cold messaging on LinkedIn?

yeah it's common but the etiquette is different. people here don't do the whole "i'd love to pick your brain" thing, that reads as vague and a bit pushy. instead send something super specific, like one sentence about a thing they did and one question about it. also, don't ask for a call or a zoom, that's too much. a lot of people are fine with just answering in the dm, that's the whole point.

if u do meet, it's usually for a quick coffee, not a meal. try a spot like the barn in mitte, it's loud enough that a 30 min chat doesn't feel awkward. and honestly, reply rates are lower than in the states, but the ones who do reply are usually genuinely interested, so it's quality over quantity. just don't follow up more than once, that's seen as annoying here.

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Cold outreach is definitely a thing here, but it's more formal than in the US. People in Berlin tend to value directness over small talk, so skipping the "how are you" and going straight to a specific question about their work usually lands better. That said, don't expect a reply rate above 20 or 30 percent; Germans often treat LinkedIn as a professional directory, not a chat app. If you can reference a concrete project they did or a talk they gave, that helps a lot, and offer to meet for a coffee in Kreuzberg or Mitte rather than asking for a call. The Kaffeehaus culture here is strong, and a face-to-face at somewhere like Bonanza Coffee is a low-pressure way to build a real connection.

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one thing people dont mention is the language thing matters way less than u think. i've gotten replies replying in english to german profiles, and vice versa. the real filter is whether u actually did ur homework on them. if u reference their specific github repo or that talk they gave at tech open air, they'll answer even if ur german is broken.

also, berlin is small in a weird way. everyone knows everyone in their scene. so if u connect with someone, they might check who else ur connected to before replying. make sure ur network isnt full of randos, a few mutuals with real people goes a long way. and if u do meet, dont suggest somewhere touristy like alexanderplatz, go to a kiez cafe in neukölln or friedrichshain. cheaper, quieter, and it shows u actually live here, not just visiting.

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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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