Are 50 euro notes commonly accepted by retailers?

Honestly 50s are fine here, the €50 is actually the most common note in circulation in Germany, way more than the €100 or €200. Small places like a Späti or a bakery kiosk might grumble if you try to pay for a 2 euro coffee with one, but any supermarket, drugstore or restaurant will take it without blinking. If you want to avoid teh awkwardness just break it at a bigger store first, or ask for 20s and 10s at the Wechselstube since those are handier for daily stuff anyway.

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Worth knowing that Germany's cash culture is regional even within Berlin. In Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte you'll find more card-only or card-preferred spots than you'd expect, while Neukölln and Wedding still run almost entirely on Bargeld. So a 50 will breeze through a Späti on Sonnenallee but might get a raised eyebrow at a specialty coffee place on Kastanienallee that barely keeps 200 euro in the drawer. My rule: carry one 50 for bigger purchases and keep 20s and 10s for everything under 15 euro, that combo never fails.

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one thing nobody mentioned yet: germany has a €50 withdrawal limit at many ATMs for foreign cards so if u plan to pull cash just know ur bank might cap it lower. also the €50 is the workhorse note here, cashiers see dozens a day and most have a counterfeit pen under the till, so its not treated like the suspicious 50 pound note back home. only real friction is late night imbiss or a kiosk that just opened and has an empty till, so keep a couple 20s on u and ull be fine

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if u actually want to prep, look at ur district's Katastrophenschutz page, not the citywide stuff. Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg run their own Ehrenamt units and some Bezirke offer free Erste Hilfe + Notfallvorsorge courses a couple times a year, usually announced through the Bezirksamt newsletter. i did one in Neukölln, two evenings, they hand u a checklist for a Notgepäck and tell u where ur nearest Sammelplatz is. that last bit matters more than any threat level number, because if something happens u want to know which direction to walk, not read a Verfassungsschutzbericht

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A lot of the "measures" you read about are things you'd never clock as security unless you're looking. plainclothes Beamte at Bahnhof Zoo and along the U8 corridor, video surveillance expansion that the Polizei quietly funds through the Landesprogramm, and the Kontaktbereichsbeamte who actually walk their Kiez and know the regulars. That last one matters more than people think, the KOB is often the first to hear about something off.

For staying informed i'd add two things the others missed. the Berlin Senat has a citizen info hotline (030 90120) that gives real updates during incidents, and your Bezirksamt often posts localized notices that never make the Polizei feed. Also check whether your building has a Hausordnung with evacuation info, because in a real incident the building is your first problem, not the city.

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honestly for everyday life the threat stuff barely changes anything, but one thing people overlook is the BVG & S-Bahn. there's a reason you see more Bundespolizei at Ostbahnhof & Gesundbrunnen rather than the tourist spots, since rail hubs are the actual soft target. if u want a practical habit, know where the emergency exits are at big stations & don't leave bags unattended, they announce that every few min for a reason.

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