The Reforms That Make Me Question Staying in Germany
Sick notes from day one, 4-year contracts, easier dismissals. Breathe, as none of it is law yet.
Personal News & Musings
🫣 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.
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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:
Black Forest Labs (Leading AI image generation models)
Freiburg | 13 jobsForward-deployed robotics engineer, commercial counsel, senior partnerships manager.
🇬🇧 | Hybrid —> They help with relocation.
deepset (Enterprise AI application development platform)
Berlin | 3 jobs
Value engineer, site reliability engineer, growth marketing lead.
🇬🇧 | Remote-firstLangdock (Enterprise AI workspace, GDPR-compliant)
Berlin | 13 jobsProduct marketing, platform engineer, AI adoption engineer.
🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite —> Very decent salaries.n8n (AI-powered workflow automation)
Berlin | 22 jobs
Director of engineering, senior product designer, deployment strategist.
🇬🇧 mainly | Remote-firstPeec 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.
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:
Fusion Bionic (Laser surface texturing technology) - €5.8 M
Dresden | 2 jobs
Project manager, electronics technician.
🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | OnsiteNomerra (AI for private-market operations) - $2 M
Berlin | 5 jobs
Founding engineer, backend engineer, product development intern.
🇬🇧 | OnsiteTheo (Property management service) - €25 M
Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, + | 22 jobs
Product engineer, property manager, client acquisition lead.
🇩🇪 & 🇬🇧 | HybridQuantum Systems (Multi-domain autonomous defence systems) - €1 B
Gilching, Berlin, Munich + | 125 jobs
Training operations manager, flight test engineer, head of controlling.
🇩🇪 &/or 🇬🇧 | Onsite mainlySophia (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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
🤩 Exciting news: I'm building a women and FLINTA professional network, with dinners, casual meetups, and workshops in the works, and the people on this list will be first to know when events go live.
If that's you, add your name to the list.
📅 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.
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Germany is leaderless.
If this does not change soon and drastically there is no hopez
In the big picture, these are baby reforms that won't make much difference either way.