Gabor · Germany
Accessible comfort engineering. Gabor’s Best Fitting technology provides extra support area at the ball of the foot for stability on long walking days. Design and development remain German, while production is strongly rooted in European plants in Portugal and Slovakia, allowing closer oversight of leather quality and assembly standards.
The Teachers’ Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer) · Germany (2023)
A young teacher tries to deal with a series of small thefts at her school. Her intentions are reasonable, even admirable. What follows is anything but.
Set almost entirely within a single building, the film unfolds like a thriller without ever leaving the classroom corridors. Rumours spread faster than facts, procedures replace judgement, and trust collapses under the weight of suspicion. No one behaves outrageously, which is precisely the problem.
The Teachers’ Lounge works as a sharp microcosm of contemporary Europe. It is diverse, well organised, guided by good intentions, and alarmingly fragile once confidence breaks down.
Birkenstock · Germany
The anatomical benchmark. Birkenstock’s cork and latex footbed is built to support the natural shape of the foot, not to soften it into weakness. The brand remains deeply anchored in German production, with major sites in the country, and relies heavily on European inputs including Portuguese cork. It is not about fashion. It is about structure.
Big Tech Must Go! (Big Tech muss weg!) · Martin Andree · Germany (2023)
A bold proposal to break the power of digital monopolies. Martin Andree explains how these large companies dominate the market and offers practical ideas to reclaim a free and open public space for everyone. (Available in German and English.)
Tuta · Germany
Tuta focuses heavily on security by encrypting absolutely everything, even subject lines, by default. It offers its own open-source apps, making it a solid pick for anyone who wants privacy to be the default rather than an option to configure.