Homeless Vendors of the Strassenzeitung (December 6, 1999)

This photo shows two vendors of the Strassenzeitung (or Street Newspaper), Berlin’s newspaper for the homeless, picking up copies from the paper’s distribution bus. A newspaper employee (right) is calculating how much the vendors owe him. The homeless pay half of the newspaper’s sales price and can keep the profit. For the more than 6,000 people who live on the streets of Berlin, selling the Strassenzeitung is a way to earn a little bit of money and break out of their social isolation. The first homeless newspapers were founded in 1989 in New York City, and the idea quickly spread to cities worldwide. The first German homeless newspaper was published in 1992 in Cologne. Photo: Uli Pschewoschny.

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picture-alliance / Berliner Kurier
(c) Berlin Picture Gate