One of my favorite idiomatic expressions in the German language is “Große Ereignisse werfen ihren Schatten voraus” — “Great events cast their shadows before them.” That’s exactly what I felt on a cold March afternoon, when dear Sinan and I enjoyed a steaming, fragrant bowl of Pho Bo.

It was still within the first 100 days of Sinan’s tenure as Managing Director of SIBB when he said: “I want SIBB to become a lighthouse for the digital economy in Berlin and Brandenburg.”

We have good news: barely half a year has passed, and the light of that lighthouse has already reached Warsaw. Because even without being officially part of the delegation of Berlin’s Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Enterprises led by Franziska Giffey, SIBB’s presence was clearly felt in many of the conversations there. It shows not only the transformation you are driving — but also the transformation SIBB itself is undergoing. And that is truly exhilarating. Now that the last particles have settled, let me tell you a bit more about that trip.

The Sense of Interconnectedness

Maybe it’s just me, but I sometimes feel that the years of the pandemic made us forget how deeply it matters to be together: in one room, on one train (or tram), in the same tower – collectively emerging in a different city to experience it together.

This sense of interconnectedness becomes even more powerful when you realize how profoundly historical events shape our present. The speeches by Franziska Giffey, Berlin’s State Senator for Economy, Energy and Enterprises, Miguel Berger, the German Ambassador to Poland, and Maciej Fijałkowski, Secretary for Economic Development of the City of Warsaw, all touched on the same historical threads and built a beautiful cadence – the reunification of Germany, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the implications both have on the relationship between Poland and Germany, especially Berlin.

It was a fertile ground for a shared realization: if Poland is Germany’s fourth-largest business partner, for Berlin, it is number one.
So how do we build further on this?

Business & Politics

When you bring business and politics into the same conversation, two opposing thoughts often arise.

On one hand, there’s the notion that politics has nothing to do with business – that one should abstain from taking any stance, as business somehow transcends it.
On the other, there’s the argument, going back to Adam Smith, that every economy is a political economy. The first position always made me slightly uncomfortable. I tend to respond with a quiet “yes, but…” – because I firmly believe that our political views are deeply rooted in our values, and those values shape how we do business and with whom.

Yes, I realize that a heated political argument is hardly mise en place at a business dinner.
Yet, this was exactly what fascinated me about the delegation: the discussions were either very concrete – exploring how global politics affect the lives and economies of our cities – or very fundamental – about values and convictions. Furthermore, it is precisely because we agreed on the big things (our values and direction) that we could stay concrete in planning without getting lost in the small ones. So yes, there was indeed a lot of talking – but surprisingly little cliché bingo or bickering about whose party colours were prettiest.

Serendipity

Finally, the combination of that renewed sense of interconnectedness and the ever-closer entanglement of our root systems made planning the next steps feel entirely natural – whether in the context of Oder-Partnerschaft, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year; the jubilee partnership between Berlin and Warsaw; or the ambitious Expo 2035 Berlin plan. What does the future hold for us? Let’s not wait and see, let’s build it together!