Flowers strewn on the floor, a small paper cockade in the German national colours lying forlorn on the cobblestones, and descendants of resistance fighters pushing and shoving with some earnest young fascists: this was how Germany commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler in the aristocratic coup plot led by Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.
Many descendants, myself included, feel a great deal of anger when we see the AfD laying wreaths here.
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.
