About The Berliner

The Berliner

The Berliner, published from 2002 to 2024 as Exberliner, is Berlin's English-language city magazine, founded in 2002 by the journalists Ioana Veleanu, Maurice Frank, and Nadja Vancauwenberghe as a free newspaper for the city's international community and grown into the community's reference publication. Published monthly except for a summer double issue and sold at newsstands around the city for 3.90 euros or by subscription, it offers listings, reviews, journalistic articles, opinion columns, and a cultural guide, continually updated online, the complete service package for the international Berliner. In 2021 the magazine became part of the Tip Berlin Media Group, the publisher of the tip Berlin city magazine, and in 2024 it was renamed back to its original 2002 title, The Berliner, after more than two decades as Exberliner. It celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2022 and its 200th issue in early 2021.

Overview

The Berliner serves Berlin's international community: the English-speaking expatriates, immigrants, students, and visitors who make the German capital their temporary or permanent home, the audience the founders had in mind when they launched the free newspaper in 2002. Each monthly issue carries cultural listings, reviews, long-form journalistic articles, opinion columns, and a large classified section, with the website updating the listings and cultural guide continuously for the readers navigating the German capital.

The magazine's journalism is first-hand and on the ground: face-to-face interviews, on-the-ground reporting, and informed cultural criticism, with no PR pieces and no writing to please advertisers, in the company's own description. Its opinion writing has shaped the city's debates, as in the 2013 RANT "Sorry, No German!" article that sparked discussion about expatriate behavior and gentrification in Berlin, lamenting that many expats do not learn German.

Beyond print, the brand grew into a family of publications: the-berliner.com, newsletters, city guides, and social media channels, plus regular events and parties such as the monthly English-language Wednesdays. The publishing house Iomauna Media GmbH also operated Exberliner Flat Rentals, founded a year after the magazine to find rooms and flats for internationals in English or German, and a job board for internationals.

Berlin's international community is the magazine's natural habitat. At the end of 2024, the capital counted 3,897,145 registered residents, of whom 971,878 — nearly one in four — held a foreign passport, according to the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistics Office. In central districts the international share runs higher still: in Mitte, more than half of residents have a migration background. This demographic is the readership the magazine was founded for in 2002 and still serves: the English-speaking expatriates, students, and newcomers navigating a city where a quarter of the population shares their non-German passport.

History

The magazine was launched in 2002 as a free newspaper named The Berliner by the three founders: Ioana Veleanu, an editor of The Village Voice; Maurice Frank of Deutsche Welle; and Nadja Vancauwenberghe, an AFP correspondent in Moscow, three journalists with international newsroom experience. Within two days of distributing the first issue, the team received a cease-and-desist letter: the name "Berliner" had been trademarked by another magazine, a lifestyle glossy starting up at the same time that folded a year or two later, while the ex-Berliners endured. Threatened with a 10,000 euro fine, the trio renamed the magazine The Ex-Berliner, compressed a year later into Exberliner when the Berlin branch of Neville Brody's Research Studios redesigned it.

The magazine survived the harsh economics of independent publishing, learning early to refuse advertorials after an Italian restaurant owner's offer of a paid positive article forced an editorial-versus-advertising battle, a decision that defined its independent journalism. It grew into a staple of the international Berlin community with a reputation for quality, ballsy journalism. The 100th issue appeared in December 2011, and the 200th in early 2021, celebrated with 35 portraits of the city's doers and makers, each standing for one of the many facets that make the city distinctive.

In 2021, after nearly two decades sailing solo, Exberliner joined the Tip Berlin Media Group, the company behind the tip Berlin city magazine with its more than 50 years of history, a move the editors described as flying the flag of local publishers who understand the magazine. In February 2023, Nadja Vancauwenberghe, the last remaining founding member, was dismissed from her role as editor-in-chief. In 2024, after more than two decades as Exberliner, the magazine was renamed back to its original title, The Berliner, completing the circle that began with the 2002 free newspaper.

Coverage and Content

The Berliner's editorial program covers the international Berlin: the culture, politics, and everyday life of the city's English-speaking community. Listings and reviews guide readers through the city's concerts, exhibitions, films, restaurants, and nightlife, the cultural infrastructure that draws the international community to Berlin. Journalistic articles report from the ground on the city's developments, from housing to club culture to migration, the topics that shape the international community's Berlin experience.

Opinion columns give the magazine its voice: the writers argue about the city's future, its expatriate bubbles, and its transformations, with the free-thinking spirit that the founders brought from The Village Voice, Deutsche Welle, and AFP. The cultural guide, updated continuously online, serves the newcomers and visitors navigating the German capital. The classified section connects the international community's buyers and sellers, landlords and tenants, employers and job seekers, the practical infrastructure of expatriate life in Berlin.

The magazine's events extend the brand beyond the page: the monthly English-language parties and cultural events, such as the Wednesdays at Kaffee Burger, bring the readers together. The 200th issue's 35 protagonists of the Berlin narrative showed the editorial philosophy: favoring the doers and makers over the movers and shakers.

Organization and Ownership

The Berliner is published by Iomauna Media GmbH, the founders' publishing house, and since 2021 it has been part of the Tip Berlin Media Group, the publisher of tip Berlin, tying the knot with local publishers who understand Berlin. The editorial office sits near Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin-Mitte, at Max-Beer-Strasse 48 in the 10119 district, in the heart of the city's Mitte district.

The founders were Ioana Veleanu, Maurice Frank, and Nadja Vancauwenberghe, journalists from the UK, Romania, and France; Vancauwenberghe served as editor-in-chief until her dismissal in February 2023. Current editorial leadership is not publicly confirmed in the sources reviewed; the magazine's independent journalism and free-thinking spirit continue under the Tip Berlin Media Group's ownership. The company describes itself as a self-financed, independent publishing venture practicing uncompromising first-hand journalism, the no-bullshit reporting that its readers value.

Digital Presence

The-berliner.com is the magazine's digital home, with the listings, reviews, articles, and cultural guide continually updated online, and the site's archive documents more than two decades of the magazine's history. The brand's newsletters, city guides, and social media channels extend the print magazine's reach, and the site's archive documents the magazine's history, from the ten-year anniversary's inside story to the 200th issue's editor's note, a public record of independent publishing in Berlin.

The Exberliner Flat Rentals agency and the job board for internationals extended the brand's services beyond journalism, making the magazine a practical companion for the expatriate's Berlin life. Dedicated apps or podcasts for The Berliner brand are not detailed in the sources reviewed; the brand's digital presence rests on its website, its newsletters, its city guides, and its social media channels that serve Berlin's international community with the free-thinking spirit of the city.