New city map: Discover Hamburg’s Jewish culture for free!

New city map: Discover Hamburg’s Jewish culture for free!

Hamburg has a new, bilingual city map that puts Jewish life in the city in the spotlight. The plan is entitled “Places of Jewish Culture in Hamburg” and shows the diversity of Jewish life in the Neustadt in an appealing way. Silvie Bomhard, who created the plan, is particularly aimed at young people who are looking for exciting and educational information. The city map is available free of charge to anyone interested and can be picked up at various locations, including the Hamburg Tourist Information at the main train station as well as in the Altona Museum and the Museum of Hamburg History. Alternatively, the map is also available for download as a PDF, which makes it particularly accessible and makes it easier to explore Jewish places.

The initiative behind this plan is a cooperation between the Hamburg Authority for Culture and Media and various researchers. The aim is to present a wide range of places in the Hamburg city area that take into account not only historical but also current aspects of Jewish life. The plan contains information about many different locations, but memorial sites are only included sporadically. Those interested can view a more comprehensive overview of this via the “Memorial Sites in Hamburg” portal.

Historical and current Jewish places

The definition of what exactly constitutes a “Jewish place” is complex. The plan focuses on the use of these places and takes into account historical residential areas as well as cultural and social aspects. The historic residential areas include various parts of the city, including:

• Altona: Schutzjuden seit dem 17. Jahrhundert, Oberrabbinat ab 1671. Die Gemeinde verlor nach 1812 an Bedeutung.
• Altstadt/Neustadt: Erster Wohnort für jüdische Bevölkerung seit dem 16. Jahrhundert mit zahlreichen jüdischen Einrichtungen.
• Grindelviertel: Hauptwohngebiet ab dem 19. Jahrhundert, inklusive der zentralen Bornplatzsynagoge.

In addition, various categories are taken into account, including education and science, commemoration, culture and art, and social aspects. The plan contains, among other things, information on Jewish schools, memorials, art locations and religious institutions.

Changing culture of remembrance

The new city map comes into a broader context: the discussion about the culture of remembrance in Germany and the confrontation with the Nazi past. In recent years it has become increasingly clear that these issues need to be renegotiated in society. In spring 2021, the artists Moshtari Hilal and Sinthujan Varatharajah suggested introducing the term “people with a Nazi background”. The aim was to identify members of the majority society as descendants of the Nazi regime and thereby initiate a discourse about German history that also includes migrants.

The proposal met with a great response in the German feature pages and shows that coming to terms with German history is not just an issue for the “German of origin” groups. Rather, it becomes clear that all aspects of society must be included in the discourse in order to create an inclusive culture of remembrance that appeals to all people. This topic is further highlighted by the new city plan and shows that memory and identity are constantly changing in our society.