Advent Activism
Activists in Hamburg thought up a creative way to count down the days until Christmas, more precisely by posting a huge Advent countdown calendar on the city’s streets. They selected 24 derelict buildings at various locations throughout the city and posted a large red number ranging from 1 to 24 along with tinsel and Christmas baubles on the front doors, counting down the days to Christmas and pointing out that these buildings stand vacant and are most probably waiting for new investors ready to tear them down.
The activists, dressed as Santa Claus, or Santa’s Little Helpers if you will, stayed anonymous, but they’re actually a group fighting to raise awareness of gentrification in Hamburg. Their Advent Action is a call to renovate those buildings as well as an initiative to find some useful solutions. Former industrial spaces, a 1930’s villa standing empty, a building owned by the city that’s been standing empty for the better part of ten years, a former hotel along with a restaurant in the St. Pauli district (whose transformation we featured here) are all among those 24 buildings. They’re mostly city spaces, some even under protection, but that still doesn’t mean that they can’t be torn down should the city institutions concur with new investors that it would be in their best interests to do so. It isn’t necessarily a matter of corruption in Hamburg, rather a matter of a flexible protection system. The city authorities dubbed the action “highly amusing” from their offices, but only while it was directed at the city-owned spaces, as they don’t agree that private owners should be called out, and in that case would naturally be against it.
The citizens’ initiative Komm in die Gänge, which translates as “get on with it”, launched their own website where they present the buildings while allowing users to register vacant and unused buildings in the city and surroundings. Croatian cities would also profit from such a public database registering unused city spaces. Platforma 9,81 did something similar with its project Invisible Zagreb — a Guide for Squatters, where they listed unused, mostly industrial spaces in Zagreb, but their map isn’t on online and citizens can’t update it.
The Hamburg activists point out that while affordable apartments and workspaces are hard to find in Hamburg, around 1.2 million square meters (12.9 million square feet) of office and industrial space stands empty. They hope that some of these spaces will serve for creative and social uses rather than helping developers serve the needs of private investors.
Photographs: Leerstandsmelder.de
