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Germany also had a phone monopoly, but was even more restrictive than AT&T in the US. The German hacker scene came out of very similar roots. But the common thread among the phone phreaks is that they were communicating, both as the means and the end goal. Of course, it also helped that the phone network was one of the most interesting and challenging pieces of information technology around at the time. In order for a bunch of like-minded technical hackers to get together and chat, or to dial up out-of-state BBSes, they almost had to break into the system. At the time, AT&T had a monopoly on long-distance phone calls, and the prices were anything but reasonable. If you had access, they were positively inviting.

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The Legion of Doom’s own Technical Journal, Phrack or 2600, and the free information shared on myriad BBSes of the day were anything but isolating. But they were often organized in crews, sharing information and working together. There were phone phreaks hacking away to make (illegal) free phone calls. And in the early 1980’s, this wasn’t far wrong, except for the loner bit. The US image of a hacker is a guy, maybe even a teen-ager, working long hours alone trying to break into AT&T’s system or playing tic-tac-toe with WOPR. Hacking on the Phone © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. But it’s important to think about why US hackers are marginalized, or why German hackers are (almost) normal members of society, especially while the views of the tech-savvy are increasingly needed in public debate. I don’t claim to have all the answers part of this essay is an attempt to open up a dialog by comparison. How this came to pass, and what it could suggest for US hacker society, is worth thinking about. While it’s certainly not the case that every German would say “hackers” are a force for good, their media presence and overall political and societal impact is orders of magnitude better than in the USA. The Pirate Party, founded at the c-base hackerspace in Berlin, actually got enough votes to have representation in four German state parliaments in 2012, and a single representative in the EU parliament. The press, and not just the computer press, comes to the CCC when they have a story to check out. German hackers have enough respect that the German government frequently takes testimony from representatives of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) on matters of IT security, electronic voting machines, data freedom, and similar areas of expertise. But imagine reading that headline in an American newspaper. The article that sparked me to write this ( here in Google translate) is titled “Why Hackers are so Important for Society.” You know why, and I know why because we take things apart and think about how they work on a fundamental level: from consumer electronics to encryption protocols. If you answered, “just yesterday, in one of the nation’s most important newspapers”, then you’re living in Germany. If you can’t remember a single instance in this century, you’re living in the USA. But think about the last time you heard the word “hacker” used in anything but its negative sense in the popular press. The discussion over who’s a “hacker” is as old as the hills, by Internet standards anyway, and it’s not going to get settled here.

Who exactly are “hackers” anyway? Are we talking about the folks blackmailing you for your account details on Ashley Madison? Or stealing credit card numbers from Target? Or are we talking about the folks who have a good time breaking stuff and building stuff, and taking things apart to see how they work? Say the word “hacker” in different social circles, and you never know what kind of response you’re going to get. But there’s one thing that hackers in the USA are still lacking that German hackers have had for a while: respect. Both countries have seen hackerspaces bloom in the last decade to the point that there’s probably one or two in whatever city you’re living in. Reading Hackaday, you’ll find similar projects coming out of both countries.

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Hacker culture in Germany and the US is very similar in a lot of ways, from the relative mix of hardware versus software types to the side-affinities for amateur radio and blinkenlights.