Berliners attempt to cool off during the last heat wave. Wikimedia Commons
In late June, Germany saw three straight days that smashed temperature records, with Berlin breaking its all-time highest temp at a whopping 39.9 degrees. It was briefly chaos: the fire department asked people to stop dropping cigarette butts; the city issued a barbecue ban and a wildfire alert; police were spraying people with truck-mounted water cannons; the pools and lakes were packed with sweaty bodies.
Now, amid dreary drizzle and unseasonably chilly nights, we may have forgotten what it's like to have to beat the heat. But according to the German Weather Service (DWD), another round is coming. Temperatures are expected to hit 38 degrees Celsius by Thursday, meteorologist Torsten Walter told rbb.
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.
