querstadtein is a social business that offers tours of Berlin with homeless people and refugees as guides. The responsible body behind it is Stadtsichten e.V., a charitable organization which was founded in 2013. The goal of querstadtein is to create an opportunity for marginalized social groups, such as homeless people or asylum seekers, and other members of society to meet on equal terms and create a discourse that promotes awareness for different life circumstances and counteracts stereotypes. Querstadtein’s activities have received much attention from the media, even internationally. The program targets adults and adolescents but there are also guided tours aimed at children age seven and up.
History and Funding Before 2013, formerly homeless people offered tours of Hamburg and London . The adaptation of the concept for Berlin was developed by the founders of querstadtein, Sally Ollech and Katharina Kühn, in the summer of 2012 inspired by a similar guided tour of Copenhagen. Ollech and Kühn developed the concept for the first guided tour along with 5 homeless or formerly homeless people and 15 volunteers. The tour guides are usually found through other social associations and network partners.
Objectives
editThe founders of querstadtein noticed the division between the homeless and the rest of society and decided to do something about it. They aimed at creating a space where socially marginalized groups and the rest of society could meet on equal terms and exchange stories about their lives in order to further awareness and mindfulness in society. For the tour guides, the founders hoped to create new opportunities and get rid of stereotypes about homeless people. These goals also apply to the tours guided by refugees and asylum seekers. The tour guides contribute to political education while the tourists are sensitized for the wide variety of reasons why people seek asylum. activities
Guided tour Obdachlose zeigen ihr Berlin
editThe tour guides, formerly homeless people, share their stories on a two-hour tour. They talk about survival strategies and people and places that heavily influenced them during their time out on the streets, but also share facts about homelessness. The tours have been taking place since June of 2013. At first, there was only one tour guide and tours would only take place once every two weeks. However, now (as of August 2016), there are three guides that offer tours through City West and Berlin-Mitte. The tours now take place more frequently than before due to high demand. By October of 2015, 7,000 people had already participated in these tours. The program was primarily designed for adults and adolescents, but since 2015, querstadtein also offers a special tour for children age seven and up.
Guided Tour Geflüchtete zeigen ihr Berlin
editSince the spring of 2016, querstadtein has also offered a tour of Berlin-Neukölln with refugees as guides, which is two hours long and held in English. This tour also aims at uncovering stereotypes about marginalized groups in society, raising awareness and offering an opportunity for people to think critically about stereotypes. Both personal experience and information about fleeing and asylum are conveyed during these tours. By July of 2016, four former asylum seekers had already become part of the project and organized guided tours. The tour guides try to convey how they felt during the time when they sought refuge and a fresh start in Germany. To demonstrate that feeling, the participants are given a piece of paper which has the name of a shop written in Arabic script. They then have to identify the corresponding promotional sign, also written in Arabic script. This activity takes place in areas where many promotional signs in Arabic can be found, for example in the “Sonnenallee”.
Funding
editA great part of the expenses of querstadtein are the staff costs. At the moment there are two fulltime-employees responsible for the project leadership and several volunteers. The tour guides are volunteers as well and only receive expenses.
The organization's funding comes from several sources:
Ticket sales
editA part of their earnings are raised by the sales of the city tour tickets. Besides a normal and a reduced ticket price there is the opportunity to purchase a solidarity-ticket. This ticket is of higher cost and serves as a support of the organization’s activities. However, these earnings do not cover the expenses.
Subsidies
editThe Bundeszentrale für politische Bildungen supports the city tours in the realm of their projects dedicated to asylum. Thanks to the support of the Auerbach Stiftung, querstadein can afford a full-time job for its project management since March 2014. Due to generating a second full-time job in Oktober 2015, querstadtein could start planning their project Geflüchtete zeigen ihr Berlin. The organization also receives fundings from the program Lokales Soziales Kapital (LSK) which facilitates the promotion of micro-projects with national fundings.
Donations
editIt is possible to donate one time or on a regular basis through membership in the supporting association Stadtsichten e.V. Donations can also be made on the internet shopping platform Boost.