About Strassenfeger

Strassenfeger

Strassenfeger (styled strassenfeger, currently strassenfegerMAG or sf MAG) is a Berlin street newspaper, sold on the streets of the capital by homeless vendors. It is one of Germany's best-known street papers and a member of the International Network of Street Papers. First published in October 1995, it was one of three street papers appearing in Berlin alongside motz and Streem, and a member of the International Network of Street Papers (INSP), the worldwide network that links street papers across the globe. After a temporary discontinuation between June 2018 and August 2020, it returned as the strassenfegerMAG, appearing every two months at a price of 2.50 euros, produced entirely by volunteers. It is published by the strassenfeger e. V. association, which also operates emergency overnight accommodation, a day café, and a weekly social brunch for the city's homeless community.

Overview

Strassenfeger is a social project: homeless vendors buy the paper and sell it on the street, keeping the proceeds to spend as they freely decide, rather than depending on charity handouts. The paper's circulation was reported at 8,000 to 9,000 copies with 18 issues a year in its classic period, and it stood alongside motz and Streem as one of the three street papers of the capital. The paper's own understanding is that homeless people should not be dependent on "soup and socks" but should be able to decide freely how to use the money they earn. The current strassenfegerMAG appears every two months at 2.50 euros per issue, produced entirely by volunteers, with around 25 people involved according to the association's board: writers, designers, and social workers who keep the paper and the projects running.

The strassenfeger e. V. association's work extends far beyond the newspaper: it operates a year-round emergency overnight shelter in Storkower Straße 139c in Prenzlauer Berg, open daily from evening to morning, a day café in Oderberger Straße, and since June 2021 a weekly "Sozial Brunch" that offers homeless people warm meals and professional social counseling. The shelter is listed among the year-round emergency accommodations of the city. The paper is thus one pillar of a broader social infrastructure for Berlin's homeless community, in a city where thousands of people live on the streets and where the association's shelters, cafés, and counseling fill gaps the public system leaves.

History

Strassenfeger first appeared in October 1995, founded as a street newspaper that would give homeless people a voice and an income, and it joined the International Network of Street Papers (INSP), the global association of street papers. For more than two decades it reported on the precarious situation of Berlin's homeless, aiming to create an atmosphere of solidarity and to sensitize the public to the situation of those excluded from the community. The association also ran the Kaffeebankrott meeting place and lounge for its vendors and the emergency overnight shelter in Storkower Straße, giving the paper's sellers a place to gather, warm up, and organize.

In June 2018, the members' assembly decided on June 18 to discontinue both the Strassenfeger and the Kaffeebankrott: the project had long been known to be running at a deficit, and the association's homepage had already warned that internal resources were very scarce, too scarce to continue both projects. The nonprofit Karuna social cooperative of the Karuna e. V. association announced it would help the Strassenfeger with personnel and finances, but the paper was suspended from June 2018 to August 2020. The Karuna social cooperative offered personnel and financial help, but the paper was suspended from June 2018. The association restructured, expanding its direct aid offerings, and in 2020 resumed media work with the successor magazine strassenfegerMAG (short: sf MAG), giving those affected a renewed opportunity for self-determined earning.

In December 2025, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the association's day café in Oderberger Straße on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the street paper's founding, thanking the association for its years of commitment to homeless and unhoused people. Steinmeier served potato soup with sausages alongside the volunteers and said that the people there, full-time and voluntary, bring warmth to the part of society that experiences social cold, and the climatic cold of those days. The visit, reported by the dpa news agency, confirmed the paper's place in Berlin's social landscape three decades after its founding. The visit confirmed the paper's place in Berlin's social landscape three decades after its founding.

Coverage and Content

Strassenfeger covers the life and concerns of homeless people in Berlin: social policy, housing and the search for accommodation, health and addiction, work and income, and the everyday realities of street life, alongside culture and city topics. Its reporting aims to create an atmosphere of solidarity with homeless people and to sensitize the public to the situation of those excluded from the community. The paper gives its vendors and the homeless community a voice in the city's public sphere, reporting from the perspective of those affected. As a street paper in the INSP tradition, it combines journalism with social purpose: every issue sold is both information and income for the vendor, and every purchase is a vote for the dignity of self-determined work.

The bimonthly rhythm of the strassenfegerMAG allows for deeper features than the original paper's frequency permitted, and each new issue appears every two months for 2.50 euros. The volunteer editorial team of around 25 produces the magazine, and its sale on the streets of Berlin continues the direct encounter between housed and unhoused Berliners that is the street paper's essential social function: the moment of purchase breaks, however briefly, the invisibility of homelessness.

Organization and Ownership

Strassenfeger is published by the strassenfeger e. V. association of Berlin. After the original street paper's publication had to be temporarily discontinued in 2018, the association's operative work went through a restructuring phase in which direct aid offerings were expanded. The operational leadership passed through several board compositions after February 2017, with Samyr Bouallagui providing continuity as board member and social worker, accompanying the implementation of the various social offerings; the board includes Tanja Schmidt. The association operates the emergency overnight shelter in Storkower Straße, the day café in Oderberger Straße, and the weekly social brunch. Financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

Strassenfeger.org is the association's website, presenting the magazine, the social projects from the emergency shelter to the social brunch, and donation opportunities for supporters who want to fund the association's continuing work. The paper's sale remains anchored in the physical encounter on the street, with the website supporting the association's fundraising and information work. Social media channels extend the association's reach.

Thirty Years on the Street

From its 1995 founding through the 2018 crisis to the strassenfegerMAG relaunch, Strassenfeger has embodied the street paper idea in Berlin: journalism as social project, giving homeless people not alms but work, not pity but a voice. Its vendors remain a familiar sight in the city's streets, stations, and squares, and each sale is a small act of recognition between strangers. The Federal President's 2025 visit marked three decades of that work, and the strassenfegerMAG continues to appear on Berlin's streets, a bimonthly reminder that the city's poorest residents have something to say.