Welt Kompakt, Scroll Edition
Walking into the Axel Springer building, I expected something worse. We’d complained about this place online for years, built it up as some kind of evil empire, but it was just an office—fluorescent lights, people at desks, normal. Caro, Hannah, and I went with Claudio and Suz from iHeartBerlin, Sandra, Rose, Dani. We were there to make something called Welt Kompakt, a Scroll Edition created entirely by bloggers, by people who lived online. A test. An experiment. Something new.
Making a newspaper with a dozen people who all see the world differently is harder than it sounds. We worked through the day, watched the Federal President election play out live, ate schnitzel and muffins and fruit, chased it with Club-Mate. iPads flying around. Brains on. And I kept noticing how much everyone disagreed about what mattered, what was worth saying, what was obvious versus pointless. The only thing we all agreed on: we all had Macs. Hannah didn’t, which became its own little status symbol somehow.
After work we hit a bar by the Spree and half-remembered what we’d said to all those journalists with cameras. Hannah got loose on wine and chicken. I was stuck on this weird feeling about making print—something physical and committed and final when we lived most of our lives online throwing things into the void. The edition came out eventually. It mattered for a moment, this one specific beautiful thing we’d actually made together.
Most of it’s gone now. But I still don’t know who Carolin Schmitz is, the name that kept floating around that day like some kind of inside joke. Nobody ever explained it.