OTTO LINNE PREIS - luchterhandt

The preferred uses for plots of land with street-only access were multi-storey residential block developments.
At the same time a comprehensive infrastructure was created, including schools, churches,
bathing facilities, municipal utilities and parks.
The no-frills Reform architecture of the 1920s particularly made its mark in the east of the district and
remains in evidence to this day.
The Nazi dictatorship planned to systematically clear Hammerbrook of its residential population. Especially
large numbers of Communist voters lived in the area, and it was decided to reserve this section
of the city exclusively for port and industry use in the “Greater Hamburg” that was to arise after “final
victory” had been won. Housing in the marshland, the lowlands by the Elbe, was deemed detrimental
to the “Health of the Nation” and declared a planning taboo for urban developers.
The area was almost totally destroyed in the 2nd World War. Before July 1943 40,000 residents lived
here; after 10 days of bombing raids only a few hundred were left. The SS forced the survivors out of the
district and sealed it off hermetically. And so a gigantic city of the dead lay in the heart of Hamburg.
The destruction was cynically called a “fortunate happening” that would allow buildings reflecting
Nazi town-planning ideology to be put up instead. This historical shock brought changes that are still
felt today, because the general plan developed at the time later became the foundation for post-war
rebuilding plans.
Development up to 2010
Large parts of Hammerbrook remained uninhabited ruins. Based on the rebuilding plan (1948/54) the
area was designated a zone of predominantly industrial use. A residential population persisted only
in the east, huddled together in temporary housing. Picking up the threads of pre-war life, business
restarted in the stimulants-making industry, vehicle trading & repair, forwarding, wholesaling and
warehousing and the provision of public utilities. The new comprehensive plan (UK equivalent, local
development framework) of 1973 and the draft programme plans of 1977 cemented the development of
a monostructure which started with the 1948/54 designation as industrial zone where people work but
do not live.
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