From hefty stories about the NSA, Nazis and religious radicals to hot topics like GEMA, bestiality and startup sexism to killer profiles of fascinating personalities, 2014 had no shortage of things to talk about. Here are 14 of our favourite articles from the past year…
Best features:
- Marx’s Ark (Issue #125, March): The fascinating story of Benjamin Marx, the man who turned a Neukölln slum into a model of Roma integration.
- My Nazi family (Issue #126, April): Rainer Höß, grandson of infamous Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höß, breaks his family’s silence.
- Cowboys and Indianer (Issue #129, July/August): A visit to Western theme park El Dorado raises questions about Germany and Native Americans.
- Jacob Appelbaum: Revolutionary times (Issue #130. September): Our illuminating interview with the hacktivist, Snowden confidant and new Berliner.
- The Wall for sale (Issue #132, November): For the 25th anniversary of the Mauerfall, we found out where all those souvenir pieces of the Wall really come from.
- Searching for radicals (Issue #133, December): Are there really Muslim extremists hiding out in Berlin? We searched for answers and found… ‘Salafists’.
The hot topics:
- Is your start-up sexist? (Issue #123, January): Berlin’s geekettes speak out on gender discrimination in the city’s ‘progressive’ tech industry.
- Loveless in Berlin (Issue #128, June): In our most commented article of the year, we asked: are women in Berlin doomed to be single forever?
- Forbidden love (Issue #128, June): Meet Oliver, a man fighting for his right to love a purebred Siberian husky.
- GEMA versus the little guys (Issue #131, October): A hard look at how the music rights org impacts Berlin’s indie artists and venues.
Notable personalities:
- Romy Haag: Queen of the underground (Issue #127, May): At the height of May’s Bowie-mania, we talked to the Thin White Duke’s ex-lover from his Berlin days.
- Udo Voigt: A neo-Nazi in parliament (Issue #129, July/August): With last year’s European parliament elections, the former NPD chair returned to the spotlight.
- Hubertus Knabe: From Stasi to NSA… and back? (Issue #130, September): The Stasi historian and Hohenschönhausen memorial head on why Stasi/NSA comparisons are overblown.
- Laura Poitras: “I don’t want to be the story” (Issue #132, November): In Snowden doc Citizenfour, the Berlin-based American director depicted the eight days that shook the world… and became a protagonist in her own film.
