How to meet new people and make friends in Berlin

The fastest way: a small group who have not met, a table booked for you, nothing to organise.

• Socials by Detor (this site): 4 to 6 people who have not met at a social table, for dinner, drinks, coffee or brunch, or a small group doing one activity. We put the group together from a few answers you give once, a person checks every group, and we book the venue and send the address the day before. Before you meet, the others see only your first name and pronouns: no profiles. A seat has a price per session, shown before you pay, with no membership; everyone pays the venue for their own food and drinks.
• Timeleft: a questionnaire in its app, then a small group each week; its site puts "five new faces" at a dinner. In Berlin the dinner is on Wednesday: you hear about your group on Tuesday and the restaurant on Wednesday. No profiles, no swiping; you pay for your own food and drinks at the restaurant. Evenings run in English and in German.
• Supper clubs in people's flats: The Berliner has written about one in a Friedrichshain flat, once a month, joined through a mailing list, dinner free, a DJ set afterwards.

Go twice; the second time you relax.

A language café is a room full of people who want to talk to strangers. The Volkshochschule Berlin Mitte (the adult education centre) runs a free Sprachcafé for practising German every Wednesday from 13:00 to 15:00 at the Schiller-Bibliothek, Müllerstraße 149 in Wedding, near Leopoldplatz; no registration. Meetup has a whole category of language exchanges in Berlin. A beginner is the most welcome person in the room, because everyone else gets to be the expert.

Sport is the easiest way to talk to strangers. Bouldering was built for it: between attempts you stand next to someone failing the same problem, and Boulderklub Kreuzberg is known for exactly that community. Running has its Berlin institution, the Lauftreff: a fixed group, a fixed time, open to whoever shows up; tip Berlin keeps a list for beginners and the experienced. Socials also runs bouldering and runs as small activity meetups where nobody knows anyone yet.

A volunteer shift puts you beside people for a few hours with a job to do together. Vostel lists Berlin opportunities and names Berliner Obdachlosenhilfe, Berliner Stadtmission and the Repair Café in Treptow. Serve the City Berlin and Give Something Back to Berlin both work in English, so a shift there is also where you meet other people who moved here.

Locals' circles here open slowly, as the residents' own guides say, so the first hellos come easiest from people who also arrived from elsewhere. Meetup has many Berlin groups in English; the small ones with the same twenty people every week work better than the large ones. InterNations runs events for immigrants, free according to All About Berlin. r/berlinsocialclub is where the English-speaking Reddit crowd organises itself, and the universities' Erasmus community changes every semester.

This is how Germans themselves make friends: a Verein (a members' club), a sports team, a Stammtisch (a regular pub table). It is slower than a dinner with strangers and lasts longer, because you see the same people every week. Know the form: plans are made well in advance, directness is normal and not hostile, and early reserve is caution, not disinterest. A Verein is an investment in year two and three in Berlin.

• Go to the same thing more than once. Repetition is what turns an acquaintance into a friend.
• Be the one who proposes the next step. "Same time next week?" is enough.
• Pick small groups with something to do. A crowded bar is the hardest room in Berlin to meet anyone in: everyone is already with someone.
• Expect churn. Some of your first friends will leave the city. Keep showing up, and the ones who stay become your circle.

For the fastest way, see this week's tables and meetups in Berlin.