#378: Stabbing, bike lanes, Berghain, summer temps
A 1995 bomb plot
Dear 20 Percent,
We write a lot about transport in Berlin - with a bias towards cyling and public transport. Let us know if it’s too much.
Here’s something that has always puzzled me: Bike lanes often end exactly where the speed limit drops from 50kph to 30kph. Cyclists are abruptly forced to merge with cars and truck traffic. But why?
A little research revealed that German law forbids cycle-friendly infrastructure in 30kph zones. Because if cars are moving slowly, cyclists are safe, right?🤪
In 2023, workers removed a perfectly good bike lane from Lützowplatz in Tiergarten. The local council cited paragraph 25 1c of the Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung, which states that the speed limit can only be reduced to 30kph at “roads without junctions, lane markings, lane guidance lines and mandatory cycle paths.”
In other words, you can’t build a bike lane in a 30kph zone because a 30kph zone can’t have a bike lane.
I remembered this while biking past Charite hospital in Mitte this morning. A busy street packed with cars, cyclists, pedestrians and ambulances that could really use a bike path. But no. It’s a 30kph zone!
But then, further on in my commute, in Tempelhof, a bike lane did continue despite the speed limit falling from 50kph to 30kph!
It gives me hope that Berlin sometimes breaks the rules to keep people safer.
More news below!
And Happy Easter, if that’s your thing.
Don’t forget: Shops will closed Friday, Sunday and Monday. Here’s our handy list of what's open when nothing's open.
Maurice
A big thank you to today’s sponsor: 100%-digital, English-speaking insurance provider Feather! More from them below.
U-Bahn stabbing
Police shot and killed a 43-year-old Syrian man who is thought to have stabbed a 29-year-old German man to death with a kitchen knife in Sophie-Charlotte-Platz U-Bahn station on Saturday. The stabbing victim died on the spot. Police officers shot the attacker as he tried to flee the scene and he later died of gunshot wounds in hospital. Police say the perpetrator’s motive is still unclear. Both attacker and victim had previous contact with police for drug-related offences.
Berlin slips in club ranking
We’re devastated: Only one local club made it into DJ Mag’s Top 100 Clubs 2025 list. Yes, that one. Berghain was voted 16th best club by clubbers around the globe, down from 13th last year. Watergate used to make the list… but that closed. Erstwhile techno mothership Tresor was absent after making 77th place in 2024. Perhaps most humiliating for Berlin: Cologne’s Bootshaus was 7th!
Summer’s here early
Temps are expected to rise as high as 27°C Wednesday, 28°C Thursday. Forecasters expect a few drops of rain now and then. March was one of the warmest and driest on record, with average temperatures 2.8°C higher than normal. Time for that first dip in a Brandenburg lake? Sommerbad Kreuzberg kicks off the Freibad season on April 30 — the first outdoor public pool to open this year. The others open their gates in May.
Confused about taxes in Germany? You're not alone. This guide from Smart Living in Germany, a newsletter that helps English speakers save money, breaks down everything you need to know about filing a tax return in Germany - who needs to file a tax return, when it's worth doing, the deadlines and filing options.
Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
🖼️Group Show: Tea and Dry Biscuits. An Anniversary Exhibition
Opening: Wednesday, 16.04, 6 pm. Until 25.09. Wed-Mon, 11 am - 6 pm. Georg Kolbe Museum, Sensburger Allee 25. Tickets: €10.
This year marks 75 years of the Georg Kolbe Museum. This show explores how we remember—then and now. What was worth remembering in 1950? What sticks with us today? Artists open quiet windows into memory, both personal and collective.
🐰Easter Festival in Friedenau
Sat–Mon, 19–21.04, 12 – 6 pm. Schmiljanstraße, Friedenau. Free admission.
Street food, crafts, music, and a low-key Easter vibe. This three-day fest in Friedenau is perfect if you want something mellow, family-friendly, and full of snacks.
🪩Rebellion der Träumer* Hoppocalypse
Sat–Mon, 19–21.04, 1 pm – 10 am. Renate, Alt-Stralau 70. Tickets: €25.
Some weekends are for doing taxes. Others are for dancing for 36 hours, playing bingo at 4 am, and hugging strangers dressed like forest creatures. If you’re the second type, this one’s for you. Bonus: Femme Bass Mafia brings the heat.
🎹Anika
Sunday, 20.04, 8 pm. Volksbühne, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Tickets from €33.40
Dub, post-punk, spoken word and synth haze, Anika mixes it all into one hypnotic journey. With her new album 🎧 Abyss, her voice drifts through shadows, echoes, and everything in between.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🛍️Merz wants Germans to spend more and save less
🔬Tech & science "super-ministry" hopes to lure US researchers
☀️Incoming coalition commits to EU climate targets. Sort of.
🏛️Hamburg green energy unicorn 1komma5 shelves US IPO plans
Factoid
On April 10, 1995, three men planned to blow up a deportation centre in Berlin-Grünau. The leftist group, which called itself “Das K.O.M.I.T.E.E.”, wanted to hinder the deportation of members of the banned Kurdish workers party PKK to Turkey. Their plot was foiled when a police patrol car noticed the men preparing propane canisters that turned out to contain 120kg of explosives. The plotters narrowly escaped and fled to Venezuala and Brazil. Peter K. (65) und Thomas W. (62) were detained while arriving at BER airport in March this year. Last week a Berlin judge gave them a two-year suspended prison sentence. The third man died in South America.
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Seeing that public transport is the most popular choice for your readers, maybe this website would be both helpful and enraging.
https://www.brokenlifts.org/
As a parent of 4 month old twins, i have already been caught out on many occasions unable to enter or exit train stations because of broken lifts. I don't know how many lifts there are across the OPV network in Berlin but having 30 not working seems very high
Wow, quite the factoid.
I hadn't thought about the reason so many PKK protests happen in Austria was Russia keeping Austria out of NATO until Sweden had to throw PKK under the bus to join NATO.