About fiftyfifty

fiftyfifty

fiftyfifty is Düsseldorf's street newspaper — a monthly magazine sold on the streets by homeless and poor vendors, who keep half of the 2.80-euro cover price. First published in April 1995, it has become one of Germany's most successful social projects: a self-sustaining newspaper that has sold millions of copies, a benefit art gallery with works donated by international stars, and a housing program that has brought more than 3,000 people off the streets. Its name is its program: fifty-fifty — a fair share for the vendor, a chance to participate in society, and a model of help toward self-help that has inspired street papers far beyond Düsseldorf.

Overview

fiftyfifty appears monthly and is distributed through street sales in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Neuss, the Bergisches Land, Bonn, Essen, and Mönchengladbach (with individual vendors in Frankfurt am Main); the Düsseldorf edition is supplemented by local pages in the Bergisches Land and Bonn. The cover price is 2.80 euros; vendors buy the paper for 1.40 euros and keep the difference — the fifty-fifty split that gives the project its name. Anyone wishing to sell receives a vendor ID and may only sell with it; while many vendors are homeless, the offer is open generally to people affected by poverty, including migrants from Eastern Europe, for whom the association provides social-work counseling in their native languages. Selling a street newspaper offers people the chance to earn money without begging; the activity structures the day and can help build contacts — the social-work rationale behind the economic model.

The newspaper sustains itself entirely through sales — a circumstance described as rare if not unique nationwide, the economic proof that a street newspaper can be a real business rather than a charity case. The content combines articles by homeless authors writing authentically about their life experiences with contributions from prominent writers: over the years, pieces have come from Nobel laureate Günter Grass, former federal president Johannes Rau, theologians Dorothee Sölle and Eugen Drewermann, ex-minister Heiner Geissler, Bishop Felix Glenn, and many famous authors. The paper made headlines with scoops like the pre-print of the first Harry Potter chapter and an interview with folk legend Bob Dylan — editorial coups that put the street newspaper on the national media map.

History

In 1995, a group around Franciscan brother Matthäus Werner (of the Armen-Brüder des hl. Franziskus) and the religion educator and journalist Hubert Ostendorf decided that in wealthy, successful Düsseldorf, the number of homeless people on the streets had to be reduced. Committed to a Christian image of humanity, they wanted to distribute no alms but to build an organization offering help toward self-help — respecting the dignity of homeless people. The first fiftyfifty appeared in April 1995.

The name was programmatic: enabling a chance to participate in society. The newspaper is the vendors' own business — bought and sold by the homeless themselves. The work itself lets them "arrive" back in society, creates self-earned income, and stabilizes their lives: during selling hours, drugs and alcohol are taboo. Participation of homeless people in the overall project was essential from the start — in the editorial office, distribution, and administration.

The help toward self-help went further: the earnings from fiftyfifty and donations were invested in houses that the future residents — the homeless themselves — renovated under guidance, creating self-worth and countering destruction. In Düsseldorf alone, Bruder Matthäus and his team acquired seven houses and converted them into training apartments together with those affected. The housing exchange (Wohnraumbörse) found new homes on the open market for over 3,000 people from the streets; the employment assistance brought around 500 homeless people into work. The founders received the Düsseldorfer Friedenspreis in 2007; Bruder Matthäus Werner was named Düsseldorfer des Jahres 2011 for social engagement — the city's recognition of a project that had changed its streets.

Coverage and Content

The newspaper's content is "literature from below": authentic stories by homeless authors about their life experiences, alongside the prominent guest contributions. Monthly themes address the taboo topics with sensitivity — the nextcity portrait noted a recent issue headlined "Love on the streets." The paper also serves as the vendors' and the project's public voice: reporting on the housing work, the gallery, the campaigns.

The second pillar is the benefit gallery "fiftyfifty": five to seven acclaimed exhibitions a year with works donated by international top artists — Jörg Immendorff, Günther Uecker, Otto Piene, Markus Lüpertz, Gerhard Richter, Daniel Richter, Katharina Sieverding, Tony Cragg, Candida Höfer, Rosemarie Trockel, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, and many more — a roster that would grace any commercial gallery, given freely for the homeless cause. Since the gallery is fully online, fiftyfifty sells via the internet to customers outside the newspaper's distribution area — increasingly abroad. All profits and donations flow without deduction into the projects.

Organization and Ownership

fiftyfifty is published by the fiftyfifty association (Verein), based in Düsseldorf (Jägerstraße 15; the gallery at Höhenstraße 51). The initiators were Hubert Ostendorf and Bruder Matthäus Werner. The project works together with the religious order of the Armen-Brüder des hl. Franziskus and other carriers, supported by thousands of people. A team of social workers supports the vendors; street workers like Oliver Ongaro advocate for them publicly.

The organization's economics are the fifty-fifty model writ large: the newspaper sustains itself through sales; the gallery's profits and donations fund the housing and social work. The Wohnraumbörse, the employment assistance, outdoor living groups for women, an emergency shelter for young prostitutes, food and cold-protection projects, medical aid for the homeless, and a home for street children in Brazil have been supported through fiftyfifty. In 16 years, nearly 10 million fiftyfiftys were sold — 10 million contacts between people with and without homes, each sale a small human encounter on the street corner.

Digital Presence

The project's website, fiftyfifty-galerie.de, presents the organization, the gallery, and the newspaper, with the gallery fully online — selling donated artworks via the internet to customers beyond the newspaper's distribution area, increasingly abroad. The fiftyfifty brand has become a prime example of modern social marketing: award-winning poster campaigns realized with the design department of the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and renowned agencies (McCann Erickson took on the name, logo, posters, flyers, and the ambulance-bus design pro bono for the "Underdog" animal-aid and street-work project).

The VOX television channel showed a documentary series in February 2020 ("Obdachlos – Einzug in ein neues Leben") on fiftyfifty's implementation of the Housing-First approach — one of the first in Germany, giving homeless people their own apartment first, without preconditions, and supporting them from there. For a street newspaper, the digital presence serves the fundraising and the mission: the gallery's online sales, the campaigns' visibility, the documentation of the housing work — and the stories of vendors like "Hörman," whose studio apartment was bought with the proceeds of donated Peter Lindbergh photographs, proving that art can literally put a roof over a homeless man's head. As Bruder Matthäus once put it: "We want with our actions for the poor to reach the middle of society." The fiftyfifty vendors on the Königsallee — the "Kummerkästen auf der Kö" (worry boxes on the Kö), a social institution no longer imaginable without — remain the project's human face: the newspaper that gave thousands of people not just income, but a way back into the society that had left them behind.