Already smoked crack as a child: YouTube channel tells harrowing stories from Frankfurt Central Station

Created: 06/01/2023, 17:00

By: Katja Saake

YouTube channel lets homeless people and addicts from the train station district of Frankfurt have their say.

The stories are shocking - some have been on the drug scene since they were children.

Frankfurt – "Many would not survive a single day in the shoes of these people," says Youssuf, the man behind the YouTube channel "Stimme der Strasse" in a video.

He wants to give a voice to people who are otherwise not heard: homeless people and addicts from the scene around Frankfurt Central Station.

On his YouTube channel, they tell directly and directly about their lives, which are shaped by addiction and homelessness.

You can also find out how they ended up in the drug scene, reports fnp.de.

A homeless man in Frankfurt (archive image) © Boris Roessler/dpa

YouTube channel tells the fates of homeless people in Frankfurt

Many stories are difficult to digest - like Isabell's: "I had a really shitty childhood," she says in a YouTube video.

At first glance, you don't see the tough everyday life around Frankfurt's main train station.

Updo hair, make-up, denim jacket and hoop earrings: The 35-year-old would not attract negative attention in another environment, but she is addicted to heroin, crack and THC.

"My parents are also heroin addicts," she says in the YouTube video.

In the scene at Frankfurt Central Station, she always felt like she was in a family.

That's why she "got stuck here".

Even as a small child, she experienced her father's heroin addiction.

At the age of 9 her mother took her to the scene at Frankfurt Central Station.

She smoked crack there for the first time at the age of 12, followed by heroin at 14.

As the child of two heroin-addicted parents, she was born into the world of the drug scene.

The video tells harrowing details, e.g.

B. that her father taught her drug sales tricks when she was a child.

Not only at Frankfurt Central Station: Diakonie accepts a high number of homeless people

But it's not just drug addicts who talk about their lives on the YouTube channel "Stimme der Strasse".

Even the homeless have their say.

According to estimates by the Diakonie Frankfurt and Offenbach, there are currently between 400 and 500 homeless people in Frankfurt.

In addition, there are 3,100 people housed in emergency shelters and transitional facilities.

With rising rents and a lack of living space, the situation is not getting any better: In Frankfurt, the number of homeless people has risen steadily in recent years.

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It is often personal destinies that have led to homelessness.

A touching case is Jessy, who has been living on the streets since she was 17 and taking hard drugs.

Your YouTube video on the "Stimme der Strasse" channel is very touching and sometimes difficult to digest.

At the time of the video, she was 26 years old and marked by drug use and life on the streets at Frankfurt Central Station.

She covers her head with a sweater and rocks back and forth slightly as she speaks.

With tears she tells her sad life story: her mother dies giving birth and she grows up with her heavily alcoholic father, who rejects her.

Her only confidante, her aunt, eventually dies of leukemia.

Jessy has a message for YouTube viewers: "Never lose heart in humanity.

Because otherwise many will perish here.”

Homeless at Frankfurt Central Station: YouTube channel wants to enlighten

The YouTube videos are intended to create an understanding that most of these people carry difficult fates around with them.

They want to warn of the dangers of addiction and homelessness and raise public awareness of the people on the street.

Because especially in the winter months, everyday life is even more dangerous for homeless people, as Eisenbahn-Reiner tells fr.de*: It was not until mid-December that a homeless man froze to death in a supermarket parking lot in the Gallusviertel in Frankfurt.

With his YouTube videos, Youssuf calls for attention and humanity: "Stop going through the world with prejudices, because everyone has to carry their own baggage." His YouTube channel "Stimme der Strasse" already has almost 44,000 subscribers and over 6 million views.

*fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editorial network.