Your Bike Courier in Berlin.
Carefully Delivered, Personally Accounted For.

I've been carrying shipments through Berlin for over 11 years. Today it's for our cooperative, but between 2015 and 2019 I also delivered food for Deliveroo. I know the different sides of this job, and I know what it feels like when the app sets your pace and your steps get tracked. But I also see that a lot has changed in recent years.

Where back then you'd find people from genuinely everywhere taking a break, today I see a lot of young men from South Asia. They wear the same cube-shaped backpacks we did back then, they have the same job, the same weather, the same red lights. But is it really the same? No, because their situation is fundamentally different from what mine was.

Many of them are enrolled as students, this is now well documented, at sometimes dubious private universities. Institutions that charge around €12,000 a year in fees, and for which students have often already gone into debt back in their home country. Their entry visa, in turn, is tied to that enrollment: lose your place at the university, and you lose your residency status along with it, and everything else too. What's left is the debt, and the collapse of a promised dream.

This is exactly where platform delivery services like Wolt, Uber Eats, and others latch on like leeches, to secure cheap labor, outside of unions and without any lobby of their own. Thousands of South Asian students work for them in Berlin, Hamburg, and other major cities. The platforms themselves rarely employ them directly; that's handled by subcontractors, sometimes two or three layers deep, at times hidden behind shell companies. Wages get withheld, paid in cash, or tied to conditions incompatible with labor rights. Complain, and you're out, and a labor dispute with precarious residency status is not a fight between equals, something everyone involved is obviously well aware of.

The precarity was real when I was still riding for Deliveroo. No fixed salary, no sick pay, constant pressure. But the difference was that I could have quit. And I could also go out on the street, go on strike, even sue successfully, without risking having to leave the country. Most delivery riders working under platforms today don't have that room to maneuver, as a practical matter. Their visa rides the bike with them.

This pattern is now even referred to as “modern-day slavery” in academic research, and that also tells you something: this isn't a niche case. It's a method.

Sources: PAM report on Wolt couriers · RTL Luxembourg on Wolt negotiations · The Left Berlin on Wolt riders · rbb/NDR documentary "Ausgeliefert!" · taz on Indian students · Sozialismus von unten: "Modern Slavery" · Tagesspiegel on visa expulsions

→ KuK July 2026 in the archive (PDF)

Coming to Berlin as a courier from Italy, never having been here before and not knowing anyone at first, can catch you off guard and leave you a little disoriented; but luckily the bike courier community is very strong and always ready to welcome you in. Probably because, at the end of the day, we're all pedaling under the same sun or the same rain, even when our streets are different.

I hadn't planned on taking part in the ECMC (European Cycle Messenger Championship, see KuK 05/2026) either, and yet I found myself right in the middle of it. It all started when some friends of mine from Milano City needed someone to represent Liquid Roads (a WTNB* cycling collective) at the championships. The task was simple: run one of the checkpoints during the main race!

Which meant: getting up early to set up the course on Tempelhofer Feld, looking for people because you don't know where to go, moving barriers and tables around with the bikes, working through various logistical hurdles, fighting the wind, and then, finally, the race starts!

You might reasonably ask why anyone puts themselves through all that for something that just simulates the work we do on the street every day anyway. I don't know exactly, but what we do there clearly brings us joy; it makes us visible. In that moment, there's no customer waiting for us and no paycheck, it's simply our game.

We're all in it together, helping each other, so that a moment can exist that represents us, one where we recognize the values that maybe brought us to choose this job in the first place. It's not just four days full of races, it's a chance to come together, exchange views, and share ideas and thoughts about what's going on around us.

I took so much away from this experience, but above all I realized: no matter which direction you ride on Tempelhofer Feld, the wind is always against you.

#M will be part of CROW Courier until the end of August, a courier cooperative run by its own workers, with the goal of replacing cars with bicycles. Concretely, that means improving quality of life for everyone through cargo bike deliveries and bike repairs, entirely without bosses. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK June 2026 in the archive (PDF)

In the life of the globally connected courier community, there are a handful of events each year where people connect, reunite, and, in proper sporting fashion, measure themselves against each other, far beyond the borders of their own city or even their own country: the CMCs. Kept cosmopolitan in English, CMC stands for Cycle Messenger Championship, and this year, in our case, with a "E" for European in front of it.

That's right, the Berlin community is hosting the European Championships for bike couriers, as it last did back in 1996. A five-day event with social activities and parties, but at its center is the so-called Main Race.

For this, we managed to get Tempelhofer Feld approved as a closed-off, official race course, which should make the weekend of May 16 and 17 the absolute magnet of the event.

Hoping for good weather and plenty of spectators, participants take on a whole series of challenges over a race course of more than 6 km with 13 checkpoints. Because a CMC isn't just about fast legs, it's also about sharp minds. Only those who can memorize the course, made up of a maze of one-way streets, and calculate the correct order of checkpoints on the fly, mid-pedal-stroke, depending on the task at hand, make it onto the podium.

Co-financed by a range of local, regional, and international sponsors, our event becomes, as it does every year in a different city, an important meeting point for couriers, but also for anyone interested and for friends. Neither participation in the race nor in the other parts of the event is restrictive; anyone who wants to can take part, for a fee.

Courier El Niño #02 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city. The car-free Berlin courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK May 2026 in the archive (PDF)

It's March, and I've just made it through my first winter as a bike courier. As I ride past my old office on my Omnium, a cargo bike popular among couriers, not far from CROW headquarters, which we lovingly call "the nest," a feeling of relief washes over me. I'm glad I traded the supposed safety and comfort of the office chair for the hard bike saddle.

In my first job after school, I regularly staffed the reception desk of a large company. Today I often remember how, sitting behind that reception desk, I already admired the couriers coming and going. They seemed like free spirits who, against all odds, refused to submit to the dogmas of our modern world. All they seemed to need was a simple bicycle and the hope of good weather.

And yet I spent most of my later working life in the monotonous world of corporate jobs. What was initially meant as a stopgap until something better emerged from my ongoing self-discovery became, for reasons of financial security and lost nerve, a permanent state with no way out. As the years passed, the idea of a career restart drifted further and further away.

The turning point came only with a personal crisis. When I was forced to seriously confront the question of what I would actually want to do for work, free of external pressures and expectations, it came back to me in an instant: bike courier. Despite my self-doubt, I decided in that moment to at least try it, and applied to CROW shortly after.

Being a courier has changed my life since. Even the fact that I still work two days a week in an office is quickly forgotten the moment I strap the courier bag back on and start pedaling.

Courier El Vino #45 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK April 2026 in the archive (PDF)

The bicycle is a cheap, uncomplicated means of transport that needs nothing but a bit of muscle power to cover longer distances faster and more efficiently than walking. It's more pleasant than getting around by bus, train, or car too, especially in rush-hour traffic. And it's cheaper, full stop: in Berlin, a used, working bike can be found cheaply at a flea market. Really, only the repairs are expensive.

This is where self-help workshops come in: the basic idea is to help owners maintain their own bikes, by passing on knowledge and providing tools. If you know how something works technically, you can use it more sustainably and repair it yourself when it breaks.

Self-help workshops support cyclists with affordable repairs, so they no longer have to pay for the professional service of a bike shop, which can genuinely be expensive in some cases. When cyclists are able to patch a flat tire or replace worn brake pads themselves, that's not just better for their wallet, it also encourages more people to get on a bike in the first place.

Self-help workshops also operate at the margins of the capitalist production and consumption system that bicycles are made within. They counteract the tendency to buy new replacement goods instead of repairing what you have, and in doing so contribute to the energy transition.

Kreuzberg has several self-help workshops too: the bike self-help workshop at Regenbogenfabrik, the Velo-Fit bike workshop run by the Berlin City Mission, the ADFC bike self-help workshop, and the Bauhütte Kreuzberg e.V. bike workshop.

Couriers Huile Smith #39 & The Knife #41 belong to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city. The car-free Berlin courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working.

→ KuK March 2026 in the archive (PDF)

“Happy New Year! Still allowed to say that, right?” — “Thanks, doing alright, and you?” — “Glad that year's over, huh? Yeah, oh man, me too! So, how's it looking?”

Well, there is progress, that's true: more bike lanes, Kiezblocks, bike streets. More and more people are switching to cycling; that's good for the climate, for traffic, for quality of life. But reality is lagging behind. I've been riding through Berlin as a bike courier for 10 years now, and I've watched the expansion stall. Budgets get cut, and plenty of bike lanes just end abruptly or are planned so badly they're actually dangerous.

Why does this affect everyone? A bike-friendly city isn't just good for cyclists. Cars come with enormous costs. Road repairs, made necessary by an ever-growing number of ever-heavier vehicles, exhaust fumes that harm our health, and accidents that can be extremely expensive, both for the healthcare system and for the people involved. Parking spaces? Private property on public land, that everyone pays for.

Fewer cars mean less traffic, less noise, fewer emissions, and more space for everyone. Kids can play more safely, cafés can put their tables out on the street, and the air gets cleaner. But instead of consistent, thorough redesign, we get half-hearted planning. Politicians celebrate tiny minimal wins as if they were huge achievements, while activists and groups like Changing Cities or the ADFC keep having to fight for safe bike lanes. Berlin could be a pioneer, a shining example, with its unique possibilities and wide, generous streets, but that takes more speed, more money, and above all: more will. We want, and need, a city that protects cyclists. Not just because it's fair, but because it's better for everyone: the environment, the wallet, our health.

So: apply pressure, talk about it, join the rides, demand it! Because a better city is possible, and we could all have it better. Without billionaires, and with fewer cars, more for everyone else instead. And always remember, whenever something feels unjust: trickle-down only works once the top actually melts!

Courier “El Niño 02” belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city. The car-free Berlin courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK February 2026 in the archive (PDF)

Since early December, a bronze statue of Walter Lübcke, murdered by a far-right extremist more than six years ago, has stood in front of CDU party headquarters. According to the “Center for Political Beauty,” the group behind the action, it's meant to remind the Christian Democrats of their responsibility not to work with the AfD. Stuffed animals, wreaths, and German flags have lined the statue ever since.

Setting aside that the CDU under Merz now uses rhetoric barely distinguishable from the AfD's: what exactly is this “responsibility” the liberals keep saying the Christian Democrats just need reminding of? Look closely and you'll find the cooperation has long since happened: it's already reality at the local level, and earlier this year the Bundestag passed a CDU motion hostile to migration with votes from the far right, fully aware that the necessary majority was only achievable with the AfD.

The moment resistance stirs, it gets talked down, and of course it's the left doing the talking-down, I hear the liberals cry. But the times also dictate what forms of resistance are actually necessary.

Career politicians have always enriched themselves through their positions of power. But in the past, once a scandal became public, they at least resigned under public pressure. That era is over. These days, lobbying doesn't even need to be hidden anymore: Nestlé, mask deals, the auto industry, whose responsibility is there left to appeal to, once career politicians have become puppets of capital?

What's needed are more adequate forms of resistance than erecting a statue that appeals to the responsibility and morality of those in power. Forms of resistance that actually sting. Swedish political journalist Andreas Malm sketches out what that might look like in his book “How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire,” using social struggles in the face of the looming climate catastrophe as his example: the longer people stall and delay, the more drastic the measures needed to avert catastrophic consequences, including, in an emergency, acts of sabotage. Because one thing is certain: with Nazis in power, things get worse for everyone, just not for the rich.

Courier The Knife #41 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes. The car-free Berlin courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK January 2026 in the archive (PDF)

Why car drivers (almost always men) make it their mission to look as menacing as possible just to reach a red light a full seven seconds earlier will forever be beyond me.

Today it got bad. The intersection blocked, the light changes. Four more vehicles, including two long vans, drove straight through the already-red light and into the middle of the whole pile-up. Pedestrians? Can't cross anymore. Cyclists? No chance.

For what? For absolutely nothing, other people were put in danger. Is that how you, dear drivers, want to be treated yourselves out there in the world? Because it's exactly your crowd that complains about disrespectful cyclists. Why? Because your disregard makes us that damn angry, that's why!

Behind a bike, you maybe lose a few seconds of your time. Under your cars, we lose our health — and, more and more often, our lives.

When I switch over to the driver's side, which unfortunately happens more often than I'd like, I take special care around anyone not sitting inside a steel weapon. I brake, I slow down earlier, I drive slower, I yield. And every single time I do, I end up at the next light next to the ones who have to barrel through without a shred of consideration.

So, how about it? A peace offer: every time you show us consideration, let us live, give way to us unprompted, we'll say thank you — and in return, for every thank-you you get, you do it twice more. You'll see, you'll still get there just as fast, just in a noticeably better mood!

Courier El Niño #02 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes.

→ KuK December 2025 in the archive (PDF)

“Oh no, not this again” — something like that is probably going through a lot of our heads once the end of October brings the clock change, wet weather, and storms. It gets dark fast and hard now, everything's mostly grey, and once the autumn colors have blown off the trees, there's often not much point lifting your head to look around anymore: just concrete everywhere.

But instead of turning to the usual dreary screens of every shape and size (doomscrolling, TV, gaming, streaming, streaming, streaming), autumn and the coming winter actually offer plenty of chances to turn toward things in your own neighborhood and beyond, the kind of things a big, culturally significant city like Berlin has to offer. So instead of just wrapping yourself up like a mummy and grimly trying to hibernate through it, we could stab that seasonal depression in the back with a bit of appetite for something new, a mercy kill of sorts!

So, then, have you ever been to Köpi? They've got a screen-printing workshop that runs on donations! Freshen up a few of your clothes, show off a glowing logo on that winter coat that otherwise usually just does its job and nothing more!

Once it gets cold, the independent sauna projects, now fairly numerous, are worth recommending, they invite both the chronically cold and the properly frozen to a shared sweat session.

Like every season, winter needs good food too! The projects called KüFa (kitchen for everyone) are spread across the whole city, running almost every day of the week! Cheap, tasty food, often made from rescued ingredients, served by kind people with a heart under their shirt. Also helps with loneliness!

How about chess with strangers? The Stranger Chess project invites you to various spots around the city to shake off a bit of your everyday routine over a game of chess with whoever shows up.

On the Berlin Remap map you'll find seasonally fitting offers, where you can either put material from home to good use, take it apart, build on it, improve it, or learn a whole range of new techniques for repairing all kinds of things.

So what are you waiting for, turn off the screen and get your shoes on, even that supposedly grey world out there is waiting for you.

Courier El Niño #02 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes. The car-free Berlin courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK November 2025 in the archive (PDF)

After all the reporting on the new section of the A100, I finally got the chance to ride it myself and marvel at this masterpiece of engineering practically from the inside. And what can I say? It's genuinely impressive!

The technical challenges overcome here were clearly enormous. Bridges, tunnels, traffic control systems, on-ramps, off-ramps, noise barriers... Just the logistical planning of the construction site alone is beyond what a non-engineer can really grasp. This megaproject is an absolutely impressive testament to human ingenuity.

But after leaving this 3.2-kilometer-long opus magnum of cross-party Berlin city planning behind me, a vaguely familiar question from the past crept up on me. An echo of a question that last hit me while visiting a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the US. What a colossus that was! The product of an unfathomable amount of time, material, energy, and talent. A great many very intelligent people were involved in building it. A machine of destruction like no other.

The question from back then, now echoing between the noise barriers, was: what kind of utopias could be built with all these resources instead?

Paris is showing, in real time right now, what's possible once you decide to leave car-centrism behind.

Research has long confirmed the concept of induced demand, showing that increased road capacity leads to more vehicle traffic. A certain J. J. Leeming already recognized this back in 1969.

Fortunately, Berlin's city planners refuse to be swayed by the opinions of such extremists: just one more lane, bro!

What kind of utopias could be built with all these resources instead?

With that question, I left 3.2 kilometers of depressing pointlessness behind me.

The builders who accomplished this feat have poured Berlin's biggest monument in concrete. Straight through an entire neighborhood.

But that's still not enough for a monument for the ages. Section 17 will finish the job. A monument to ignorance.

Who needs utopias anyway?

Courier El Perro #06 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces cars with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city. The sustainable courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK October 2025 in the archive (PDF)

In the middle of summer, the city pretends to empty out. I get to the bakery before seven. At one corner of the sidewalk, in a doorway, lies a pile of grey clothing, and underneath it, a person. He doesn't move, but I know him. Sometimes he holds the door for people, surrounded by the smell of croissants. He usually sleeps curled up against a wall before the shop opens. Is he okay? I didn't have time to check — it was over 35 degrees yesterday, and today too.

Berlin in particular, because of the urban heat island effect, runs up to 3°C hotter than the surrounding region, especially at night. This sustained heat is especially dangerous for older people, pregnant people, people with pre-existing conditions, and people living in difficult circumstances.

I once argued about this with a friend from school. He refused to give homeless people money, arguing that the gesture would only worsen their precarious situation. Those words stuck with me all day. This week I saw the man from the doorway again: tired, but alive. I was relieved, even though I hadn't done anything the time before.

This short story doesn't have a moral. It just shows that we have to look out for each other and do our best to help however we can. I'm ashamed I didn't do anything, and I know that shame is justified. Official help is minimal, so it's on us to help as best we can.

Courier Huile Smith #38 belongs to CROW Courier, Berlin's car-free courier service, which also fosters a cooperative way of working.

→ KuK September 2025 in the archive (PDF)

Sometimes I say: I've become a bike professional! Because it's true: I've been riding as a courier for CROW since February. People ask me if that isn't insanely exhausting. If it isn't absurdly dangerous. If the cars don't stress me out. The people. The noise.

And yes: there are days that are genuinely exhausting. When I'm having a bad day, when Berlin's having a bad day, when after 5 months of drought it suddenly rains non-stop for 2 weeks. And when there's just a lot going on, colleagues are out sick, and Ute Bonde is posting nonsense on Instagram again.

And sure, it's dangerous, swimming through traffic all day on a cargo bike. More dangerous, at least, than not doing that, how could I deny it?

But I like being out there. I like the grime, the noise, even the cars, as strange as that might sound coming from a bike courier. We're all connected in this city. Nowhere is that clearer to me than out on the street.

When I ride, I see the other couriers and tradespeople. I run into office workers and the people in cafés: eating and drinking out front, cooking and hauling things in the back. I encounter students, parents, tourists. One person throws trash on the street. Another picks it up. I see who heads out early, who gets home late, and for whom the question doesn't even arise, because "home" is simply Berlin.

I ride for all of them. I ride for you.

I used to work in management consulting: explaining organizational structures to people, digging into how workplaces are set up, sitting with people over the question: how can we work together better here?

It's a good profession. When someone asks, I still enjoy putting myself into other people's worlds. I genuinely have nothing against office work, the global economy, optimization, telecommunications, production, the DAX...

But when no one's asking me right now: then I'm out delivering your bread. Coffee beans. Wine. I get your blood samples to the lab quickly and cameras to set on time. I bring the forgotten key to the airport and your document to the embassy.

What would it be like if everyone just had what they needed, right when they needed it? If all of it were simple? If we were good to each other, with patience, ease, and joy in doing it? I really do love riding a bike. And all of you are riding along.

Courier Tūbe belongs to CROW Courier. The car-free Berlin courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK August 2025 in the archive (PDF)

“We don't notice climate change because something suddenly falls on our heads.” What researcher Albert Moukheiber means by this is that our brain is wired for immediate reaction, and struggles to deal with threats that are invisible and delayed.

On top of that, we unconsciously select information that confirms our existing beliefs. That explains why even well-informed, concerned people keep behaviors that contradict their own convictions. The key lies in understanding these mechanisms, and analyzing a behavior should be broken into its parts: prior conditioning, immediate environment, and material conditions. And the focus needs adjusting: analyzing a car crash by looking at the bodywork only makes limited sense, but looking at the location of the crash is always relevant.

In his latest book, “Neuromania,” Moukheiber takes apart preconceived notions about our brain in the face of ecological challenges, and reveals how brain function sometimes serves as an excuse for climate passivity. Neuroscience is also frequently instrumentalized to justify harmful behavior.

The book offers a critique of the “neuromyths” that hold back the ecological transition. Albert Moukheiber shows that our brain is far more plastic and adaptable than these discourses claim. That opens up real perspectives for ecological engagement, and highlights the importance of material conditions in our environment: if people keep eating large amounts of meat, for instance, that's also because it's available everywhere.

And there's a media and political tendency to frame individual action as the first line of defense against climate change, even though it's a thoroughly systemic problem.

Change has to happen at the level of politics and institutions. Blaming individuals for not acting on their own at the necessary scale is, in itself, a form of selfishness.

Courier Huile Smith #38 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city. The car-free Berlin courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK July 2025 in the archive (PDF)

Want to shine on Strava but you're short on time, fitness, or just motivation? No problem — that's what I'm here for. I'm a Strava Mule. My job is simple: I ride, you get the applause.

While you spend your Sunday morning in a café, I'm on the bike, grinding out elevation, fighting through wind, rain or blazing sun — all logged on your Strava account. Check your phone later and you'll see an epic ride. The kudos roll in on their own. Your image? Polished.

It sounds like cheating, but it's really a service like any other. I'm not selling faked data. I ride for real, with real effort, a real route, real weather, a real pulse, and real sore muscles the next day. Just not under my own name.

Why do people book this? The reasons vary. Some want to motivate themselves. Others want to hold their own within their community. Social media doesn't check credentials — only performance. And I deliver that.

Of course I know plenty of people find this questionable. But honestly — in a world full of filtered bodies, AI-generated text, bought followers and touched-up reality, a Strava Mule is almost charmingly analog. I actually pedal. I actually sweat. I'm the muscle behind your myth.

Courier El Niño #02 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city.

→ KuK June 2025 in the archive (PDF)

I started riding with a collective of bike couriers, but until recently I never dared repair my own bike. Now I see myself as a cyclist in my own right — I fix and ride independently.

The bike gives me free access to mobility in the city. I'm not dependent on public transport, on cars... The “guys” usually leave me more alone too, and I get where I'm going quickly. Sometimes I get the feeling the street belongs to me, on this beautiful human-sized machine.

But for me this is more about self-confidence than getting from A to B. On the bike, I decide where I'm going and how fast I get there. It also means my body becomes present to me again, since I'm moving the bike with my own muscles. This new “experience of effort” has given me a lot — a sweet, not-too-intense everyday joy.

Still, the bike shouldn't be treated as some universal tool of liberation for Flinta* people, since there are plenty who can't or simply don't want to ride. It can still mean something to many, though, which is why both politicizing and democratizing cycling matter.

And Berlin already has plenty of Flinta* initiatives built around cycling: social rides, Flinta* alleycats, self-help repair workshops... I hope there'll be even more of them.

Courier Huile Smith #38 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces delivery vans with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city.

→ KuK May 2025 in the archive (PDF)

Cycling saved my life. It's simply, by a wide margin, the most demanding, most beautiful, and most ridiculous sport there is, and it always comes down to how you frame the ride: a short commute becomes a sprint, a race among friends becomes a relaxed coffee ride, boredom turns a nice little loop into a stage of the Tour de France. But whichever of these paths I take, the calm in my head sets in immediately. You start pedaling and the switch flips.

A normal desk day is unthinkable for me by now, simply too monotonous.

Cycling in Berlin started out as a sporting counterbalance for me; I was a cook, and having some variety became extremely important. Back then, long before Corona, I needed that balance. One Sunday I bought a folding bike at the flea market by Ostbahnhof and just rode off.

Instantly hooked. The mix of mild summer nights, a couple of after-work beers (non-alcoholic, of course, wink), the not-too-loud folding bike, and the gorgeous nighttime Berlin skyline gave me wonderful rides home. At the time I lived near Yorckstraße and had to ride home from work at Hackescher Markt. As a newcomer to Berlin, those warm summer nights hit different. Everything is alive and loud, the streets are buzzing, my grin unbeatable.

I urgently needed to get myself a faster bike, because the urge for speed was strong. Naturally it was an old steel steed named Monza, naturally I got ripped off, and naturally the bike was a pile of junk, but it was at least noticeably faster and I was well and truly hooked. The gears shifted on the down tube, with no indexing. That's where I learned something new right away. Didn't go too well at first, but it's fun too, when the chain really rattles across the cassette, giving it a nice acoustic atmosphere. By now I'm a trained mechanic, bike courier, steel-frame enthusiast, and who knows what else. When I'm not doing that, I rescue people from crashing planes or fetch cats down from the moon. But more on that soon, in part 2.

Courier The Dentist #37 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces cars with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city. The sustainable courier service also fosters a cooperative way of working. Info at crowberlin.de

→ KuK April 2025 in the archive (PDF)

The beauty of making deliveries as a car-free cargo bike cooperative in Berlin lies in the practical benefit, and in the idea of acting in step with a more livable city. Cargo bikes are more than just a means of transport — they stand for sustainability, collective work, and a contribution to protecting the environment.

Working in the cooperative means taking on responsibility, acting sustainably, and building a network built on solidarity. There's little arguing over the big picture here — just a clear goal of doing the right thing. Working together as equals strengthens the sense of community and makes sure no one gets lost in the daily grind.

Despite the political tensions in the country, the cargo bike cooperative remains proof that when we pool our strength, we can bring about real change.

Working in cooperatives is a statement that we can achieve great things on a small scale. Optimism grows when we realize our daily actions can make a positive difference.

There are plenty of streets in Berlin still waiting to be ridden by cargo bikes. It's not just a job, it's a movement. As a cooperative, we're not just a group of couriers — we're pioneers of a new way of working and living.

Courier Rondo #01 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces cars with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city.

→ KuK March 2025 in the archive (PDF)

Committing to sustainability takes work, just like relationships or a job. If you want to do your part against the climate crisis, you have to actually engage with it — it doesn't happen on its own.

Take e-cars and e-bikes as an example. They shift environmental damage around rather than reducing it. E-bikes are only more sustainable when they replace cars, not when they replace regular bicycles. And e-cars certainly don't solve any fundamental problems — they just move them elsewhere, mostly from the so-called developed countries to the Global South.

The supposed luxury, progress and development we enjoy is often built on postcolonial exploitation. Raw materials keep getting extracted from these countries, leaving poisoned waterways, child labor and destroyed nature in their wake.

At the same time, we feed our appetite for supposed sustainability without seeing the real costs. E-cars aren't a solution — they're clearly part of the problem. We need to stop believing the world gets better just because we bought an e-car.

A real future is only possible if we look at sustainability as a whole: social, fair, environmentally sound, and global.

Courier El Niño #02 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces cars with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city.

→ KuK February 2025 in the archive (PDF)

Berlin's cycling infrastructure has improved noticeably in recent years, but it's still far from good. Based on my own experience over tens of thousands of kilometers on Berlin's streets, and swapping notes with other couriers, I've put together a few survival tips.

Act as if you're invisible to everyone else. Just assume you won't be seen. Never rely on other people to follow traffic rules or pay attention.

Keep your options open. Always try to have a couple of alternative lines in mind. Even if your brakes are good, ride as cautiously as if you had none.

Give a wide berth to any car door that could open, especially where cars are parked at the curb. That's your legal right, it gives you room to react to danger, and it stops drivers from squeezing past you too closely.

Make eye contact, especially at confusing intersections. Avoid dangerous streets where you can. Wear! A! Helmet! I've watched someone die because they weren't wearing one, watched a second person where I'm not sure they survived, for the same reason. And I've watched a third person survive purely because of their helmet.

Don't think any of this rules out accidents. Shit happens — but these tips will help you minimize the risk. Ride safe! :*

Courier El Perro #06 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces cars with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city.

→ KuK January 2025 in the archive (PDF)

“Don't worry, if there's one thing I can really do, it's ride a bike,” I tell my parents. I don't really believe I can pull it off. I pack the bike: dry bags for the rain, tent, sleeping mat, sleeping bag. Cooking gear and water bottles. Coffee, porridge, peanut butter, bananas and a lot of nuts. Off I go.

Hot, dry days and cold, damp nights. Unforgiving Catalan mountains and cute medieval towns. Barely rideable trails, breathtaking views, the best descents of my life. Perpignan, long hills, even worse trails, vineyards. It rains for the first time, and a lot. Day nine. A dry break in Béziers to plan the route: at this pace I'll need a month to reach Berlin.

The Cévennes, the Ardèche, Valence. Fog rolls in, cold and damp days, much colder and damper nights. Perfect timing to lose my gloves. I don't know if I can do this. Set up camp, warm up, drink tea. I stretch, send messages, cook dinner, fall asleep.

A few hours of sunshine near Strasbourg. Now I believe I can actually do this. Karlsruhe, Würzburg, Erfurt, Halle, Potsdam. I'm really going to make it! Nine full days of rain and fog — what does “dry” even mean anymore?

From Potsdam to Neukölln it feels like coming home from a regular workday. Wild camping in forests and fields, two campsites, one room for a badly needed shower. 2,147 km and 19 days. From 25°C to 5°C. From home to home. From Barcelona to Berlin.

Courier La Luz #31 belongs to CROW Courier, which replaces cars with cargo bikes and, in doing so, helps improve quality of life in the city.

→ KuK December 2024 in the archive (PDF)

Why car drivers (almost always men) make it their mission to look as menacing as possible just to reach a red light a full seven seconds earlier will forever be beyond me.

What's happening, top to bottom, is yet another round of promoting the car as a cure-all, as the glue holding our society together. “Everyone into the cars!” — as if it were a wake-up call for the dozy, indifferent fellow citizens practically falling off their bikes from sheer environmental awareness. More cars, sure, let's clog everything completely until nothing moves at all anymore.

About 2,800 deaths and 366,000 injuries in 2023. Of the dead, roughly a third weren't even in a car. Notice anything? No.

Politics turned schizophrenia — in plain German, a total loss of touch with reality — is the only way to describe these ultra-reactionary moves. Completely ignorant of the facts established at the very universities whose degrees they hold, degrees which are precisely what let them sit where they sit, ignoring those same facts.

Berlin bike courier “El Niño #02” belongs to CROW Courier, the delivery service that replaces cars with environmentally friendly cargo bikes.

→ KuK November 2024 in the archive (PDF)

I dreamed I was dozing on a bench during my shift. All around me were cafés serving Americanos, flat whites, cortados and espressos. Cheese specialists making cheese with names you can barely pronounce, from milk that comes from cows with their own personal masseur. I heard the chatter of fresh, hip people slurping oat-milk flat whites, talking about where they got their tan.

It's wonderful that Berlin has so many people with enough money to afford a lifestyle that's not just fulfilling but good for the planet too. People who can support all that fair-trade coffee sipping, guilt-free, because they paid six euros for a coffee that traveled from the other side of the world.

Doing something good for the world costs money. And in between sit us, the bike couriers. We deliver fairly (expensively) priced natural products to wherever they're consumed. But is it fair that we, the ones doing the carrying in between, are constantly worrying whether we can pay our rent? Whether we'll get sick?

In my dream I woke up and shouted: “What about us? Which slice of the cake do we get? Our tan lines are all wrong and they sting like hell!”

In a city like Berlin, where luxury and sustainability go hand in hand, the people who make that lifestyle possible get forgotten. We deliver your organic bread and your natural wine, but our working conditions are a world away from the glamorous surroundings we work in.

In my dream I demanded justice. In reality, we still have to keep demanding it. For a sustainable future to be possible, it has to be sustainable for everyone. It's not enough to pay six euros for a coffee if the people who get the beans to your table can barely live on their wages. Justice starts with recognizing the invisible hands holding society together.

So next time you're sipping your six-euro oat cappuccino, think about why it costs that much — and why it doesn't cost more.

→ KuK October 2024 in the archive (PDF)