Roll Call: Berlin’s Best Magazines

A marvellous list of the city’s finest print media

Words By Jonny Tiernan

It’s no secret that we love print magazines – It’s the reason we publish one of our own – but we’re not the only gang in town. Berlin is home to some of the most creative publications in the world.

In our Media Matters series, we get to know the people behind the magazines and learn more about how and why they commit to print. Here, we have created a quickfire list so that you can get to know all about the city’s finest mags in record time.

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SOFT EIS Magazine 

SOFT EIS is a Berlin-born magazine that explores, unravels, and transcends binaries. Its futuristic aesthetic and international perspective ushers in a vibey renaissance to publishing – one that’s cool enough to admire, human enough to relate to, and above all else, tears up the rulebook.

Every SOFT EIS issue slices into a singular theme to reveal its many, many layers. Through vivid design and individualized formatting, each contribution is given its own aesthetic, voice, and unique feeling. This collective approach to publishing results in a spectacular portfolio of human experience. Its debut publication examined the complex topic of sex, while its sophomore issue set out to crack the complex nut that is identity. Alice Connolly O’Brien

Read the full SOFT EIS Magazine feature.

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Flaneur Magazine

Nine years ago, the creators of Flaneur magazine developed the unique concept of honing in on the people, art, and narratives of a single street. The result is a meandering collection of mediums, artfully edited into tightly bound tellings of each street’s story.

They have currently explored nine cities and collaborated with a myriad of locals. Flaneur elegantly gathers the boundlessness of creativity and restlessness of wandering in its pages to playfully challenge the perimeters of print. Ceri Savage

Read the full Flaneur Magazine feature.

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Pornceptual Magazine

Pornceptual is a collective that has been around for the better part of a decade. From their well-known sex positive parties, to their photography, videos, and magazine, their aim is to show that porn can be inclusive, queer, ethical, and intimate.

Many Berliners know Pornceptual primarily for their internationally renowned sex positive parties. What people might not realise is that Pornceptual’s roots are in the publication of pornography as an art form. Their web platform is a constant source of high quality erotica, and in addition to the web presence, Pornceptual also produce a print magazine and have published four issues to date. Their most recent edition, titled F*CK 2020, is one of the best responses to the pandemic that we have ever seen. Art, porn and intense creativity all meet to produce a publication that is hot, smart and provocative.

Read the full Pornceptual Magazine feature.

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SAND Journal

Founded in 2009 on the gathering wave of a thriving international literary scene, SAND has evolved into one of the most widely recognised journals in Berlin. It celebrates the diversity of this city in which we are all grounded, dynamic both in its small granule shifts and in its larger landslides, continually kinetic, forever shifting. 

In nearly two thousand pages of written word and on-stage at their live events, SAND offers space to an eclectic collection of creative expression, particularly to often-silenced voices. Ceri Savage

Read the full SAND Journal feature.

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KALTBLUT Magazine

Founded by Marcel Schlutt and Nicolas Simoneau, KALTBLUT stands out from the crowd by being both bold and stylistic, but without being pretentious. It takes on fashion, music, art and more and has global renown. We really appreciate that even though KALTBLUT has a big international scope, it always pays special attention to Berlin. It’s a very valuable platform that really enables photographers, stylists and other creatives to flex their muscles. Jonny Tiernan

Read the full KALTBLUT MAGAZINE feature.

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Photos by Daria Frolova

20 Seconds

20 Seconds is a Berlin-based magazine for experimental music and art. It collects an amalgamation of perspectives within a flowing freedom of forms together in one holistic, print-only magazine. Headed up by Daniel Melfi, there have been two issues of the magazine so far and they are both well worthy of making their way into your own personal collection. Ceri Savage

Read the full 20 Seconds feature.

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Take a deeper dive into each of the magazines in our Media Matters section.

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