Our newspaper “Gefährlicher Gegenstand: Eisenbahnstraße” is a documentary but non-partisan investigation into the conditions in the neighborhoods around Eisenbahnstraße in the east of Leipzig, where a weapons ban zone was introduced in 2018. We have now published a second edition of the newspaper because we were still missing important voices from the neighborhood and certain aspects of the discourse. The new issue is once again available free of charge, regardless of income.
In August 2019, we published the photo magazine “Gefährlicher Gegenstand: Eisenbahnstraße”, in which we counter the stigma of “Germany's worst street” (ProSieben) with a differentiated, critical image. To do this, we held long conversations with residents, used video stills from relevant TV documentaries and our own bodycam footage and photographed special places in the neighborhood with a large-format camera. In this way, we want to supplement the media's image of the neighborhood; to counter the relevant reports and police portrayals with voices from the neighborhood.
After a successful crowdfunding campaign in January & February, we now want to publish a second issue. It will include further conversations with residents: we want to ask whether they feel safe in the neighborhood, how the gun ban zone affects their everyday lives and what they would generally like to see in the neighborhood.
In the new issue, we want to place a special focus on the connections between so-called dangerous places and displacement. To this end, we will be researching more about the experiences with such processes in other cities, discussing them in the interviews and using the large-format camera to focus in particular on the places where such connections are already evident on the surface, such as on the last brownfield sites in the neighborhood.
Funded by the numerous supporters of our crowdfunding campaign. Many thanks again.
