About motz

motz

motz is Berlin's street paper — the oldest and largest Straßenzeitung of the German capital, appearing fortnightly with 24 pages. Founded in May 1995 as the merger of the two March-1994 street papers Mob-Magazin and HAZ (Hunnis Allgemeine Zeitung) — the name itself reflecting the fusion: Mob + Ha(t)z = Motz — the paper carries the original subtitle "randständig – abwegig – unbedacht" (marginal, offbeat, unconsidered). With a circulation of around 12,000 copies, sold by vendors in the U- and S-Bahn, on the streets, in shopping zones, before market halls, and in restaurants and cafés, motz is the voice of Berlin's homeless and poor — and the city's investigative journal on poverty and homelessness. Every second issue since summer 2000 appears as Motz-Life, edited by residents of the emergency overnight shelter, giving the street-paper vendors', homeless, and poor people's perspective. In the German street-paper landscape, motz is the Berlin institution: the paper that has documented the capital's poverty for three decades.

Overview

The street paper presents itself in its own lowercase spelling — motz — as Berlin's paper of the marginalized. Appearing fortnightly (24 issues a year in the street-paper directory) with 24 pages, it addresses the vendors and the buyers: the homeless, the poor, and the Berlin public that buys the paper on the street. Each issue has a thematic focus and fixed rubrics; from December to February, excerpts from the "Kältehilfewegweiser" (cold-weather aid guide) published by the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leben mit Obdachlosen" are regularly printed — the survival information for Berlin's winter.

The editorial program has two faces: the regular motz issue, which claims to practice investigative journalism on the aspects of poverty and homelessness — the political reporting on housing policy, social policy, and the conditions of Berlin's poor; and the Motz-Life issue, every second edition since summer 2000, edited by residents of the emergency overnight shelter (Notübernachtung) and focused on the perspective of the street-paper vendors, homeless, and poor people. The combination gives the paper its distinctive voice: the professional journalism on poverty and the first-person writing of those who live it.

The vendors sell the motz at the Motz distribution bus at Nollendorfplatz, at the second-hand department store's locations in Zossener Straße, and at the Motz emergency overnight shelter in Weserstraße — and on the move: in the U- and S-Bahn trains, on the streets, in shopping zones, before market halls, and in restaurants and cafés. The paper's circulation of around 12,000 copies was exceeded, among Berlin street papers, only by the now-discontinued Strassenfeger.

History

The motz was founded in May 1995 as the fusion project of the Mob-Magazin — founded in March 1994 by the Berliner Initiative Nichtseßhaftenhilfe e. V. (BIN), and continued from August 1, 1994, by the association "mob – obdachlose machen mobil e. V.," whose founding members were sellers of the mob magazine, journalists, and socially interested citizens — and the HAZ (Hunnis Allgemeine Zeitung), likewise founded in March 1994. The merger of the two papers in May 1995 created the motz; a separate association was founded for the motz, leaving the mob association without a task. Another Berlin street paper founded in the meantime was the "Platte."

The paper's subtitle — "randständig – abwegig – unbedacht" — announced its program: the paper of those at the margins. Since summer 2000, every second issue has appeared as Motz-Life, edited by the residents of the emergency overnight shelter — the institutionalization of the affected people's own voice within the paper. The motz's emergency overnight shelter in Tieckstraße became, in 2003, the site of Berlin's only year-round women's emergency shelter, operated by GEBEWO – Soziale Dienste – Berlin.

The Berlin street-paper landscape changed around the motz: the Strassenfeger, first published in October 1995, became the motz's larger competitor until its discontinuation; since spring 2020 its official successor, the strassenfegerMAG — developed and distributed by the same association (since 2018: Strassenfeger e. V., formerly mob e. V.), now appearing every two months — continues the street-paper tradition with a focus on Berlin-Brandenburg. The motz, as the oldest and largest Berlin street paper, maintained its fortnightly rhythm through these changes.

Coverage and Content

The paper's coverage follows the poverty agenda. Investigative journalism on poverty and homelessness forms the regular issue's core: Berlin's housing crisis — the rents, the evictions, the displacement; the social-welfare system — Hartz IV/Bürgergeld, the job centers, the bureaucracy; the health of the homeless — the medical care, the cold-weather aid, the drug and addiction services; and the politics — the Senate's homelessness policies, the district administrations, the federal social legislation. Each issue's thematic focus gives the reporting its depth; the fixed rubrics provide the continuity.

The Motz-Life issues bring the first-person perspective: the shelter residents' own writing on the street life, the vendors' experiences, the poetry and prose of the marginalized — the paper as the medium of those it serves. The December-to-February Kältehilfewegweiser excerpts provide the winter survival guide: the overnight shelters, the warming rooms, the medical services, the soup kitchens — the information infrastructure of Berlin's cold-weather aid.

The paper's campaigns and projects — such as the Motz caravan (Wohnwagen) before the Deutsche Wohnen SE at Nollendorfplatz, the "Urban-Art-Projekt" — extend the journalism into the public space: the street paper as the visible presence of the poverty issue in the city. The winter Kältehilfewegweiser excerpts, printed from December to February, are the paper's most practical journalism: the directory of survival for Berlin's cold months, produced with the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leben mit Obdachlosen" and reaching the readers who need it through the vendors' hands.

Organization and Ownership

motz is published by its own association — the motz association founded for the paper in 1995, separate from the mob association that had carried the predecessor. The paper's distribution infrastructure — the Motz-Vertriebsbus (distribution bus) at Nollendorfplatz, the second-hand department store (Gebrauchtwarenkaufhaus) locations in Zossener Straße, and the Motz-Notübernachtung (emergency overnight shelter) in Weserstraße — forms the organizational backbone: the paper, the vendors, and the social services in one network.

The vendors — homeless and poor Berliners — sell the paper in the U- and S-Bahn, on the streets, in the shopping zones, before the market halls, and in restaurants and cafés, keeping a share of the cover price as their income. The Motz-Life issues' editorial work by the shelter residents integrates the affected people into the production. The paper's online presence at motz-berlin.de extends the organization into the digital space.

The circulation of around 12,000 copies (24 issues a year per the street-paper directory, with subscription available) documents the paper's scale as Berlin's oldest and largest street paper. The commercial model is that of a street paper: the cover-price revenue shared with the vendors, subscriptions, donations, and advertising — the social-enterprise model of the international street-paper movement (INSP).

Digital Presence

The paper's digital home is motz-berlin.de, where the street paper presents its issues, its history, and its vendor network. The digital presence extends the fortnightly print paper: the thematic focuses, the Motz-Life editions, and the Kältehilfewegweiser information reach the online public beyond the street vendors' pitches.

The Berlin street-paper scene's digital networks — the INSP international network, the German street-paper associations — connect the motz to the wider movement. The paper's public-space projects, like the Wohnwagen at Nollendorfplatz, generate the analog visibility that the digital channels amplify. For three decades — from the May 1995 merger of Mob-Magazin and HAZ to the present — motz has been Berlin's street paper: "randständig – abwegig – unbedacht," fortnightly, 24 pages, sold on the street by those it serves. In the German street-paper landscape, it stands as the capital's institution: the oldest and largest Berlin street paper, the paper that has documented the city's poverty through the decades — from the post-reunification years to the present housing crisis — and that continues to give the marginalized their voice in print, every two weeks.