With clothing exchange parties we get a fresh face and new self-image for something that’s been happening been going on around students, squatters and groups of friends since, well, forever. Rather than getting together informally to swap trousers, provide a party as an extra excuse. The list of events in Berlin isn’t that long, and the only regular events seem to be in Kollage on Yorckstraße. Nonetheless, they’ve already got themselves an enthusiastic write-up in the Taz.

Much longer-established are Berlin’s several umsonstläden, or Free Shops. This one was part of the Brunnen 183 squat, and so was evicted last summer. But there are others in the TU, at Systemfehler in Friedrichshain, and in Weißensee, part of a loose national network