The issues developed for the Berliner Gazette’s feuilleton take shape within an international network of cultural producers. In this way, specific needs are made visible and new forms of knowledge are created. Moreover, certain demands are voiced. But how can these needs, forms of knowledge and demands become politically effective? The initiatives of the Berliner Gazette e.V. are to be understood as movements of inquiry. The focus of those movements is the search for a political context, in which the annual theme of the Berliner Gazette’s feuilleton can unfold its whole potential, even overcoming the boundaries of established formats.
The first initiative of the Berliner Gazette focused urban conflicts. In spring 2003, temporary embassies of the “Neue Republik Schwarzenberg” (“New Republic Schwarzenberg”) were installed in several parts of Berlin. The initiative was entitled “Temporäre Botschaften” (“Temporary Embassies”) and took place in the framework of the art project “Aktion Territorium Jetzt” (“Territory Now”). The initiative was provoked by the threat to clear “Haus Schwarzenberg”, one of the most important institutions of independent and alternative culture in Berlin. On the one hand, the initiative “Temporäre Botschaften” led to a debate on gentrification in Berlin, on the other hand it helped to develop a stronger awareness of the meaning of “Haus Schwarzenberg” in the cultural scene of Berlin. One result of the initiative: the concept of temporary embassies was institutionalized.