Meeting point: U-/S-Bahn station Berliner Tor (exit Beim Strohhause)

Borgfelde is one of the smallest districts of Hamburg. Despite its central location – only about 2 km from the Town Hall – it is little known. Heavily damaged in the devastating firestorm of World War II and crossed by roaring traffic axes, the district characterized by red line buildings offers some exciting details between Berliner Tor and Landwehr:Streets with Gründerzeit town villas, large convent buildings, the “Job's Hospital”, bunkers, representative buildings from the 1920s, and a landscape axis with a cycle route along the Geestkante, which was once a popular location for villas and grand buildings with wide views over the marsh.

The wave of allied bombing raids on the metropolis of the German armaments industry in July/August 1943 was, up to that point, the heaviest airstrike in the history of the war. On this city tour, we will trace the devastation in the then almost completely destroyed district of Hammerbrook - from the Berliner Tor along bunker facilities, sites of Nazi terror, to the center of the firestorm. Alongside many historical facts, audio documents, philosophical, and artistic approaches will be presented.