MAKE: Blog: West German hacker spaces - C4, Netzladen, and Das Labor

West German hacker spaces - C4, Netzladen, and Das Labor

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Photo Credit: Fukami

Chaos Computer Club Cologne (C4) was the hacker on a plane group's second home while in West Germany. They're on their 3.5th location and they've got a great set up with a kitchen, shower, and dedicated rooms for the storage of club mate, smoking, servers, and presentations. Jens, Lars, and Thorsten put together a presentation of design principles for making your own hacker space that is really inspiring and gives a blueprint for setting up your own hacker space. C4 is a model hacker space with 42 super helpful memberss and the best vegetarian hacker food ever! - Link

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Photo Credit: Eliot Phillips

Netzladen started when the anarchist group FAU had a financial problem and couldn't maintain rent on their space by themselves. Through a number of contacts, they reached out to a bunch of different groups and set up the space so that it could be shared. Like peanut butter and chocolate, anarchists and hackers worked great together and the town of Bonn has a great space for local hackers to get their club mate and community needs met. The space has a lively quality to it. Cool stuff happens and you can feel it in the atmosphere that ideas are born there. - Link

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photo credit: fbz

In the small town of Bochum, is Das Labor, a hacker space filled with flashing LED gadgetry and vital hacking action. When the Hackers on a Plane group visited, Jörg and Til explained that the laboratory was founded by accident. A group of cultural organizations had decided to rent a building and share it and they needed one more tenant. Looking to Netz Laden for inspiration, they wrote up rules and brought together a group of 20 people to discuss costs and membership fees. To spread the word further, they postered the local colleges. Now with approximately 42 members, it's an awesome space for their members to work on electronics or software projects. Their work inspired this weeks Weekend Projects podcast! - Link

Comments

Oldest comments listed first.

Posted by: DerGolgo on September 7, 2007 at 10:28 PM

Bochum has a population of 376,586. That is NOT small. More respect for my hometown, please.

Posted by: wattricity on September 8, 2007 at 9:12 AM

West Germany doesn't exist anymore. Since 1990 we are united and this country is called Germany.

Just a litte remark...

Posted by: johl on September 8, 2007 at 9:31 AM

Now, that's nitpicking, but the points of the compass didn't really change with reunification. The Rhein-Ruhr area is still located in the West of the country...

Posted by: neingeist on September 8, 2007 at 9:47 AM

too bad you missed karlsruhe. anyway: here's the presentation we did for the 4 hackers that made it here.

+++ neingeist

Posted by: Bre on September 8, 2007 at 10:21 AM

Hey DerGolgo, you're lucky to have Das Labor in your hometown, that place rules!

Hey Wattricity, ok, Western Germany!

Neingeist, I really wanted to go to entropia, but couldn't fit it in! I'll see you at Congress!

Posted by: jakemikey on September 9, 2007 at 10:47 PM

I'm an American maker/PhD student living in Dresden - anyone hear of any hacker spaces here?

Posted by: ffefd6 on September 11, 2007 at 2:44 PM

There is a small hacker space in Dresden - just join their SILC channel c3d2 on silc.dresden.ccc.de.

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