FREE FOR ALL: READ BERLIN COMPANION DAILY

Trams on lines “15” and”42” passing through Belle-Allliance-Brücke (now Hallesche-Brücke) at Hallesches Tor on 25 September 1902. Photographer unknown, image via Stadtmuseum Berlin.

Hello, Readers and Supporters of Berlin’s Busiest Blog - thank you for being here and following my daily chronicle of the city!

A change is coming. After a lot of consideration I have decided to remove the paywall from my new daily posts and allow every interested person to read the stories I share unrestricted. The reason for it is twofold.

I am not here for the money.

And while I truly appreciate any support I can get to pay the running costs of the show (including my insatiable lust for cheap second-hand history books), it also bothers me to see that some of the readers might not choose to chip in simply because of their limited budget. Keeping them out feels wrong. Forcing anyone to pay makes me feel equally uneasy.

As someone who has been writing about Berlin for the past 15 years, and has enjoyed every second of it but could never really find a way of monetizing her efforts (apart from the sales of my two books), I was hoping to tap into what seems to be a viable support system.

And while it has worked quite beautifully ever since - I am thrilled with and truly grateful to all my generous subscribers - it has also become quite clear that many of the people I know are tremendous Berlin fans and have been my followers on different platforms for years, now might not be able to get on board of this new Berlin-steamer.

That’s why from now on till the end of the year, each new daily Berlin dispatch will be a free post (after a week they will change status to “Subscriber Only”). I hope all of my paying supporters will nevertheless keep their subscriptions going - however, should you prefer to change the status to “free follower”, please feel free to do so.

If you wish, you can always support Berlin Companion by buying me a virtual coffee.

Berlin Companion is my absolute passion - researching for my stories and then writing those down, my favourite way of spending my time. I want the joy of it to shine through and not fade behind a paywall curtain.

Thank you for reading and don’t forget, there is also a podcast (free) and a Berlin Companion audio-walk app (less than 10 euros)¹ you might want to explore.

Keep coming back for more of everything you never even knew you wanted to know about Berlin:)

Thank you and keep reading!

1. Write me if you want to test the app before perhaps recommending it, or if you unable to pay the price at this moment)