We survived another (new) year + what's ahead for 2026
Whistles while sliding tip jar forward ....
So, despite all my bitching and moaning about New Year’s Eve in my last post, it was relatively calm over by us.
I think we have the weather to thank for that, rather than any human-led effort. There was quite a lot of rain between 1 and 3 a.m., which seemed to have put a damper on things.
While we did have to deal with people setting off firecrackers in our hof all night, that’s nothing compared to last year when it sounded like people we setting off bombs on the roof.
There was significantly less garbage all over the park to clean up the next morning, which was nice.
That’s not to say I was completely wrong about the outcome. There were still an unacceptable number of injuries and property damage. But, by Berlin standards, I guess it was one of the more chill years:
According to [Berlin Minister of the Interior Iris] Spranger, the police arrested more than 420 people during the night, 20 more than in the previous year. [But] the higher number is not a sign of more violence, on the contrary: the situation was so well under control that more arrests were possible.
-The Tagesspiegel’s Silvester live blog.
More arrests means we were just that more effective! That is totally the energy I am taking into 2026. No matter what happens, I totally aced it.
Updated figures from the Tagesspiegel put the total number of injured at 35, including a 12-year-old who lost his hand, and 430 arrests plus 800 active investigations.
You guys like reading about Berlin
There are almost twice as many subscribers to Alte Frau - New Life as this time last year. And I am super grateful for that.
According to my Substack ‘wrap,’ my top topic was ‘Berlin Life.’ No kidding?! Articles about life in Berlin from a newsletter about life in Berlin? Groundbreaking, right?
In 2026, I hope to bring you all more stories from and about Berlin. And, I hope to expand my content from just my pithy observations to more substantial articles:
interviews and profiles of interesting people;
photo essays from unique places;
and well-researched pieces that provide information you can’t find elsewhere.
Which brings me to …
Offering paid subscriptions
If you visit the website, or click on an archive link, you may have noticed that I turned on paid subscriptions at the end of last year.
I have resisted offering a paid tier for a long time.
One, because I didn’t really think I could consistently provide content people would find worth paying for. Two, one of my main goals in starting this newsletter is to help other people in our situation (new immigrants to Germany) avoid the pitfalls that tripped us up. And I don’t want to make that information less accessible.
At the same time, a lot of the work I want to do takes a long time to research and write. And I can’t really justify the additional time and expense without trying to find some ways to make it profitable.
The solution that I am trying out, for now, is to keep almost all of my content free, without a paywall. Writer Michelle Teheux at Untrickled terms this the ‘PBS model’ - “made possible by readers like you” - because paid subscriptions support keeping the content available for everybody.
I will have some special feature articles that will be exclusively for paid subscribers, but those will also be available for single-issue purchase over on Patreon.
Articles will also be auto-paywalled two months after publication. I am going through my more popular stories, now, and will gradually upload a Patreon version, as well.
My goal is to keep most content free, and have the few things that I put behind a paywall also available for an affordable, one-time purchase price. Think of it like the ‘newsstand’ price of the print days (and newsstand days) of yore.1
There are lots of times I come across an article I want to read - and would pay to read - but don’t want to commit to an ongoing (and automantically renewing!) subscription to a publication. This is true both for other blogs and newsletters as well as major news media.
I really don’t understand why a digtal newsstand price is so unworkable. But, so far, only one platform is making that available.
And, to leave absolutely no stone unturned, I’ve also set up a tip jar modeled on KoFi’s Buy Me a Coffee. But mine is called Buy Me a Döner. (It’s a Berlin thing…)
I think of it as like busking in the subway for change. Everyone can still hear the music, but you can give if you want to.
If you like my work, but don’t want to commit to a subscription,
a one-time donation helps keep the lights on and the WLAN flowing.
Some words of caution
If you do purchase a subscription, or upgraid from a free one to paid, beware of signing up via the Substack iOS app, if you are an Apple user.
The Apple app store requires apps that offer in-app payments (IAP) to pay a 30 percent commission per purchase to Apple. This is, by default, added to the price total in the Apple Store. (You can read more about this issue, here.)
So, signups in the Apple Store will be 30 percent more expensive than signing up through the website.
Additionally, all subscriptions initiated through the Apple Store are maintained by Apple, not by Substack or the creator. Currently, I have the ability to pause subscriptions, issue partial refunds, or offer discounted subscriptions through Substack’s platform. Unless it is a subscriber through Apple, in which case Apple retains all billing information and practices.
Also please note: Except for the Apple iOS managed subscriptions, Stripe, Inc. is the payment processor for all Substack subscriptions.
Some people who have subscribed to a Substack publication did not recognize the Stripe charge on their bank or credit card statements and disputed it with their bank - which leads to a chargeback to the publication owner on Substack.
Stripe charges a $15 per chargeback penalty fee to the publication owner when this happens — regardless of the outcome of the dispute. If a chargeback is initiated, it is a $15 charge to the writer.
In some cases, bad actors have signed up for subscriptions, accessed the content, and then disputed the charge to get their money refunded.
Since most of my content is not paywalled, there is no real incentive for anyone to do this, but it is possible.
TL/DR — PLEASE message me if you have any problems with a paid subscription. You changed your mind or signed up by mistake? I will refund you, no questions asked.
All readers are welcome
But, the truth is, I never expected so many people to sign up to receive my posts, and I am always happy to know that what I write matters to people.
Even if you don’t sign up for a subscription, I hope that you will keep reading, send me a message, leave a comment, and share the articles that you find useful.
And I wish all of you a happy, peaceful and joyful 2026!
I noticed this option after Virginia Sole-Smith at Burnt Toast and Anne-Helen Petersen at CultureStudy both decided to move their newsletters from Substack to Patreon. While I enjoy reading both pubs over there, Patreon still doesn’t have all the features I would want for it to be my main publishing platform. The main benefit is the ability to offer a single-issue purchase - so I’m giving it a try.