WahlheYmatPost — Understand How To Berlin

Weekly guide for Berlin’s international community

Quick stories, local events, and ways to take part, right in your inbox — made with Berliner Morgenpost.

Your data matters to us — see our privacy policy.

This is a cooperation with Berliner Morgenpost. You can subscribe to their newsletters here.

WahlheYmatPost

  • “Berlin taught me to dislike the word integration” 

    “Berlin taught me to dislike the word integration” 

    Berlin was the city that changed everything for Marilena Chatziantoniou. After more than two decades working in humanitarian aid around the world, she founded Just-Go-For-It to help people recognise opportunities rather than obstacles. In this interview, she explains why she rejects the word “integration”, why community matters more than bureaucracy, and why she believes participation is something we choose every single day.
  • What is Germany’s greatest asset?

    What is Germany’s greatest asset?

    Germany doesn’t need to become more German. It needs to become better at turning its greatest asset—its reputation as an open, reliable, and innovative country—into a magnet for people and ideas from around the world.
  • Migrants With Degrees Are Not What Germany Is Looking For

    Migrants With Degrees Are Not What Germany Is Looking For

    As state-funded German courses become harder to access, many migrants are left trapped between limited language skills and low-income jobs. At the Lohana Berkins Center in Berlin, Darío Farcy and his team are trying to break this cycle through free education, solidarity, and community organizing inspired by Latin American grassroots movements.
  • Social Psychologist Ulrich Wagner on How Fear and Prejudice Fuel the Far Right

    Social Psychologist Ulrich Wagner on How Fear and Prejudice Fuel the Far Right

    Why do we so easily divide people into “us” and “them” – and when does this natural tendency turn into prejudice, discrimination and hostility? In an interview with WahlheYmatPost, social psychologist Prof. Dr. Ulrich Wagner explains how feelings of threat can be politically exploited, why simple solutions are so appealing in uncertain times, and how contact between different groups can help counter polarization.
  • From Distrust to Dialogue: Why We Need to Meet

    From Distrust to Dialogue: Why We Need to Meet

    Political trust is not just about voting rights. It is also about feeling heard, respected and recognised as part of society. Ivan Gabor argues that rebuilding trust requires more than political promises – it starts with conversations between people who might otherwise never meet.
  • The Participation Paradox: Why Political Trust Doesn’t Always Translate Into Votes

    The Participation Paradox: Why Political Trust Doesn’t Always Translate Into Votes

    Immigrants often arrive with greater trust in democratic institutions than the native-born population. But that trust does not necessarily translate into political participation – and over time, it tends to decline. New European research raises an important question for Berlin, where hundreds of thousands of residents could not vote in the recent state election at all.
  • We talk a lot. But what do we actually do?

    We talk a lot. But what do we actually do?

    We vote, governments govern, and we expect politics to solve our problems. But what if democracy needs more from us? Drawing lessons from Taiwan and Berlin 1989, Ivan Gabor asks how civic movements can reclaim the power to shape society – instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
  • Democracy at the Späti: What Berlin’s Symbolic Election Revealed

    Democracy at the Späti: What Berlin’s Symbolic Election Revealed

    What happens when voting moves out of polling stations and into Berlin’s neighbourhood Spätis? This summer, the Migrationsrat Berlin held symbolic elections across the city to give people without voting rights a space to make their voices heard – and to start conversations about political participation, exclusion and democracy. WahlheYmatPost spoke with Mallika Basu and Maria Vittoria Celardo about what they learned from the experiment, the conversations that surprised them and why they believe voting rights in Germany need to change.
  • From Kyiv to Berlin: War Changed His Path, but Not His Dream

    From Kyiv to Berlin: War Changed His Path, but Not His Dream

    At 15, Oleksandr Drevytskyi left Kyiv with his mother and their dog Ozzy after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In Berlin, he found himself navigating a new language, a new school system and an uncertain future. Four years later, he is studying mathematics at Humboldt University – and helping other Ukrainians find their own way through the city.
  • Strangers by the Spree: Inside Berlin’s Outdoor Latin Dance Community

    Strangers by the Spree: Inside Berlin’s Outdoor Latin Dance Community

    Just a few hundred metres from Berlin Central Station, strangers meet by the Spree to dance salsa and bachata together. Drawing on her own experience of joining the crowd, Borbála Hanna Dévai explores how Berlin’s outdoor Latin dance scene brings together people of different ages, backgrounds and professions.
  • StimmlosTrend 2026: 96 Percent Would Vote If They Could

    StimmlosTrend 2026: 96 Percent Would Vote If They Could

    The final results of WahlheYmat’s StimmlosTrend are in. They show a striking willingness to participate among international Berliners without voting rights – but also widespread concern about the city’s future and a strong sense of having little influence over it.
  • A Mayor Tandem for Berlin

    A Mayor Tandem for Berlin

    What if Berlin’s nearly one million residents without a vote had their own representative at the very top of the city? A second mayor, working alongside the elected Regierende Bürgermeister, could give international Berliners a visible voice in how the city is shaped. A radical idea? Perhaps. But in a city where roughly one in four residents cannot vote in state elections, it may be time to rethink what political representation can look like.
  • No German Passport? You May Still Have a Vote in Berlin 

    No German Passport? You May Still Have a Vote in Berlin 

    Around 240,000 non-German EU citizens are eligible to vote in Berlin’s district elections on September 20. A new series of multilingual events aims to explain how the election works – and how EU citizens can help shape the neighbourhoods they call home.
  • Berlin Wiki: Understanding Political Parties

    Berlin Wiki: Understanding Political Parties

    In the next part of our Berlin Wiki series, we explore how political parties present their ideas and values. Learn what election manifestos, party profiles, and political positions are, and why they matter when choosing which party to vote for.
  • Berlin Wiki: Who Votes – and Who Stays Home?

    Berlin Wiki: Who Votes – and Who Stays Home?

    In the next part of our Berlin Wiki series, we take a closer look at voter turnout in Germany. How many people actually participate in elections, how do first-time voters cast their ballots, and why do some eligible voters choose not to vote? We explain what election statistics reveal about political participation and democratic engagement.
  • No True German — What It Means to Be German in 2026

    No True German — What It Means to Be German in 2026

    Berlin-based writer Walter Phippeny loves Germany enough to argue against the idea of a single German identity. From dialects and regional traditions to centuries of fragmented history, he explains why the search for “true Germans” says more about politics than about Germany itself.
  • Berlin Wiki: From Postal Voting to the Ballot Box 

    Berlin Wiki: From Postal Voting to the Ballot Box 

    In the next chapter of our Berlin Wiki series, we take a closer look at the practical side of elections in Germany. We explain how to apply for postal voting, what information is included in a voter notification, how polling stations work, and how to correctly fill out a ballot paper.
  • From Peru to Berlin: Building Bridges Between Different Ways of Knowing 

    From Peru to Berlin: Building Bridges Between Different Ways of Knowing 

    From organizing collective action in defense of agriculture and supporting communities in border regions to creating spaces for intercultural dialogue in Berlin, Marita Orbegoso Alvarez has spent her life building bridges between different worlds. Through education, community organizing, and her association MigrArte Perú e.V., she encourages people to question whose knowledge is valued and what we can learn from perspectives often left out of the conversation.
  • Berlin Wiki: The Overlooked Election — BVV and Local Democratic Participation

    Berlin Wiki: The Overlooked Election — BVV and Local Democratic Participation

    In the next part of our Berlin Wiki series, we explain how local democracy works in Berlin. What is the BVV election, who can vote, and what powers do the district assemblies have? We also look at how local elections work in Germany and what voting rights EU citizens have at the local level.
  • Finding Trauma Instead of Belonging: A Review of I Keep My Shadow Light 

    Finding Trauma Instead of Belonging: A Review of I Keep My Shadow Light 

    In I Keep My Shadow Light, Berlin is not a city of freedom and endless possibility, but a place where people struggle with displacement, bureaucracy and personal trauma. Walter Phippeny reviews Fionnuala Kavanagh’s debut novel and reflects on what it reveals about life on the margins of the German capital.
  • Berlin Wiki: Who Makes Decisions in the Districts?

    Berlin Wiki: Who Makes Decisions in the Districts?

    In the latest part of our Berlin Wiki series, we take a look at local politics in Berlin. What does a district office do? What are the responsibilities of a district mayor? And how are political decisions made at the district level? We explain who is responsible for local matters and how Berlin’s districts are governed.
  • Berlin Wiki: How Berlin’s Government Works 

    Berlin Wiki: How Berlin’s Government Works 

    In the latest chapter of our Berlin Wiki series, we focus on the people and institutions that run Berlin. Learn how the Governing Mayor, the Senate and the Senate Administrations work together to govern Germany’s unique city-state.

Diverse voices tell the complete truth.

WahlheYmatPost — Understand How To Berlin

Weekly guide for Berlin’s international community

Quick stories, local events, and ways to take part, right in your inbox — made with Berliner Morgenpost.

Your data matters to us — see our privacy policy.

This is a cooperation with Berliner Morgenpost. You can subscribe to their newsletters here.

Address

Am Hamburger Bahnhof 3
10557 Berlin
Germany

hey@wahlheymat.de

Social Networks

Pages