"Fascism Is on Our Doorstep": Peter Thiel Comes to Berlin
Peter Thiel doesn't believe "freedom and democracy are compatible". On Thursday, he comes to Berlin to accept the Axel Springer Award. We spoke to the protest organisers.
Images: Wikimedia Commons, Gage Skidmore, Jörg Zägel, CC BY-SA 4.0
“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” wrote Peter Thiel in 2009. On Thursday, the German-born, occupied-Namibia-bred multibillionaire tech oligarch will be in Berlin accepting the 2026 Axel Springer Award, a prize that honours influential individuals who “face up to their social responsibility.”
HEIST is a worker-owned online magazine, founded by writers and editors who after years working across Berlin's media landscape believed something essential was missing.
Anyone living here has felt a growing gap between the city as it actually is and the version being served up by mainstream outlets. We experienced that disconnect firsthand. We saw political censorship shape coverage decisions and felt the weight of billionaire ownership land directly on our work. It reached a point where we could either keep going along with it, or try to build something better.
That's why we created HEIST.
And look at you: scrolling, clicking, squinting at blurred text just to get a little further. If you'll go to that much effort to read HEIST, you can surely give us one email. That's the whole price, and the rest of the story is right behind it.
Real journalism costs money. We commission the hard-hitting, well-reported, long-form work everyone wants to read but nobody seems to publish anymore.
The future of this city is still in the balance. We intend to be part of that struggle. We hope that you'll join us.
