The first two days in Berlin, in priority order: what has to happen, what should, and what can wait. Tick things off as you go.
For Berlin
How long you are staying
Must do
Telekom, Vodafone and O2 sell prepaid SIMs, as do the cheaper brands in supermarkets and drugstores. By law a prepaid SIM is activated only after an ID check, by video call or in a shop, so bring your passport.
€63 a month in 2026 for all local and regional transport across Germany, sold as a monthly subscription through DB Navigator or the local operator's app. Cancel by the 10th to stop the next month.
Registering your address within two weeks of moving in unlocks the tax ID, the bank account and the payroll. Appointments are the bottleneck, so book the moment you know your move-in date.
Check the booking page early in the morning, when cancelled and new slots appear, and take any district's office: every Bürgeramt can register every Berlin address.
Statutory funds such as TK, AOK, Barmer and DAK have the same core cover; compare the supplement and the English service. Your employer needs the membership confirmation before the first payroll.
The landlord's signed confirmation that you have moved in. The registration office will not register you without it, and it is a separate form from the lease.
Should do
112 for ambulance and fire, 110 for police, 116117 for an on-call doctor out of hours. A pharmacy displaying the Notdienst rota is open each night.
Supermarkets and most shops close on Sundays and public holidays. Stock up on Saturday; station shops and petrol stations are the fallback.
BER and Potsdam are in zone C. An AB ticket there is a fine; the Deutschlandticket covers it, as does an ABC single.
App banks such as N26 or bunq open in minutes with a passport; branch banks usually want the Meldebescheinigung. A German IBAN is what landlords and Lastschrift direct debits expect.
Berlin is big: a short hop on the map can be forty minutes door to door. Do the trip before you commit to a flat across town.
Nice to do
Bottles and cans carry a deposit (Pfand) of 8 to 25 cents, returned at the machines in any supermarket. Waste is split into paper, packaging, organic and residual bins; neighbours notice.
Most embassies run a registration or alert service for nationals abroad. It takes two minutes and helps in an emergency.
The late-night corner shop covers Sundays, and the weekly street market in most districts is where the neighbourhood buys bread, cheese and vegetables.
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