About Hinz&Kunzt

Hinz&Kunzt

Hinz&Kunzt is Hamburg's street magazine, published monthly since November 1993 and sold predominantly by homeless and houseless people in the Hamburg region. With a sold circulation of 52,629 copies (IVW), it is one of Germany's largest street papers and, in its own words, Hamburg's largest employment project for homeless and poor people. Published by the nonprofit Hinz&Kunzt gGmbH at Minenstraße 9 in Hamburg, the magazine sees itself as an advocate for homeless and socially disadvantaged people, representing their interests to politicians, authorities, companies, and associations. The name plays on the German idiom "Hinz und Kunz," meaning everyman: the magazine shows Hamburg from below as well as from above, insisting that every Hinz and every Kunz counts.

Overview

Hinz&Kunzt appears monthly as a full-fledged city and street magazine: alongside the social-policy journalism that is its mission, it covers Hamburg's culture, politics, and urban life with professional journalistic standards. The vendors, homeless and poor people who sell the magazine on Hamburg's streets, keep half of the cover price of 2.20 euros, giving them an income, a daily structure, and social contacts. Binding rules apply to vendors: selling while intoxicated or consuming alcohol during sales is prohibited, as is begging alongside selling.

The magazine's programmatic claim is captured in the sentence visitors can read on the floor of the viewing platform of Hamburg's St. Michaelis church: "Here you see Hamburg from above. We show it from below as well." As a "lobby for the poor," the project represents the interests of homeless and socially disadvantaged people to politicians, authorities, companies, and associations. The project behind the magazine includes social work, employment programs, and the social city tours that show Hamburg from the perspective of those who live on its streets.

History

The first issue of Hinz&Kunzt was published on November 6, 1993, in an edition of 30,000 copies, just two weeks after Munich's BISS and a year after Cologne's BankExpress, Germany's first street paper. The founding father was Dr. Stephan Reimers, then head of the Diakonisches Werk Hamburg, who had been inspired by London's street paper The Big Issue, founded in 1991 by John Bird as Europe's first street paper. The result of his efforts was a collaboration between homeless people from the Oase self-help group and professional journalists.

The 1990s saw the emergence of the modern street-paper movement: after the New York Streetnews of 1989 and The Big Issue of 1991, the concept spread across Europe and the world, with German papers following from 1992. Hinz&Kunzt belonged to this pioneering generation and grew into one of the movement's flagships. The magazine is published by the nonprofit Hinz&Kunzt gGmbH, with Dirk Ahrens as publisher, Jörn Sturm as managing director, and Birgit Müller as editor-in-chief. The ZDB catalog number 3025508-9 documents its bibliographic continuity.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's journalism combines advocacy with city-magazine quality. Social reporting documents the reality of homelessness in Hamburg: the causes, the gaps in the safety net, and the political decisions that affect the poor. Hamburg's homelessness statistics give the reporting its urgency: the city counts thousands of homeless and tens of thousands of houseless people, more in proportion than any other German state. The magazine follows the housing debates, the shelter system, and the social policies of the city-state with the expertise of those directly affected.

Cultural and urban coverage broadens the magazine's appeal: Hamburg's cultural life, port, neighborhoods, and people are portrayed with the same care as the social topics. The vendors' stories give the magazine its human center: portraits of the sellers, like the long-time vendor whose customers became family, show the relationships that the street sale creates. The magazine thus functions on two levels: as journalism about the city and as a medium of encounter between its readers and its vendors. This dual function is the street paper's genius: the reader buys not only a magazine but a moment of human contact, and the vendor sells not only a product but a story, their own presence on the street becoming the argument for the magazine's existence. The professional journalists who produce the magazine work in collaboration with the vendors' lived experience, a newsroom model that no conventional city magazine can replicate.

The Project

"Hinz&Kunzt" is both the magazine's title and the name of the project behind it: Hamburg's largest employment project for homeless and poor people. Beyond the vendor system, the project includes social work that supports vendors and other homeless people: counseling, assistance with bureaucracy, and pathways into housing and employment. The social city tours, in which formerly homeless guides show Hamburg from their perspective, have become a signature offering, giving participants an income and the public an education.

The project's advocacy work represents the interests of the homeless to the city's politics: the magazine's journalism and the project's public voice make homelessness visible in a city that markets itself as prosperous and beautiful. The "lobby for the poor" thus operates on multiple levels: the individual encounter at the point of sale, the journalistic advocacy in the magazine, and the political representation in the city's institutions. The academic interest in the project, from ethnographic studies of the magazine as an occasion for social interaction to the documentation of its history, testifies to its significance beyond Hamburg: Hinz&Kunzt is a case study in how journalism and social work can reinforce each other.

Organization and Ownership

Hinz&Kunzt is published by the Hinz&Kunzt gGmbH, the nonprofit publishing company based at Minenstraße 9, 20099 Hamburg. The publisher is Dirk Ahrens, the managing director is Jörn Sturm, and the editor-in-chief is Birgit Müller. The nonprofit status reflects the project's social mission: the magazine is not a commercial enterprise but an instrument of poverty relief and advocacy.

The business model combines the magazine's sales revenues, with vendors keeping half the cover price, with donations and public support for the social work. The sold circulation of 52,629 copies (IVW) makes it one of Germany's highest-circulation street papers, a commercial success that funds the social mission. The binding vendor rules, prohibiting alcohol during sales and begging alongside, protect the magazine's reputation and the vendors' dignity.

Digital Presence

The portal hinzundkunzt.de is the magazine's digital home, presenting the current issue's topics, the project's work, and the ways to support it. The website extends the magazine's journalism online and provides the infrastructure for donations, subscriptions, and the social city tours. For a street paper, the digital presence complements the physical sale: the encounter on the street remains irreplaceable, but the website reaches supporters who want to engage beyond the point of sale.

In an era of print decline, Hinz&Kunzt's 30-year run demonstrates the street paper's resilience: the personal sale creates a relationship that no algorithm can replicate, and the social mission gives the magazine a purpose that transcends the news cycle. From the 30,000 copies of November 1993 to the 52,629 of today, Hinz&Kunzt has grown into Hamburg's conscience, the magazine that shows the city from below. Every Hamburger knows it: the vendors at the station, in the shopping streets, at the Michel, offering the magazine with its distinctive red logo, are part of the city's streetscape, as much a Hamburg institution as the harbor itself.