#2 On the margins

GDR garage courts: the legacy of the ‘Typ I Dresden’

On the edges of eastern German towns they stand in their thousands – once a simple parking space, today a contested piece of everyday culture.

On the margins

‘People here knock on a lot of doors’

In eastern Malmö, a neighbourhood is struggling with its reputation – and with the hope that doors will open for the people who live there.

On the margins

‘Why would he need a raincoat? He’s got a car’

How tunnels and roads shape life on the Faroe Islands – sometimes with surprisingly dry logic.

On the margins

Do friendships last longer in the countryside? A visit to Hettenkirchen

A self-built party hut, fixed rituals, the same faces: on a closeness that in rural areas sometimes lasts a lifetime.

On the margins

The war that stays invisible: exploring Poland and Moldova

How the Russian invasion shows itself in the border regions – and at the same time stays hidden. Pictures from the threshold of Europe.

On the margins

‘It was raining ice, and our feet were frozen’

A personal visit to the memorial: a survivor’s voice guides us through the history of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp – between grief and new beginnings.

On the margins

Nordhorn Range: ‘There’s nothing we can do about it, in court or otherwise’

For years, residents have been protesting against low-flying jets and bombing practice – and keep coming up against limits.

A soldier in camouflage uniform works at a computer in the control room of the Nordhorn Range, a military firing range. Another soldier can be seen at a different workstation in the background, while large windows look out over the site and the surrounding landscape.

On the margins

Fleeing the GDR in a car boot: ‘Inside, I was still on the run’

Veronika Schneider fled the GDR as a young woman – and only realised decades later how long the fear had kept its grip on her.

On the margins

Camping with a heart: an unusual idea to help Ukraine

One woman, one campsite, a whole village: how spontaneous solidarity turned into lasting support.

On the margins

Sunday morning on the city’s edge: a walk along Hannover’s fringes

Quiet streets, empty squares, early light: a photographic approach to the fringes of a city.

On the margins

Magic on the edge of town: what remains of a childhood on the fringes

Our author returns to the playgrounds and woods of his childhood – and discovers how sobering reality can be.

On the margins

Bird warden in the Wadden Sea: seven months alone on an island

What months of isolation do to a person – and why the rising sea level becomes a daily worry.

The ornithologist Anne de Walmont looks through her spotting scope to count birds.

On the margins

‘I can shop whenever I want’

Open around the clock, almost without staff: how a self-service shop makes village life more relaxed.

There is more going on at the margins than you might think. Where cities fray and maps grow thin, our second focus topic tells the stories of people who rarely appear anywhere else.

We visit East German garage courts in Dresden and a bird warden who spends seven months in the Wadden Sea. We listen to residents living next to the Nordhorn Range and learn how an escape from the GDR in the boot of a car succeeded.

The margins are places of transition. Here, what the centre likes to overlook remains visible – for better and for worse.

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