🌧️ Guten Morgen, Berlin!
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Chance of Rain: 28%
Sunrise: 6:46 AM | Sunset: 7:14 PM
Here’s your quick update on what’s happening around the city on Thursday, September 18 - from urgent alerts to stories in the subreddit. Today we went through 100+ articles, posts and events so you don't have to.
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🇩🇪 Aerial bomb found in Spandau - when it will be defused
Workers in Berlin’s Spandau district uncovered a 100-kilogram World War II aerial bomb on Neuendorfer Straße, with disposal scheduled for Friday, Sept. 19.
Unexploded wartime ordnance remains common in German cities and routinely prompts evacuations during controlled defusings. The site lies near a hospital and the Altstadt harbor, raising potential disruption.
Police will establish a 500-meter exclusion zone for the operation; residents, the nearby Vivantes hospital, and businesses should expect evacuations and traffic closures. (Berliner Morgenpost, 1 minute read)
🇩🇪 Bus and train travel in Berlin and Brandenburg to become more expensive from January
The Berlin-Brandenburg public transport association announced an average 6% fare increase, including raising Berlin’s discounted social ticket to about €27 per month.
The move comes amid rider complaints about unreliable service, infrequent buses, and crowded trains. Operators cite higher labor, energy, and fleet costs, while critics warn price hikes without service improvements could hinder efforts to shift trips from cars to public transit.
Agencies will detail implementation timelines and updated ticket options in the coming months, and officials will watch ridership trends, fare evasion, and affordability impacts. (rbb24, 6 minute read)
🇩🇪 On Berlin's roads by 2035: BVG wants to deploy hundreds of autonomous buses
Berlin’s transit operator BVG will deploy hundreds of autonomous buses over the next decade and has formed an alliance with Munich’s MVG and Hamburg’s Hochbahn, the three companies said Wednesday.
The partnership aims to accelerate development and rollout of self-driving public transit in major German cities, signaling a coordinated push by urban transport agencies. It reflects BVG chief Henrik Falk’s view that autonomy is the future of local transit.
The alliance will coordinate pilots, procurement, and regulatory steps, with initial test routes and deployment timelines expected as projects roll out over the coming years. (Tagesspiegel, 1 minute read)
⚡ Quick Hits
🇩🇪 Price for Berlin social ticket to rise to 27.50 euros from January (rbb24, 2 minute read)
🇬🇧 Life in Germany: Free universities and paid vacations? (Deutsche Welle (DW), 3 minute read)
🇬🇧 Groundbreaking ceremony for new centre for gene and cell therapy (berlin.de, 2 minute read)
🇩🇪 Germany ticket to become more expensive: Put on another record! (Berliner Zeitung, 5 minute read)
🇩🇪 Berlin saves at the checkout: How inflation turns shopping into a luxury (Berliner Zeitung, 3 minute read)
📅 Events Today
🎟️ International Literature Festival | September 11 - 20, 2025 | In September, Berlin becomes the capital of literature. Around 200 authors from over 40 countries are expected at the International Literature Festival
🎟️ Musikfest Berlin | August 30 - September 23, 2025 | The Musikfest, which emerged from the traditional Berliner Festwochen, is Berlin's largest festival for orchestral music.
🎟️ Days of Jewish Culture | November 13 to 23, 2025 | In 2025, the Days of Jewish Culture will once again offer a feast for the senses and present modern Jewish culture through music, cinema and literature.
💬 What Berliners Are Talking About
🗣️ Any queer events or club nights tonight ? - Locals offered quick tips on FLINTA parties and queer nights around Berlin.
🗣️ Rabbit Holes and cool maps of and about Berlin. - A curated tour of Berlin's fascinating maps, tools and urban exploration rabbit holes.
🗣️ Do I need permission to sing in the streets? - Locals explain Berlin's busking rules and encourage trying street singing.
🐇 Fun Fact: During the Cold War, the no-man’s-land around the Berlin Wall became a haven for wildlife – even wild rabbits thrived in the Death Strip. An estimated thousands of bunnies lived between the Wall’s fences, a story so famous it inspired an Oscar-nominated documentary “Rabbit à la Berlin”.
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