Marcel Winatschek

The Kiezmarke

You walk past someone on the street asking for money and there’s always that moment. Cash disappears. You don’t know where it goes, and that’s the thing that lets you keep walking.

Berlin has something called the Kiezmarke—a token system run by One Warm Winter, a campaign trying to get people to think about homelessness instead of stepping over it. You buy the tokens from shops like Mustafa’s Kebap or Schillerburger. Each one’s good for a meal, sandwich, clothes, a haircut. You hand it to someone on the street, they trade it in.

It just removes the whole anxiety. No wondering about intentions or outcomes. The choice is already made for you. The person gets fed. The shop makes a sale. One Warm Winter gets a donation. No second-guessing.

I’m not sure it fixes homelessness or anything grand like that. But it’s more honest than most of what we do—it admits that most of the time you’re just responding to something in front of you, not solving anything. You give the token and walk on. That might be enough.