Dieter* poses for a portrait in his apartment. As a son of a teacher at international schools, he grew up between Cairo, Tokyo and Berlin. After a long math and physics study for a teaching profession, he found no permanent job as a teacher. Today he lives on his pension, increased only to a minimum survival level, in old age poverty. When he moved from his downtown apartment to the residential complex two decades ago, he had to get by with less space than before. Since then, his collection has piled up to the ceiling of his one-room apartment. He cannot and does not want to throw anything away. // *Name changed by the author
Tanja* and her ex-boyfriend Christian* in Jan’s* apartment after consuming MDMA. At this time, they had been awake for three days. The two were a couple from 2013 to 2014 and lived together in his apartment in the block of flats. Today, Christian is in long-term therapy and Tanja has moved to a new apartment on the 10th floor. // Names changed by the author
Martin* poses for a portrait in the stairwell of the residential complex. During his studies he had a serious accident. Due to a fire, he had to jump out of the window of his apartment. He never fully recovered from this accident. He could not finish his studies and started to drink too much alcohol. Today he lives on welfare payments and is incapacitated for work. // *Name changed by the author