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Hamburgs Speicherstadt
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1888
Foto collection: Fotos von Hamburg - Hamburger Fotoarchiv // Hamburgbilder: Dokumentation der Speicherstadt - bilder der Hansestadt Hamburg
Historische Bilder: Album „Historische Bilder - Hansestadt Hamburg.“
I have lived in many parts of Hamburg, and frequently visited the Speicherstadt. While Hamburg as a whole is architecturally degenerated since 1943, there are still vibrant parts of the city, and it gives an idea how glorious it once was.
Translation from a book on the damage in WW2:
Overview
The actual effect of the attack of operation Gommorah again came from the fire, not directly from the effect of the ammunition. In 1943, the numerous fires in the main attack area combined to form a firestorm, to which practically all residential buildings fell victim, rendering every air-raid protection measure ineffective.
The damage was concentrated in the inner city, its western suburbs with Altona Old Town, the eastern and northeastern suburbs.
The July attacks of 1943 brought the end of entire categories of monuments and in some cases extensive ensembles: these included almost the entire stock of old Hamburg town houses in the southern Old Town and in the New Town. the Katharinenkirche was considered to be completely destroyed. The old town of Altona was also destroyed, as well as large parts of the 19th century urban expansion areas and core parts of the settlement belt of the 1920s.
The inner city, which had been less damaged until then - the area of the modern Kontor Houses between the town hall, the Chile-Haus and Binnenalster - became the main damage area of the large-scale attack of the morning of 18.6.1944.
In addition to individual hits on the outskirts (Eimsbüttel, Eppendorf, Elbvororte), numerous commercial buildings were badly damaged, and the main churches of St. Peter and especially St. Jacobi in the city center were severely destroyed. The other, increasingly frequent attacks concentrated more and more on the port and industrial areas. Only the purely rural areas and the village of Bergedorf remained largely free of damage.
On May 3, 1945 - five days before the end of the war, Hamburg was handed over without a fight.
Hamburg is the city on the European theater of war that was most severely destroyed by a single wave of air raids. Hamburg accounted for 11% of the total German rubble.
50% of all apartments were destroyed, only 20% were undamaged.
It seems impossible to prove in retrospect the loss of cultural monuments in the badly hit area of dense urban development and urban expansion areas. In the following documentation, only random samples of the buildings that would have been monuments according to our current understanding can be referred to.
The extensive destruction was consciously taken as an opportunity in the post-war period, as it had largely destroyed those neighborhoods whose renovation was planned anyway. (comment: I doubt that)
Port
The basis of life for Hamburg's economy and the city as a whole is the port. Its close ties with the city are preserved in the cityscape of the city center, to which the "Speicherstadt" (warehouse district) of the free port is assigned.
It is completely isolated from the city center by the customs canal and the free port border. It had to be built in 1881-88 to accommodate the free warehouses of the city center when Hamburg itself was included in the German customs territory through the "Zollanschluss" - until then the entire city area had free port status, as it were.
The neo-Gothic brick buildings, designed in the spirit of the Hanoverian School, are the high point of Hamburg's warehouse building tradition. At the same time the ensemble thus achieved the architectural claim of an independent "Speicherstadt" (warehouse "city"), referring back to the historical models of old Hanseatic cities, especially in the design of the entrances, some of which resemble city gates.
Damage: Many times and severely damaged during the war, in particular by the major attack of June 18, 1944, when parts of the Kaiserkaispeicher and Brooksbrücke as well as the Wandrahmsbrücke with its bridge towers were completely destroyed. To a considerable extent, however, well preserved.
Port area
The extensive port areas have always been exposed to very rapid changes in their technical equipment and thus in their design and their stock of cultural heritage objects. All in all, it can be said that the port, as the main military and forensic target in Hamburg, is also one of the most severely destroyed areas: 70% of the warehouses and about 90% of the quay sheds were destroyed.
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Bogdan
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Very intriguing structures.
UNESCO Nr. 1467
"This portfolio contains a photographic treasure: under the title "Hamburg 1883. Photographs of the city districts to be laid down", those residential areas that were to be demolished for the construction of the Speicherstadt are recorded for posterity. You can click through the book below. Most of the image descriptions come from the Hamburg State and University Library. At the beginning there is the original title of the picture."
1883 Photobook, translated into english.
...and here are the original highres scans uncropped.
UNESCO Nr. 1467
"This portfolio contains a photographic treasure: under the title "Hamburg 1883. Photographs of the city districts to be laid down", those residential areas that were to be demolished for the construction of the Speicherstadt are recorded for posterity. You can click through the book below. Most of the image descriptions come from the Hamburg State and University Library. At the beginning there is the original title of the picture."
1883 Photobook, translated into english.
...and here are the original highres scans uncropped.
Funny how most of the city's that end up in these threads turn out to be what we call Star forts/citadels!
Hamburg is right up there with the rest, in fact Germany is saturated with star fort/star civ cities, towns and hamlets! saturated with star fort/star civ cities, towns and hamlets but less so since the war or wars!
Hamburg is right up there with the rest, in fact Germany is saturated with star fort/star civ cities, towns and hamlets! saturated with star fort/star civ cities, towns and hamlets but less so since the war or wars!
One part of Hamburg is still called 'Sternschanze', german for 'Star entrenchment'.
In terms of star forts and their associated field systems i would say by numbers alone that Germany was the epicenter of that old world!
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This old album is simply fantastic, the stark difference between the houses and the buildings that have so called architects design is very striking, reminds me of all those great american building with gaudy looking advertisement boards hung all over them!
Also i do not know why they would build half buried cellars next to such a body of water, if the river was to swell then they would be flooded, makes more sense that they are being reoccupied, to my tiny little brain at least!
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While we're on the subject of Hamburg as a star city, and the focus on Germany as star civ central, here's the resource for diving deeper with the use of Google Earth. Fenton from starciv.org has put together an awesome catalog of star citadels in both France and Germany. The map image of Germany in Citezenship's post is the base image of the map that Fenton produced. You can zoom down and look at every one of these star forts/citadels, one KMZ file for France and one for Germany:
I suppose it is no coincidence that Hamburg was one of the most heavily bombed cities in WWII. Enter operation "Gomorrha" ...
I also use these and have a few more and as such have a very extensive star fort/civ map, will get the kmz exported and put it up here for those that want it!
As promised here is a copy of my and all other star fort maps I have, hope you enjoy!
It is a relatively big file at 83mb so i hope it will load to this page but if not and you want a copy please pm me.
Also if our members know of any more please post them up or pm me with details, also if this is not the right place i can start a new thread!
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This is too awesome not to include for posterity, and looks like the orphan trains just dropped off these kids.
Looking at those pictures, knowing how the area looks today, this is unbelievable, since there are only around 100 years in between. When I walked over the street where the children are in the photo, the place felt totally ahistoric, not a single old timber-framed building is left, only modern houses and busy streets.
The buildings look extremely old, and it seems people came straight out of the middle ages into the 19th century. There is a strange aura around everything, as if there's the dust of eternity over these houses.
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Bogdan
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That was the first thought that crossed my mind seeing this. Really amazing pictures. Thanks for taking the time to upload them here!
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There’s an interesting thread running through the Youtube channelers about the 1000 years of Christ having already happened. Then around 200-400 years ago, Satan was loosed for a ‘short time’ to test the nations. Maybe these buildings are up to 800 years old and all of our wars are to destroy the evidence of our Golden Age. I could post some of the videos if anyone is interested.
And every person on these pics is posing, both near and far, nobody minding their own business. Though there are some ghostly figures around, exempt the posers, the streets seem to be empty.
Curious light also.
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Saw this in one photo:
Can't find evidence of 'Harburger' meaning 'Hamburger' but it would mean the Hamburger existed in Hamburg years before official history say's it did. lol
Can't find evidence of 'Harburger' meaning 'Hamburger' but it would mean the Hamburger existed in Hamburg years before official history say's it did. lol
Harburg is a district of Hamburg
"Harburger Hause" can be translated as "Harburg House" or "Harburg Hotel".
That's a caption under one of the photos. Why were houses right on the water? Built that way on purpose, or were they on dry ground at one time, and the sea came in and nearly drowned them? Very reminiscent of Venice: canals everywhere, we are told that's how the city was built, but there are more houses underneath everything.
Very nice pictures but it seems like a big fire hazard to have the buildings joined together like they are with one big connected roof for all of them. The buildings look mostly wooden, too, increasing the danger.
Why was everyone looking at the camera? Why were the kids just lined up to get their picture taken....from across the street?
What an interesting area. Thanks for sharing.
Why was everyone looking at the camera? Why were the kids just lined up to get their picture taken....from across the street?
What an interesting area. Thanks for sharing.