What’s new in Berlin
Public holidays
April 3 is Good Friday (Karfreitag) and April 6 is Easter Monday (Ostermontag). Enjoy your 4-day weekend! If you would normally work on those days, you get a paid day off.
Cherry blossom
The cherry blossom has already begun. In 1990, Japanese television station TV Asahi donated 10,000 cherry trees to celebrate German reunification.1 Many were planted where the Berlin wall once stood, including on the TV-Asahi-Kirschblütenallee in Teltow.
Map of cherry blossom locations
Bärlauch season
Every year in April, you start to see wild garlic (Bärlauch) sprout in Berlin’s parks. You can pick a small amount for personal use. It’s great in an omelette, but can also be used in soups, pestos, herb butter and Spätzle.
Picking and cooking with Bärlauch (in German)
What’s new on All About Berlin
Immigration office wait times
Since October 2024, I collect feedback about immigration office wait times. We now have over 1,300 responses! No one – not even the immigration office – had such data before. This information lets you plan around Ausländerbehörde delays.
In March, I have redesigned the feedback page. It’s less cluttered, and it combines residence permit and citizenship feedback.
Pull requests welcome
Since last month, All About Berlin’s entire source code is public. I have already merged contributions from Ladislav, Nimrod, Adi, Precious and Tobias. I’m really grateful for all the help.
If you can’t contribute changes, you can also donate €10 to support my work.
Insurance updates
I have revisited two insurance guides. The new guides are shorter, clearer and more nuanced.
Here’s the short version:
- Legal insurance
Personally, I don’t have it, but it’s useful for immigrants. Landlords and employers often take advantage of immigrants. If you don’t speak German and you don’t understand the system, it’s hard to defend yourself. Legal insurance covers the cost of getting legal advice, suing someone, and going to court. If push comes to shove, you can let your lawyer loose and not worry about the costs. My expert recommends ARAG’s legal insurance. Finanztip and Check24 agree. - Liability insurance
It’s the most important insurance after health insurance. It’s the only optional insurance I have, besides those included with my credit card. My expert recommends Feather.
Since 2025, I prefer curation to aggregation. I pick winning products instead of listing a million options. It can make some guides sound like a sales pitch, but those recommendations are genuine and backed by independent experts.
New guides page
I have redesigned the guides page. It uses shorter titles and clearer categories to make guides easier to find.
What I learned this month
The right to work less
In Germany, you have the right to reduce your work hours. If your company has at least 15 employees, and you have worked there for at least 6 months, you can choose to work less. Usually, this change is permanent, but at larger companies, temporary reductions are also possible.
Your employer can only refuse if it seriously disadvantages the company. Most of the time, they are forced to accept. They cannot punish you or disadvantage you for it.
My updated sabbatical leave guide explains how to reduce your hours.
Private ADHD diagnosis
It’s really hard to get an ADHD diagnosis with public health insurance, but you can get a diagnosis from a private psychiatrist. You must pay around €200 out of pocket, but it really speeds things up. Once you have the diagnosis, your insurer pays for your medication. I have confirmed this with an expert.
My completely rewritten ADHD guide explains how this works.
The Bahn app rocks
The unofficial Bahn app does not do anything special, but it’s really good at clearly displaying train timetables. It’s better than the official app in many subtle ways, and I strongly recommend it.
Interesting links
Someone created a website to gamble fake money on real Deutsche Bahn delays. Users have already placed over 150,000 bets.