Berlin's largest brothel, Artemis, is also one of Germany's largest sex-work spaces, with four storeys, three nude saunas, and room for roughly 600 customers. The brothel has never gone without controversy: there was a PR snafu during the 2006 World Cup (in which the owner overestimated how horny football would make tourists), a failed raid in 2016, and years of battles with the district over planned expansions. Now it's been uncovered that amid all that, the state of Berlin shelled out at least €1.75 million in government aid during the Coronavirus pandemic.
"While millions were paid to brothels, prostitutes fell into financial hardship."
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.
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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.
