Unexploded bombs from WWII in Reutlingen, Germany. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Runner1928, CC BY-SA 4.0
On Wednesday morning at 10:40am, during sewer maintenance on a stretch of the Neukölln shipping canal, a 100-kilogramme bomb from World War II was discovered at the bottom of the waterway, never having detonated.
The explosive was found between Teupitzer Straße and Treptower Straße, just a few streets away from busy Sonnenallee — forcing police to cordon off a 500-metre "exclusion zone" that included a retirement home, a homeless shelter, and a daycare center, and rerouting three BVG bus lines. Roughly 5,600 households were also asked to immediately evacuate the area.
"Anyone within the exclusion zone during this time is in mortal danger."
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.
