Good practices for Social inclusion - Case studies and summary

The SWITCH demonstration site
The local context described
Almost in the heart of the city of Hamburg lies the originally marshy Elbe river-island
of Wilhelmsburg (Figure 5). With its 3.500 hectare of land, it is the biggest city
district.
Figure 5: Wilhelmsburg Island in the river Elbe, just south of the heart of Hamburg
The island consists of six ‗Viertels‘, which are quarters or neighbourhoods (Figure 3):
1. Reihentriegviertel or Alt (=old) Wilhelmshaven;
2. Bahnhofsviertel (=railway station quarter);
3. Georgswerder;
4. Kirchdorf (= Church village);
5. Kirchdorf Süd (=South);
6. Moorwerder.
Tradition and innovation are closely interlinked on Wilhelmsburg. Kirchdorf is the
old Church Village, an agricultural settlement, which has been engulfed by city
development. Through gradual damming of the small river-islands since 1333, the
nowadays big Wilhelmsburg island emerged. In the 19 th century rapid
industrialization and growth of the Hamburg harbour transformed the original
agriculture use of the land. Increased demand for labour made citizens settle on the
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