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

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

Hamburg, Deutschland - in Hamburg there is a new, bilingual city map that puts Jewish life in the city in the city. The plan bears the title "Places of Jewish Culture in Hamburg" and shows in an appealing way the diversity of Jewish life in the new town. 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 for all interested parties and can be picked up at various points, including the Hamburg Tourist Information at the main train station as well as in the Altona Museum and in the Museum of Hamburg History. Alternatively, the plan is also available for download as a PDF, which makes it particularly accessible and facilitates the exploration of 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 places, but memorial places are only taken in. Interested parties can see a more comprehensive overview of the "Memorials in Hamburg" portal.

historical and current Jewish places

The definition, which is exactly 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 historical residential areas include various districts, including:

• Altona: protection jews since the 17th century, upper rabbinate from 1671. The community lost importance after 1812.
• Altstadt/Neustadt: First place of residence for Jewish population since the 16th century with numerous Jewish institutions.
• Grindelviertel: main home from the 19th century, including the central Bornplatz synagogue.

In addition, different categories are taken into account, including education and science, memory, culture and art as well as social aspects. Among other things, information about Jewish schools, memorials, art locations and religious institutions can be found in the plan.

memory culture in change

The new city map comes into another context: the discussion about the culture of remembrance in Germany and the examination of the Nazi past. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that these topics in society have to be negotiated. In the spring of 2021, the artists Moshtari Hilal and Sinthujan Varatharajah proposed to introduce the term "people with Nazi background". The aim was to mark members of the majority society as the descendants of the Nazi regime and thus to initiate a discourse on German history, which also includes migrants.

The proposal met with great response in the German feature pages and shows that the processing of German history is not just a topic for the "German" groups. Rather, it becomes clear that all aspects of society have to be included in the discourse in order to create an inclusive culture of memory that appeals to all people. This topic is founded by the new city map and shows that memory and identity in our society are constantly changing.