you into a legally binding contract.

• Germany has nearly closed the digital gap. Just 3% of the population is now offline (a record low).

• The future is here. BMW is putting humanoid robots on its German production floor and Tesla wants robotaxis and robots across Europe.

• Content we’re all here for … German tourists on a floating sauna accidentally drifted onto an ice floe in Sweden and had to be rescued by authorities.

📈 Politics & Economy

• A landmark study just confirmed what we already knew. Institutional racism is present in virtually every German authority like, BAMF, the job center, police, customs.

• A CDU minister wants to legally track the phones of people facing deportation. This is the proposal and it's already being compared to ICE tactics in the US.

• Musk vs German labour rights: He's threatening to freeze Giga Berlin over the union vote, and separately settled a recording row with IG Metall.

• German police confirmed that calling the chancellor "Pinocchio" is not a criminal offence. Meanwhile, men in the Landtag listen less when female colleagues have the floor. 🤔

• Germany is still the world's third largest economy, but personal insolvencies just topped 107,000.

• Germany is still Europe’s biggest cash holdout. You already knew this but now there's data to back it up.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• If you're job hunting in the startup space, this Sifted list of 10 German soonicorns is worth bookmarking.

• Germany's workforce growth is now entirely driven by foreign workers.

• Your money went further in Germany last year. Real wages rose for the second year running.

• If you're still writing your CV and cover letter the old way, this Zeit piece is worth reading. AI is reshaping how Germans apply for jobs and what recruiters now expect.

• Women in Germany still earn significantly less than men, but new EU pay transparency laws mean less salary secrecy.

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Waffles among tombstones ... cemetery cafes are quietly taking over Berlin. Hmmm. Co-working space or German restaurant?

• You may have walked past it a hundred times. The Berliner Dom's massive royal crypt is finally open again after 6 years of renovation.

• Here's what's on in Berlin this month and 5 ways to actually make the most of the season in Germany.

🫣 Sometimes I’ll overshare and/or rant a bit.

How safe does your job in Germany feel right now? That’s been on my mind a lot lately. A bad economy, the rise of the right in Germany who would deport immigrants in a heartbeat, AI taking over everything. I’m struggling to see my future, career-wise and life-wise. I’m also struggling to keep The Berlin Life and everything we’ve built relevant against this complicated, frequently volatile backdrop.

😬 I don’t have the answers yet. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. But if you do, reply to this email. I read every one.

Follow me: Threads / Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube

Sound Off: Your Take on Germany

📊 Results of our weekly polls.

⁉️ Our last poll asked: Which German dating cliché would make you run?

Nearly half of you would bolt if your date showed up early and had opinions. Punctuality as a personality trait is apparently a hard no. 😆

🫂 Take part in this week’s poll.

🧑🏼‍🤝‍🧑🏽 Connect with others: Let’s talk about it as a group. Join our chat on Substack.

Community Stuff

🤝 News from our community.

📩 Newsletter Business

• ICYMI: Germany's healthcare system cracking under pressure, why nearly half of people fail the driving theory test, the digital euro explained, & 6 job trends reshaping 2026. 👉 Read it.

• Most read: Readers were very curious about which nationalities scoop up the most EU Blue Cards. 👉 Read it.

🗓️ Our Events (+ Other Events)

• Every Wed: Stories, poetry, and a glass of wine in Kreuzberg. Creative Writing & Wine is a low-key weekly night for anyone who likes words. €17.

• Feb 24: Berlin is genuinely the worst city to practice German. This meetup at BrewDog Mitte is trying to fix that. All levels, free entry. Buy a drink.

• Feb 26: Tired of "so, what do you do?" F*ck the Small Talk is a facilitated night of interesting conversation with strangers. €15-18.

📅 Subscribe to our calendar to receive event alerts from The Berlin Life.

🎙️ Our (Occasional) Podcast

• A career coach (hi, it's me) breaking down how to actually find work in Germany from language barriers, high-demand professions, and a smarter approach to job searching. 👂🏼Listen.

🔊 Featured Germany Life Guide(s)

• Popular guides on our website that people actually use: English cinema in Berlin, best language schools, and how to save money in Germany.

ℹ️ We’ve got 60+ more guides covering the stuff nobody tells you when you move here.

Germany Life Hacks

🥨 Things to make life in Deutschland (a little bit) better.

• Hot tip: 🚿 If the hard water in Berlin is destroying your skin and hair, try Hello Klean. Over the past year that I’ve been using their filtered shower head, I’ve seen big improvements. The increased water pressure is also a bonus.

• Recommend newsletters: 20% Berlin & Smart Living in Germany.

• Weekly deals: New to Germany and about to take your first FreeNow ride? Save 50% (up to €10) with referral code 4f7etyths.

Companies Hiring Right Now

🇩🇪 5 German companies hiring right now.

1. FRATCH (AI freelancer recruiting platform) - Berlin | 1 job 💡Interim staff product manager. EN is sufficient.

2. Kolibri Games (Mobile games developer) - Berlin | 5 jobs 💡Game data analyst, game economy designer, user acquisition manager. EN is cool. Hybrid. They help internationals with relocation.

3. OpenAI (AI models/chatbots, ChatGPT) - Munich | 12 jobs 💡AI success engineer, forward deployed engineer, software engineer encryption. DE &/or EN. Hybrid. Generous salaries, a name brand company, but potentially insane founder.

4. Thermondo (Home heating installation service) - Berlin & Germany wide | 172 jobs 💡 CFO, junior paid search manager, technical field service rep. EN &/or DE. Hybrid. 148 of the jobs are for skilled trades people. Perhaps time to shift careers?

5. WaveSix (AI transformation consultancy) - Berlin | 3 jobs💡Lead AI engineer, AI engineer workflows & agents, AI strategy consultant. EN & DE a must. Hybrid.

👋🏼 Don’t miss out: Updated weekly, see these Berlin companies hiring right now.

Find a Job in Berlin

Recently Funded Startups

🤑 German startups that recently raised new funding.

📊 Weekly Snapshot

The past week brought us 12 newly funded startups scattered across 6 German cities, collectively raising around €43M. Here's the breakdown:

1. bitsurance (Insure self-custodied Bitcoin wallets) - Undisclosed | Hildesheim | No jobs atm

2. Clarait (Automate labor law compliance) - Undisclosed | Leipzig | 7 jobs 🚀 Customer success manager & support, web developer - full-stack, senior marketing manager. Hybrid. EN &/or DE. Salaries are listed for all roles.

3. Cognee (Self-improving AI knowledge graphs) - $7.5 M | Berlin | 4 jobs 🚀 Founders associate, principal engineer, platform engineer. EN fluency needed. A cool office in Kreuzberg with free lunches.

4. Custom Surgical (Smartphone surgical microscope adapters) - €3.5 M | Munich | 6 jobs 🚀 UI/UX product designer, senior AI/ML engineer, Key account manager, DACH. EN &/or DE. In office preferred. Salaries are posted with some of the jobs, but are on the low side.

5. ewigbyte (Laser-engraved eternal data storage) - €1.6 M | Munich | No jobs atm

6. happyhotel (Automated hotel dynamic pricing) - €6.5 M | Offenburg & Munich | 21 jobs 🚀 Head of marketing, ML engineer, senior revenue manager. EN & DE. Hybrid.

7. HeyCharge (Offline EV charging platform) - €2.5 M | Munich | 9 jobs 🚀 Head of engineering, executive asst, working student - project mgmt. EN &/or DE. A small 20 employee company, where you can make an impact.

8. nuuEnergy (Full-service heat pump provider) - €4.3 M | Munich, Hamburg, Cologne | 12 jobs 🚀 Senior growth marketer, head of operations, in-house sales manager. German needed. Hybrid.

9. Plato (AI wholesale sales intelligence) - €12.2 M | Berlin | 12 jobs 🚀 Account exec, senior data scientist, full-stack Typescript product engineer. EN &/or DE. Onsite.

10. Sitegeist (Automated construction site robotics) - €4 M | Munich | 4 jobs 🚀 Electrical engineer, robotics software engineer, safety engineer. EN &/or DE. Onsite

11. Stark Defense (Rapid European defense systems) - Undisclosed | Berlin, Munich, & remote | 71 jobs 🚀 Senior talent acquisition manager, system admin, events & marketing manager. EN &/or DE. Mostly onsite.

12. Umlaut.bio (Target cancer tRNA modifications) - €3 M | Heidelberg | No jobs atm

🧐 Key Insights

What this week’s funding rounds tell us:

• Plato and Cognee are the standout raises, and both are hiring in Berlin. Early-stage, well-backed, and moving fast. Worth a look if you’re in sales or engineering.

• Stark Defence just hit unicorn status and plans to double its headcount in 2026. Defence tech is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Germany right now.

🫣 There’s more: Updated weekly, check out these 86 German startups that have received funding so far this year.

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Job Search/ Work Life Tips

🙌 Weekly career tips to keep you sane in Germany.

Cold outreach doesn't work here. LinkedIn feels hollow. LinkUsUp is a curated professional network built specifically for people navigating Germany. €7/month.

News in Germany

🗞️ The inside scoop on what’s happening in Germany.

ℹ️ General

• Germany is objectively the 8th best country to live in and 1 in 5 homes here speaks another language.

• A nation of very specific priorities. Most Germans say kids are unaffordable and one in five are turning down free fibre broadband. Berlin is closing a main road for years to build a play street.

• The Berliner Dom is free this Friday, tourist numbers are quietly dipping, and most Wall fragments tourists buy are fake.

📈 Politics & Economy

• A new Berlin audit found 94% of rental contracts illegal, and a new law is finally targeting the furnished apartment loophole too.

• Germany in 2026: 172 billionaires, 1.9 million educated people at poverty risk, and 40% of Germans afraid of social decline.

• Germany's famously painful tax return gets a one-click option in July for 11.5 million taxpayers.

• Only 60% of Germans think democracy is actually working. A Bundesliga club won't go to the US over ICE fears.

• Climate anxiety dropped from 51% to 33%, menopause costs Germany €9.5B annually with employers doing nothing, yet individual giving hit a record.

👩‍⚕️ Immigration & Labour Developments

• A proposed change from a 6-month to 3-month work ban for asylum seekers is one of the most practical and sensible labour policy shifts in years.

• Half of Ukrainian refugees found work in Germany within 3.5 years, yet BAMF just froze the integration courses that helped make that happen.

• The skills shortage is at its lowest since 2021 but IT salaries are still climbing, which means the job market is rewarding specialists and thinning out for everyone else.

• Politicians want a 48-hour workweek but 73% of workers disagree and 83% prefer four days, so someone in this equation is deeply confused. 🤨

💃🏻 Fun, Interesting, Thoughtful, and/or Useful

• Leaving Germany doesn't mean losing everything. How to claim your pension contributions back. It's a lot more cash than you think.

• No joke. Germany has strong opinions about how men should pee.

• Leipzig keeps outdoing itself, as this Oscar Niemeyer sphere might be the most weird and beautiful restaurant you’ll ever dine in.

• Remember building BER? Germany can't build anything on time or budget … the uncomfortable reason why.