Berlin

Berlin's hackathon scene is a unique mix of underground maker culture and serious industry support. All year round, you can find weekend sprints and demo days hosted at cool spaces like Factory Berlin, CIC Berlin, and local universities like CODE Berlin and HPI in Potsdam.

On the student side, HackHPI is a major staple. It's a free, two-day hackathon hosted by the Hasso Plattner Institute just outside the city, and it's easy to reach on the S-Bahn, making it a popular event for Berlin's hackers.

A truly unique event is Coding da Vinci, Germany's first open cultural-data hackathon, which was founded right here in Berlin. It's a longer, more immersive format where participants turn open datasets from museums, libraries, and archives into amazing apps, visualizations, and tools. Past editions have even kicked off at places like the Jewish Museum Berlin.

For those interested in sustainability, the energy and city-tech scene is very active. Energyhack is an open-data hack day run with partners like Berlin's own grid operator, Stromnetz Berlin. More recently, the Berlin Energy Hackathon brought developers and energy professionals together to work on grid resilience and other pressing challenges.

You'll also find plenty of corporate-backed challenges. DB mindbox—Deutsche Bahn's startup hub—regularly runs hackathons that give teams access to real rail data, with a clear path to developing proofs-of-concept with DB units. Similarly, the Siemensstadt Square Hackathon focuses on industrial and sustainability challenges.

The AI scene is particularly buzzing. The Factory Network AI Hackathon regularly brings together 100+ participants to work on applied AI, and community-run weekends keep the momentum going between larger events.

Some hackathon projects even evolve into lasting tools. From Coding da Vinci, projects like "Alt-Berlin"—an app that remixes the Stadtmuseum's collection onto modern maps—show how cultural data can be turned into usable city tools.

The sponsors perfectly reflect Berlin's eclectic tech landscape. Energy and city-tech hackathons attract utilities and public bodies like Vattenfall and Stromnetz Berlin, while corporate product teams from companies like Zalando run internal hack weeks that sometimes spill into the local community.

If you're looking to get involved, major tech festivals like TOA – Tech Open Air often host hack sessions. Data-for-good folks gravitate to Coding da Vinci, while energy enthusiasts have Energyhack. The best part is that most events provide food, workspace, and all the support you need to build something amazing.