Image: Wikimedia Commons, Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 3.0
Despite a charming reputation and high population here, raccoons aren't native to Germany. The species was brought here from North America in the 1920s, and didn't gain a real foothold as wildlife until 1945, when a bombing raid allowed 25 of the critters to escape from a Wolfshagen farm. Since then their population has exploded; there are tens of thousands of raccoons in the Berlin-Brandenburg region alone. They're considered a "problematic and invasive" species — even if they occasionally go viral for "adorable" efforts to ride a BVG bus.
"The animals can be hunted all year round - and that is exactly our goal in order to curb this plague."
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.
