Housing Crisis: Are Rents Driving Us to the Brink?

Housing has become a question of destiny and one of Germany’s biggest social crises, according to urban development researchers Rolf Heinze and Sebastian Kurtenbach. Their book, “The Housing Crisis: How It Threatens Democracy and Social Cohesion,” examines why housing has become so difficult and what its consequences mean for work, family life and democratic society.

In the ZEIT podcast “Was liest du gerade?”, hosts Maja Beckers and Alexander Cammann discuss the book’s account of the crisis and the solutions proposed by its authors. The episode presents housing not simply as a problem of rents or construction, but as an issue with consequences across social life.

The hosts also discuss one of the season’s most debated nonfiction books, journalist Justus Bender’s “Germany 2033: A Scenario.” Bender imagines a future in which the AfD comes to power in Germany and asks how the party would reshape the country. The discussion considers what an AfD government led by Chancellor Alice Weidel could mean for climate policy, culture and press freedom. The episode frames the book as a test of the idea that the party should be allowed to govern so it can discredit itself. Its answer is clear: no.

The program’s featured classic is Franz of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Sun,” discussed as a religious text that broke with church conventions and remains widely popular. The hosts connect it with the church hit “Laudato si” and pop references ranging from Donovan to Mickie Krause.

For their personal recommendations, Beckers chooses Martin Zimmermann’s “Sunken Worlds: Ruined Cities in Antiquity from Troy to Pompeii,” about life in ruins before modern preservation and tourism efforts. Cammann recommends Judith Schalansky’s “Marble, Mercury, Fog,” a collection of three essays about life and its materials.