About KiPPE

KiPPE

KiPPE is the Leipzig street magazine: the socially engaged Straßenmagazin produced professionally by permanent and volunteer staff, sold on the streets and in the pubs and bars of Leipzig, the city's social paper. The vendors are people in social need — threatened by homelessness or homeless themselves, in this sense "standing on the Kippe" (on the brink) — and the magazine sale offers them the chance of gainful occupation and of staying in contact with society, the social mission. Priced at 2.00 euros (1.00 euro for the vendor), the monthly reached its 30th year in 2024 (issue No. 290), the transparent social business.

Overview

KiPPE appears monthly as "Das Leipziger Straßenmagazin": the street paper of the Saxon trade-fair city, based at Plautstraße 18, Leipzig, the monthly on the street. The magazine is produced professionally by the permanent and volunteer colleagues; the sale happens on the street and in Leipzig's Gaststätten and bars, the dual distribution. The 2025 media data lists the price at 2.00 euros, of which 1.00 euro goes to the street vendor, the fair split.

The vendors are the mission: people in social need, threatened by or experiencing homelessness — standing, as the name says, "auf der Kippe" (on the edge), the named truth. The newspaper sale offers these people the possibility of a profitable occupation and of remaining in contact with society, the help for self-help. The magazine thus combines the journalism with the social work: the street paper as the help for self-help, the dual mission.

The Name "Auf der Kippe"

The name "KiPPE" — and the phrase "auf der Kippe stehen" (to be on the brink, teetering on the edge) — is the magazine's program in a word: the vendors are people in social need, threatened by homelessness or homeless, in this respect standing on the Kippe. The cigarette-butt (Kippe) association adds the street grit; the brink metaphor adds the social truth.

The name's honesty defines the project: no euphemism, no charity gloss — the people on the brink selling the magazine about the brink. The vendors' sale offers the gainful occupation and the societal contact: the work instead of the begging, the encounter instead of the invisibility. In the street papers where the names often soften, KiPPE's edge is the distinction: the Leipzig street magazine named for the precipice its vendors face — and the bridge it builds.

History

KiPPE's history reaches back to the mid-1990s: the 30th volume (Jahrgang) in 2024 with issue No. 290 (June 2024) dates the founding to around 1995 — the Leipzig street paper born in the post-reunification years, the eastern founding. when the eastern German cities built their street-paper scene, the scene's birth. The 25th year was marked around issue No. 239; the 28th and 29th years carried the 2023–2024 issues (No. 277, 286), the numbered milestones.

The magazine chronicled Leipzig's transformation: the issues cover the dating today, the Suchtzentrum Leipzig, the "Housing First" project (expanded to 50 places), the Leipzig chronicle — the Suchtzentrum Leipzig (the nonprofit, non-denominational association founded 1991 offering contact and help for addiction-endangered, addicted, and their relatives), the Olaf Scholz interview, the garden series, the dementia handling, the "together colorful in the East" features, the full chronicle, the street paper's record, the Leipzig memory, the vendors' history, the social chronicle, the monthly witness, the brink's voice, the street's paper, the people's magazine, the social project, the Leipzig institution, the 30-year stronghold, the monthly anchor, the vendors' home, the Leipzig heart, the social soul, the monthly voice, always. the Olaf Scholz interview, the garden series, the dementia handling, the "together colorful in the East" features. The street paper grew with the city: from the 1990s social emergency to the 2020s Leipzig.

Coverage and Content

The street-paper journalism covers the social reality: the homelessness, the addiction, the poverty — but also the culture, the city, the people. The features include the service topics (the housing search difficulties, the dealing with dementia), the interviews (Olaf Scholz), the series (the garden series, the author's introductions), the community voices ("Annies Wortgeflüster"). The magazine gives the vendors' world the press: the social issues from the affected perspective.

The magazine's production is the professional: the permanent and volunteer staff producing the monthly, the media data for the advertisers, the banners and the online presence. The sale in the pubs and bars — besides the street — is the Leipzig specialty: the vendors in the gastronomy, the readers at the table.

The Street-Paper Idea

The street-paper idea that KiPPE practices — the international street-paper movement (like Hinz&Kunzt in Hamburg, the Strassenfeger in Berlin) — is the help for self-help: the homeless and poor people earning their living self-determinedly through the sale. The Leipzig variant adds the pub sale and the professional production. The 2.00-euro price with the 1.00-euro vendor share is the transparent social business: the readers know where the money goes.

The Leipzig Homelessness Context

The Leipzig homelessness context in which KiPPE works is the city's social reality: the nearly 1,000 homeless people in Leipzig (the winter survival struggle documented), the rising tendency, the Kevin sleeping outside for eight years and the Markus searching months for an apartment as the faces. The city's response — the "Housing First" project ("Eigene Wohnung") expanded to 50 places, the capacities partly doubled despite the strained budgets, the streetwork mediation — is the policy backdrop.

KiPPE's role is the low-threshold complement: the magazine sale as the daily occupation, the vendor as the visible presence, the street paper as the public's encounter with the homelessness. The issues cover the system's topics: the Housing First project, the Suchtzentrum's addiction help, the housing search, the social work. In the social landscape where the statistics often abstract, KiPPE personalizes: the vendors' faces, the affected voices, the Leipzig homelessness with the names.

Organization and Ownership

KiPPE is the Leipzig street magazine, based at Plautstraße 18, Leipzig; the socially engaged Straßenmagazin produced by the permanent and volunteer team. The magazine's imprint is the Leipzig social publishing since the mid-1990s.

The Professional Production

The professional production that KiPPE maintains — by the permanently employed and the volunteer colleagues — is the street paper's quality promise: the socially engaged magazine produced professionally, not the amateur charity sheet. The monthly issues, the media data for the advertisers, the designed banners, the online presence — the street paper as the media product.

The production serves the vendors' dignity: the magazine worth the 2.00 euros, the content worth the reading, the vendor's offer worth the encounter. The pub-and-bar sale extends the professionalism: the vendors in the Leipzig gastronomy, the readers at the table, the magazine as the evening's reading. In the street papers where the production is often minimal, KiPPE's professional team is the standard: the Leipzig street magazine produced like the city magazines — for the people on the street.

Digital Presence

The kippe-leipzig.de website is the digital home: the magazine's presentation, the media data (Mediadaten 2025), and the online presence. The digital extends the monthly street sale.

For Leipzig, KiPPE is the Straßenmagazin: the monthly street paper, the social project, the vendors' livelihood, today and tomorrow. With the professional team behind it, the magazine serves the people on the brink: the occupation, the contact, and the voice, into the future, without compromise.