Gängeviertel, Hamburg

Hamburg’s Gängeviertel, a complex of historic buildings on the outskirts of the city centre, has been sold by the city to an investor; the plan is to demolish most of it whilst preserving a few façades, and to replace it with modern office buildings. 

In 2009, against the backdrop of the newly founded ‘Right to the City’ movement, fierce resistance to the plans began to take shape; this eventually led to the occupation of the neighbourhood’s twelve predominantly vacant buildings by activists from the arts and culture scene. The ‘Komm in die Gänge’ initiative accuses the city, as the former owner, of having allowed the buildings to fall into disrepair by failing to carry out necessary refurbishments; it calls for the city to repurchase the properties and for them to be put to permanent non-commercial use for art, culture and social purposes, as well as for affordable housing.

This case is emblematic of controversies surrounding urban planning, in which calls for the preservation of buildings and their non-commercial, community-based use are framed as a counterpoint to uniform architecture and displacement caused by gentrification. The ‘Gängeviertel case’ is particularly interesting as a subject for study, not only because of the initiative’s rapid success (the city’s repurchase and preservation of the buildings), but also due to the subsequent controversies surrounding their future use and management.

“Esso Houses” Hamburg

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