Wikimedia Commons, ShinRyu Forgers, Kara Payne, CC BY 4.0
At the start of the year, an arson attack on Berlin's power grid plunged part of the city into four days of darkness, affecting more than 40,000 households, 2,000 businesses, and several nursing homes and hospitals. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without heat of electricity in freezing winter weather.
The full extent of the blackout — and its bungled handling by the government — is still coming to light. This week, officials confirmed that attack also affected a critical safety facility for radioactive waste, where nuclear material is stored and the radioactivity levels in the city are monitored.
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.
