How long can I keep a phone number without charging it?

fwiw if you just want to silence the work stuff without a second number, you can mute individual WhatsApp groups indefinitely in the chat settings. long press the group, hit mute, pick "always" and you won't get notifications but the messages still pile up in the chat list. not a perfect fix but free and instant.

for the second chip route, Aldi Talk is prob your best bet around Berlin. they have a strict 6 month inactivity rule but I've seen people go 8 months without a top-up and still keep the number, they're not super aggressive about cutting you off. you can recharge with as little as 5 euro at any Aldi checkout or online, no minimum contract.

one thing to watch out for: if you disable the work sim after registering WhatsApp, the app might eventually ask you to re-verify via SMS if it detects the number is inactive for too long. turning on the sim for a minute every 3 months should prevent that, just send yourself a quick SMS or make a short call to keep it alive.

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the WhatsApp Business thing works but it's a bit janky if you ever need to actually call someone from that number. for a dedicated work line, get a Congstar prepaid - they're owned by Telekom so the network is solid and they only deactivate after 12 months of no activity, twice as long as the others. just put 5 euro on it once and you're good for a year.

if you're on Android, check if your phone has "secure folder" or "parallel apps" in settings. that lets you clone regular WhatsApp without any second sim at all. it's basically a separate instance that runs alongside your main one, no extra number needed. Samsung and Xiaomi both have this built in, no idea about iphone though.

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honestly the easiest free way is to use WhatsApp Business as your second app. It runs completely separate from regular WhatsApp on the same phone, no dual sim or second number needed. Just sign up with your existing number and it won't mess with your personal chats.

if you really want to go the second chip route, prepaid numbers in Germany usually stay active for about 6 months without any top-up. Aldi Talk and Lidl Connect are pretty chill with that, they don't cut you off fast. 5 euro recharge every half year is enough, just set a calendar reminder.

one thing nobody mentions is that some dual sim phones let you disable the work sim in settings entirely after WhatsApp registers. Then you only turn it on once every few months for the SMS ping. That keeps the number alive without you having to carry a second phone or remember to charge the chip.

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Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

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if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

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honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

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