(1) strassen|feger - The Street Newspaper

one of the vendors selling our street paper

The newspaper strassenfeger enables the evocation of all sorts of problems and themes of current social events and developments. It gives to the vendors the possibility of improving their economic situation. It is besides a space of expression because the vendors have the possibility of writing texts and articles which will be published.

The newspaper is published every two weeks (26 numbers a year) and 20.000 to 22.000 copies in average are printed. The editorial staff meets every Tuesday during a public meeting, where each of the co-workers and beneficiaries of the newspaper can give their point of view and make propositions to make sure that the chosen subjects are relevant with regard to the current events.

The vendors can get the newspaper 3 distribition points: at the railway station Zoo (city West), at the Eastern Railway Station (Ostbahnhof, city East) and at Kaffee Bankrott; they buy one 0, 40 Euro and resell it 1, 20 Euro. strassenfeger is bought by very different persons, quite hit concretely by poverty: there are homeless persons but also people having an accommodation and who, for various reasons, have very little money.

The objective of the street paper is to help these people to have a supplementary income. The sale of the newspaper constitutes an alternative to begging. The workers are very autonomous because they can propose strassenfeger where and when they want.

The only obligation they have is to respect the following rules:

- Respect the rule which forbids selling in public transports (elevated and subterranean railways).

- To not sell newspapers under the influence of drink or drugs.

- The pestering of the passers-by and the other colleagues is forbidden.

- The appeal to violence and to threats automatically leads to exclusion

- The vendor has to hand in his salary to social services or services of work if it exceeds the tax-exempt threshold.

strassenfeger is regularly sold by 80 to approximately 100 persons, in Berlin and to Brandenbourg. Newspapers are generally sold around supermarkets, in front of stations, squares, during demonstrations. As mob - obdachlose machen mobil e.V. does not impose to the vendors places and moments when they have to work, it happens that they are not found regularly in all the places of the city.