At some point on Tuesday night, someone at Deutsche Bahn installed a system update. By 11 pm, the entire national rail network had ground to a halt.
Sabotage is not suspected, but rather a failure of the GSMR — the digital radio system used by train drivers to communicate with network control centers and digital operators. It’s the system that tells drivers when something is on the tracks, when a level crossing hasn’t closed, or when there is a person on the line. When it goes down, none of the trains can move.
The fact that a technical defect has brought the entire rail network in Germany to a standstill is a new low point in an already poor service quality.
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.
