Ben Hengstmann founded the Instagram page “dasistberlinbitch” three years ago and now has more than 296,000 subscribers. The idea: “The baddest shit from Berlin! Send me your photos of Berlin” – for example car chases with the police.
Men flee from the police in a convertible – in reverse gear, across the central reservation of a street and later on foot. Such scenes can be seen on video on the “dasistberlinbitch” account on Instagram.
Over 296,000 people (as of Tuesday) follow the site. Ben Hengstmann (19) is the founder of the account, he comes from Berlin and is a student. “I didn’t expect it to go so well,” he says. Three years ago – while still at school – he started uploading videos from all over Berlin to the platform. “I wanted to build something that doesn’t exist yet.”
Hengstmann describes his idea on the Instagram page as follows: “The most blatant shit from Berlin! Send me your Berlin recordings”.
He now receives 50 to 100 of these per day; he also earns money with advertising on the site and products such as stickers. Some films show police car chases, another scene shows a man dancing and breaking through on the roof of a bus stop. “I know there are a lot of videos where you can say, ‘Okay, you don’t necessarily have to post that now,'” he says. He prefers to try to convey that such actions should not be imitated.
“I’m posting this because it’s part of the city.” Again and again, the videos cause a stir on the Internet – such as an elderly woman who saves a swan from a bridge in Kreuzberg and throws it into the Landwehr Canal.
The feedback from his subscribers is his motivation, says Hengstmann. “I feel like people want it more and more, it’s steadily increasing and that’s what spurs me on.” But he doesn’t want to publish anything that intentionally damages something or really puts other people in danger.
The account is also known to the Berlin police: “It’s a pool of clips and images from the Insta community about Berlin and a lot of what’s happening in our city,” explains a spokeswoman. “Since the Berlin police are part of this city and their operations are noticed and often filmed, it makes sense that some public operations end up there.”
