October is goldener Herbst. Yes, the days get shorter, but we get crisp autumn days, orange leaves, mushroom picking, Kartoffelsuppe and tea. It’s a fair trade.
What’s new in Berlin
End of summer time
Clocks fall an hour behind on the last Sunday of October, then spring an hour forward on the last Sunday of March.3
At 3:00 on the night of October 24 to 25, you must set your clocks back one hour. You will get an extra hour of sleep, but the sun will set at 17:00. Ouch.
Cyberattacks and data breach
Last August, a group of hackers stole 5.8 terabytes of data from Berlin’s city government. When Berlin refused to pay a 2 million euro ransom, the hackers leaked the data on the dark web. The government is still figuring out what data was leaked.
Deutsche Welle and I Am Expat have good summaries of what happened.
S-Bahn alcohol bahn
Starting October 15, alcohol will be banned in all Deutsche Bahn stations.4 The ban has started earlier at Zoo, Ostbahnhof, Hauptbahnhof and Gesundbrunnen, although alcohol is still sold there. Alcohol is still permitted in BVG stations.5
Is this the end of the Faustmolle? Probably not. Eating and drinking on the U-Bahn is not allowed, and neither is smoking on train platforms, but that has not stopped anyone.6
Berlin events in October
- German Unity Day (October 3) – Usually a public holiday in Berlin, but it falls on a Sunday
- Open Mosque Day (October 3) – Consider the Sehitlik mosque
- Club Culture Day (October 3-11)
- Berlin Food Week (October 5-11)
- Festival of Lights (October 9-18)
- End of summer time (October 25)
What’s new in Germany
Elections in Berlin and Saxony
In September, Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had their state elections. Only German citizens could vote.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the far-right, anti-immigrant AfD party has earned a staggering 43.8% of the vote, up from 20.8% in 2021.8 It was a crushing loss for the centre-right CDU, which got 17.2% of the vote, down from 37.1% in 2021. The voter turnout was a record 77.8%.9
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, same result. The AfD gained 38.2% of the vote, up from 16.7% in 2021. The voter turnout was 78.1%.
In Berlin, Die Linke has won the election with 25.7% of the vote, with the CDU and AfD coming second and third. Here too, the AfD had significant gains, and the CDU significant losses.7 The voter turnout was 74.2%.
Return of the Tankrabatt
The Tankrabatt reduced the price of gas by around €0.17 per litre. It ended on June 30 and will return on October 1 in response to record-high fuel prices.
Jugendwort des Jahres
Every year, Germans vote on the Jugendwort des Jahres. This year’s finalists have been further narrowed down to “ragebait”, “peak” and “crashout”. Vote for your favourite.
There was some controversy over the exclusion of “Mehrzweckeier”. The term is a play on “Merz leck Eier” (Merz lick balls). It comes from a protest sign against Friedrich Merz that went viral and got turned into a song.10
On my radar
What’s new on All About Berlin
9 years!
All About Berlin has turned 9 years old on September 20. I am so grateful for your continued support throughout the years, and I’m looking forward to another year of supporting immigrants in Berlin.
Forum update
The forum is really coming together! Signing up, posting and replying work. I am now working on email notifications. I’m hoping that it will go live in November or December.
Search
A good forum requires a good search function. I have implemented a snappy, effective full-site search. It returns results from the content and the forum. It will go live along with the forum.
Guide updates
I have rewritten my “Steuerberater vs Buchhalter” guide based on feedback from Johann Degraf. The new version is clearer and gives better advice.
I am still working on my incorporation guide. The many founders I have spoken with seem traumatized by their experience. Founding a GmbH is a showcase of everything wrong with German bureaucracy: it’s slow, it’s paper-based, and it requires hiring expensive and hard-to-find experts. The reward is paying half a dozen new taxes and fees just for existing, and an extra serving of paperwork.
I can’t prevent that, but I can prepare you for it.
What I learned this month
New freelance visa requirements
The Berlin immigration office now requires a 5-year revenue forecast when renewing a freelance visa. It’s not mentioned on the information page, and there is no description of what this document should look like. I will update my freelance visa renewal guide when I have more information.
If you know something about this document, email me.
Subletting gotchas
I have found a tenant for my apartment while I travel. Two very important lessons:
- You need your landlord’s permission
Failing to do that can get you kicked out.2 If you sublet the whole apartment, the landlord can refuse, and there is nothing you can do about it.1 You don’t need permission to sublet to your spouse, parents or children. - Fixed-term leases can be invalid
By default, German leases are unlimited. If you don’t specify why a lease has an end-date, the clause is invalid, and the contract becomes unlimited. I wrote a bit about it in my housing scams guide.
There is a lot more I would like to share about subletting. I am gathering notes for a future guide.
Reminders
If you want to switch to private health insurance before the 2027 public health insurance price increase, do it before September 30 to beat the notice period.
Don’t blindly switch to private. It can be a really bad idea, even when the numbers look good. Ask my insurance guy about it. He has convinced many of my readers to keep their public health insurance.
Sources and footnotes
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You are entitled to sublet your whole apartment if there is a “legitimate interest”, but subletting while you are on vacation does not count as legitimate interest. ⤴
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Berliner Mieterverein (2020) ⤴