2013 German Federal Election - Hamburg Metro Maps (by precinct)

[Velasco]

However, most characteristic are the small medieval backyard alleys ("Gänge"), often donated by rich merchants as refuges for widows and elderly people, and now quite sought after as a way to live downtown yet quiet.


Well, I think, you've got the idea...

This looks like a good place to live in. I think I've got the idea; such level of detail is fascinating to see.

[Franknburger]

I'm not finished with Die Linke yet - but before continuing with looking at their inner-city strongholds, a historical excursion is useful. This also seems an appropriate moment to memorise the "Franzosenwinter" of 1813/1814, exactly 200 years ago.

Hamburg, as most medieval cities, used to close the (few) city gates within its fortification at sunset, and discouraged settling outside the fortification. Nevertheless, "Vorstädte" (literally suburbs, but since that English term is used with a variety of other notions, I prefer using the more differentiated German terminology of "Vorstadt" / "Vordorf" / "Vorort") developed outside the city gates. These "Vorstädte" consisted of pensions and pubs for the late-comers, workshops, but also simple and cheap housing for day labourers etc. Having their own churches made them "urban", and differentiated the "Vorstädt" from villages on the city territory ("Vordorf"). [Suburbs in the common English notion are in German referred to as "Vorort"]

During the 17th century the city experienced strong population growth (from 40,000 around 1700 to more than 110,000 in 1800). In order to cope with the need for housing and business space, the "Vorstadt" of St. Georg, while remaining separated by the original fortification from the main city, was included in an outer fortification system. By the start of the 19th century, gate closure was replaced by the "Torsperre" (gate sealing) - gates remained open for passage until midnight, however, after sunset a gate fee was levied. Consequently, development outside the city walls gained pace - rope-making and simmering whale oil on the "Hamburger Berg" (St. Pauli church) towards the Danish city of Altona, summer houses along the Alster lake (Harvestehude) and in Hamm to the east, increased settlement and development of nearby villages ("Vordörfer") such as Eimsbüttel, Barmbek and Eilbek. By 1810, in addition to 110,000 persons within the city walls, over 10,000 people lived on Hamburg's territory outside the fortifications. The neighbouring Danish city of Altona had 24,000 inhabitants (1803 census), several thousand more populated Altona's suburbs, especially Ottensen. The following map provides a schematic overview, larger historical maps can be found here and here.


Denmark and Hamburg had remained neutral during the Napoleonic wars. However, in order to be able to enforce the Continental Blockade of trade with Great Britain, in November 1806, French troops occupied the Free Hanseatic Cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck. The July 1807 Treaties of Tilsit had the areas south of the Elbe, including the Hanoveranian Duchies of Luneburg and Brunswick being merged into a new "Kingdom of Westphalia" ruled by Nopoleon's brother Gerome Bonaparte. Finally, out of fear that neutral Denmark might ally with France, Britain in September 1807 lead a pre-emptive strike against Denmark. They succeeded in seizing the Danish fleet, but, against the original intention, ultimately drove Denmark to ally with Napoleon to encounter possible further British aggression. As such, by autumn 1807, all of Northern Germany had come under Napoleonic control, with French troops also occupying allied Danish territory, especially ports like Altona, to enforce the Continental Blockade  

Hamburg and Altona, for their substantial Huguenot population, and also Hamburg's republican tradition, had  greeted and celebrated the French revolution. As such, the population initially wasn't hostile to French occupation, especially as it removed various privileges of the "merchant aristocracy" and modernised administration. However, the Continental Blockade cut deeply into Hamburg's economic base, and French taxation, repression on smugglers, and cost of supporting the stationed troops made the occupation increasingly unpopular. To encounter rising opposition and smuggling, France on January 1st, 1811 annexed all coastal territories and reorganised them into four "Hanseatic Departments". Hamburg, capital of the newly created "Departement des Bouches de l'Elbe" (widely corresponding to the southern and eastern half of my Hamburg metro maps) was declared "Second city of the Empire" by Napoleon. Whether that was mere PR, or actually reflected the city's economic and population weight within the enlarged empire is beyond my knowledge.



News of Napolean's defeat in Russia, and the death of thousands of conscripted citizens during the campaign, finally shifted the mood. Spontaneous uproar, initially contained with the help of Danish Husars from nearby Altona, evolved into armed rebellion, and on March 12, 2013, French troops left Hamburg. The rebellion quickly spread to Lübeck, Luneburg, Stade and other towns, and Russian major von Tettenborn could with just 1.200 Cossacks take over most of the Departement under cheering of the local population. Liberation, however, didn't last long. Eager to regain control on the crucial supply line along the Elbe, Napoleon had French & Rhinish troops advance towards the lower Weser, while Marshal Davout reorganised forces in Saxony and led them down the Elbe to ultimately retake Hamburg on May 30, 1813. For the revolt, Hamburg was fined 48 million Franc (no idea how much that would be today, but it sounds like a lot), and the Bank of Hamburg's silver deposits were confiscated. Subsequently, Hamburg was re-fortified.

After a short armistice, allowing both sides to re-organise, war commenced again in August 1813., and culminated in the Leipzig Battle of Nations. While most coalition troops followed Napoleon into France, some set out towards Hamburg and Napoleon's Danish ally. In early December, Davout retreated with some 30,000 soldiers to Hamburg. He ordered citizens to supply themselves for six months, anybody found to not have sufficient supplies would be expelled. 4,000 left voluntarily on December 20st and 21st. On the night of December 24th (yes, that night!), French troops commenced with expulsion, sending some 6,000 people out into a freezing cold of minus 20 degrees. Almost a quarter of them died before they reached shelter in nearby Altona. Expulsion continued until new year, and is estimated at some 26,000 people in total, a quarter of Hamburg's inhabitants.


Simultaneously, soldiers started cleaning the areas outside the fortification to create a glacis. Any settlers there were given eight hour notice to leave their houses, which were burnt down afterwards. Clearing reached the densely populated "Hamburger Berg" on January 3, and also included the nearby "Krankenhof", a refuge for mentally-disabled that hosted more than 800 people. Davout originally intended to also burn down Altona, but the local mayor convinced him to leave the city (which in the meantime already hosted some 7,000 refugees from Hamburg) intact. The map below shows the settled areas that were cleared in orange. Further clearing took place south of the Elbe and, when Denmark had left the alliance with France after the Treaty of Kiel on January 14th, on Holstein (Danish) territory. Some 20,000 people are estimated to have been expelled from houses outside the fortification. However, that figure should include several thousand Hamburg refugees that had initially gone to the Vorstädte and Vordörfer,  so all in all, probably "just" 40,000 people were sent out into the cold by Davout.


Coalition troops, led by Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, who should later become King Charles XIV John of Sweden, were after bigger game, namely Denmark, and just bypassed Hamburg further east. Holstein was wealthy and hadn't suffered war damage so far - what's the point of fighting in a bitterly cold winter, when there's good food and housing available? So, after the Treaty of Kiel, troops just made quarter around Hamburg, put it under siege, but aside from a few skirmishes not much happened. The situation in Hamburg and Altona in the meantime became more and more desperate, not only because of food shortage, but also as Tettenborn's liberating Cossacks had brought Typhus with them. Davout, however, saw no reason to capitulate, not even when the Dutch and Italian recruits among his soldiers started defecting in droves. He put down the news of Paris having been conquered as enemy propaganda, and only lay down arms in late May, more than six weeks after Napoleon's abdication. The death toll during the siege isn't well documented, but may have ranged around 25,000 in Hamburg, plus a couple of thousands more in Altona.

Davout returned to France, and served as Napoleon's Minister of War in 1815/16. He was never questioned for his conduct in Hamburg. His name is memorised on the Arc de Triomphe, and a large Boulevard in Paris bears his name to date.  
 
Alright, nice history lesson, but what's the point of it? The point is Hamburg having been cleared from all suburbs, which allowed for systematic development of the area outside the fortification in the 19th century. More on that in the next post.

[Franknburger]

I have realised that some more background on Hamburg's urban development is required to understand inner-city voting patterns.

Holstein, i.e. the lands directly north of the Elbe, had since Charlemagne's Saxon Wars been part of the Frankish, and later the Holy Roman Empire. During the 13/14th century, the counts of Holstein also gained influence in Schleswig (the lands north of the Eider), which had traditionally been part of the Kingdom of Denmark. When the ruling dynasty died out in 1460, the Holsatian Assembly elected Christian I of Denmark as Count of Holstein in order to maintain the economically important linkage to Schleswig.  From then on until the German Danish War of 1864, Schleswig-Holstein was ruled in personal union by the Danish Kings, who, as Dukes of Holstein, became members of the institutions of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation (Imperial Assembly, Imperial Court etc.). Hamburg and Lübeck had already in the 11/12th century become Free Imperial Cities and were not part of the Danish realm.

In the late 16/ early 17th century, the Danish Kings started to develop the Lower Elbe region. The village of Altona, just a few km west of Hamburg, was granted various privileges. Directly on the border to Hamburg's territory, the "Freiheit" (freedom) was established in 1610. Similar to today's "Free Economic Zones", it provided the so-called "3 Freedoms", namely Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Taxation (for an initial 10-years period), and Freedom of Crafts (in contrast to Hamburg, where craftsmen had to be guild members, and the maximum number of enterprises in each craft was prescribed). Aside from people from Hamburg and the surrounding, the town attracted many immigrants - initially Dutch Mennonites, Portuguese Jews (especially after Spain had re-gained control of Antwerp), and Catholic merchants from Northern Italy, Flanders and the Rhineland, later also many Huguenots. Jews and Huguenots in the 18th century each made up for some 10% of Altona's population. The common legend says that Hamburg felt this going on "all to nah" (all too near) to its borders, however, in fact the city name just means "old creek" ['old(en) ow' as in (mead-)ow].

By the early 18th century, Altona had, after Copenhagen, become the second-largest city in the Danish realm  (18,000 inhabitants according to the 1769 census, roughly equal to Bergen, but around three times as many as other regional centres such as Kiel, Flensburg or Odense). The city served as important fish-trading port (the Altona fish market still accounts for some 20% of German fish wholesaling today), and also developed into a main end point of the Ox Road. From here, live cattle that had been driven southwards from Jutland, Schleswig and Holstein was marketed to Hamburg, but also shipped to the Netherlands and England. By the mid-19th century, trade volumes ranged around 40,000 animals per year, up to 20% of which were shipped to England. Return cargo included various industrial and colonial goods for distribution into Denmark and Eastern Germany. Altona especially developed a sizeable tobacco industry.


The economic structure was mirrored in the city lay-out (see the 1803 map above) that stretched from the port & fish trading area on the Elbe northwards along the border to Hamburg towards the "Freiheit" at the north-eastern end of the 1803 built-up area.  In 1812, the city's central cattle market was developed at the map's upper right corner, resulting in further northward expansion. Note also the village of Ottensen to the West - Altona couldn't keep up its promise of Freedom of Crafts, guild controls set in in the early 18th century, and some craftsmen moved on to the next guild-free place, namely Ottensen. During the 19th century, Ottensen experienced massive population growth, for a short while even overtaking Altona. When both cities were ultimately merged in 1889, Altona had a bit over 100,000 inhabitants, and Ottensen close to 40,000.
A similar development, albeit on a smaller scale, took place in Wandsbek, just north-east of Hamburg's territory on the road towards Lübeck. The Schimmelmann family, merchants and Danish treasurers, built up the village as Danish end-point of triangular trade with colonies in Africa (Danish Gold Coast and the Americas (Virgin Islands) (cotton printing, gunpowder mill, etc.). By the end of the 19th century, Wandsbek had around 30,000 inhabitants.


Most cities in north-western Europe tended to develop a posh west-end and a blue-collar east-end, because prevailing west winds drive the city's smells to the east. Not so 19th-century Hamburg - well, at least not its west end, the east end was and still is blue-collar. But Altona's fish processing (including distilling whale oil) and cattle trade didn't make its borders a particular attractive place to settle, Instead, wealthy merchants built their summer houses, and later on their villas, around the Alster lake to the north of the city centre.


The "Hamburger Berg" towards Altona was quickly rebuilt after 1815, including a separate church, St. Pauli, which gave the "Vorstadt" its new name.  It initially served port-based industries such as rope-making on the Reeperbahn, its main, straight and quite wide road. However, as port area, it soon developed into an entertainment district and red-light quarter, especially after the city gates became passable all night in 1841. Ironically, the heart of the red-light district, the "Große Freiheit" (see photo above), hasn't historically been part of St. Pauli, but belongs to Altona's "Freiheit".  Further to the north, Hamburg established its own cattle market and the City's slaughterhouse directly next to the Altona cattle market. The area in-between, the "Heiligengeistfeld", remained free of construction. It initially served for cattle grazing, later on as festival and sports ground. Its western part, towards the Altona border (St. Pauli - North and Sternschanze), was later built up with residential and commercial buildings (Steinway & Sons piano manufacture,  Montblanc, slaughterhouse supplies etc.), but remained very blue collar. [When I still lived there, we considered "Dead pigs stink" as band name; the Astra brewery in the port area further south wasn't bad either in producing odour].



The map above (larger version) shows Hamburg and Altona in 1890. Hamburg's old and new town (separated by the Alster river) are in the map's centre. The western part of the fortification is still visible, the eastern part provided a convenient path for the railroad and Hamburg's central station. West of the fortification, you can recognise the "Heiligengeistfeld", the wide Reeperbahn to its south, and the slaughterhose (in red) north of it. A bit further west runs the Hamburg-Altona border, the part in-between the slaughterhouse and the Altona border is the Hamburg "Schanzenviertel", originally part of St. Pauli, but in 2008 merged with the neighbouring parts of Altona into the new Hamburg-Sternschanze-district. Ottensen starts west of the Altona railway terminal.
To the north of the railway line, you have Altona-North and Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, already in conurbation. The Sternschanze - part of the old outer fortification of Hamburg - separates Eimsbüttel from Rotherbaum futher east, and you can see the Grindel, the western part of Rotherbaum, already being built up. When gate closure ended, Hamburg's sizeable Jewish community built a new synagogue on the Grindel (just north of where the map ends), and during the late 19th century, many Jews moved from their traditional quarter within the new town into the Grindel - the wealthier, the closer to the Alster, but a lot of the Grindel was lower middle class housing at best. There is still quite some empty land between the Grindel and the residential houses on the outer Alster, a good part of which will later on be filled by the Hamburg University (est. 1908). East of the Alster, there is the "Vorstadt" of St. Georg, upper-middle class housing on the Alster and towards Wandbek, and the large blue collar and manufacturing districts of Hammerbrook and Rothenburgsort to the east and south-east, respectively.

[Franknburger]

I promise, after this I will be through with Hamburg's history, and it's election maps again. However, there is one more event that fundamentally affected Hamburg's cityscape, namely Operation Gomorrha, allied bombing in WW II. In what was the largest serial air strike the world had seen so far, with a death toll one-and-a half time as high as in Dresden,  in late July/ early August 1943 more than 50% of the city's dwellings were destroyed. The map below, from 1945, depicts all destroyed areas in red.



The air strikes had the common division of labour - the USAF going after industrial targets (in the case of Hamburg the port area and oil refineries south of the Elbe) at daytime, and the RAF bombing residential areas during the night. The initial RAF strike in the night of July 15th suffered from poor marking, and instead of Hamburg's citiy center, as was intended, Altona's old town, Altona north / central Eimsbüttel, and several outlying areas to the north-west were hit in a rather unsystematic but nevertheless effective way. The second RAF strike was much more "successful". It created a firestorm that almost completely destroyed the eastern blue collar quarters of Rothenburgsort,  Hammerbrook, Borgfelde and Eilbek, and killed some 30,000 people. The third strike targeted Barmbek and Winterhude to the north-east, destroying many buildings there, but less favourable weather conditions prevented another firestorm.  The last RAF strike on August 2 occurred during a thunderstorm, and, due to poor sight,  caused widespread but rather unsystematic damage (e.g. destroying the Hamburg Opera House). As the map shows, the area directly west of the Alster lake has remained mostly intact. The story goes that the Warburg family (Hamburg-born James Warburg was FDR's financial adviser) had pressed US and British authorities to spare the Jewish Rotherbaum quarter, and with it the traditional Warburg family residences close to the Alster lake.


Initial reconstruction after WW II focused on creating as much housing as fast as possible to alleviate housing shortage (my grandparents were ordered by authorities to take in three other families in their 3-bedroom/ one bathroom house), Existing houses were repaired whenever possible, often by cutting down the upper, most damaged floors. The new houses were simple but followed the traditional street layout. The picture above shows a typical road in the Eilbek,/ Wandbsek area to the north-east of the city centre -  I am quite sure that the pre-WW II house on the right-hand side used to have at least one more floor before the war.


Then, however, came the big hour of urban planners, who regarded the destruction as opportunity to re-invent the city: Wider roads to cope with increasing traffic, inner city green belts, changing from traditional street-blocks to larger, dispersed apartment blocks. The officially communicated rationale was to do away with unhealthy, cramped and poorly-lighted housing, but later on several city planners admitted that a main motivation had been to prevent firestorms from ever happening again. In some areas, especially almost completely destroyed Hammerbrook and Rothenburgsort re-modelling was inevitable. In other areas, reconstruction took down older, still inhabitable buildings as well. The photo above shows Altona's old city centre today, below you can see how the same place looked in 1910.


You can decide yourself which version you prefer. Hamburg citizens have done that as well, by deciding where to live. And, as different people have different housing preferences (and may or may not be able to accommodate these preferences within their budget), they also tend to vote differently. Rothenburgsort, almost completely rebuilt in the 1950s/ 60s (though there is a bit of loft-type late 19th century industrial buildings left along the Elbe dyke) voted 38% SPD / 24% CDU/ 9% Greens. In central Ottensen, which remained mostly undestroyed by WW II bombing, and, with its narrow, winding streets, comes as close to an "old town" feel as you can get in Hamburg, its 31% SPD / 13% CDU / 32% Greens.
[This is btw. an opportunity to correct an earlier mistake of mine - I mixed up numbers, and erroneously presented precinct 21206 instead of 21406 as the Green's best precinct. While they didn't do badly in 21206 (26,1%), their best precinct, a bit further to the east, looks like this:
[

Note the missing roof on the third house -taken down during WW II bombing, never reconstructed..

[Franknburger]

After all that talk, now an election map again: The map below shows the leading party in the south-western inner city. I have grouped precincts with similar voting pattern together. Since in some precincts there has only been a few votes difference between SPD and Greens, I have taken vote-by-mail (which tends to favour the Greens) into consideration to determine the leader. The figures, however, only show the ballot-box vote share for that party, Uninhabited areas (parks, main roads, commercial & industrial areas) have been left uncoloured, but included into precinct outlines. The map is pretty micro-scale, about 6 km width x 5 km height.


First a general orientation:  In the SE corner, you see a bit of the "Hafen-City", Hamburg's answer to London's Docklands. North of it is the western part of the old town (SPD), and the north-eastern part of the new town (CDU). Further up north, outside the old fortification, come two (in fact three, I lumped the northern two together) CDU precincts in posh eastern Rotherbaum. All those precincts extend further east beyond the map's borders, so it may well be that the parts on the map voted differently (in fact, for the SE Rotherbaum district, which is nested around the University, that's quite likely). The CDU precinct in the NE corner is where posh Harvestehude starts -that one, as well as all the other precincts along the map's upper end, extend further north beyond the map's border.
The centre of the map's northern half is Eimsbüttel proper (the district, not the borough). You see the larger green area (5 precincts) that I have already described in my previous post on Green strongholds, Central Eimbsbüttel, north-west from there, has been bombed quite heavily, and is firmly in SPD hands, except for a few green islands that indicate more or less contingent late 19th century housing that has escaped WWI bombing. Northwestern Eimsbüttel, beyond the map, has a number more precincts that were won by the Greens. In the NW corner of the map is Bahrenfeld district, with a lot of office and factory buildings in the north (the A 7 motorway runs just a few hundred meters west from the map's left-hand side end). The map's western border is more or less marking the zone where apartment blocks end and individual housing starts.
South of the railway line lies Ottensen - 1920s and 1950/60s blocks to the north and west, 19th century (and a little bit of 18th century) housing to the south and east. The CDU precinct in the SW is where posh Othmarschen starts, that's also where blocks turn into individual housing (housing is actually a bit of an understatement - this is the Elbchaussee, estates might be a more appropriate term).
East of Ottensen, across the railway line, lies Altona proper. The "green belt", parks and large blocks, that has been cut across what used to be its old town should be well visible. St. Pauli and Sternschanze to its north are dominated by Greens and Linke, respectively (more on that in the next post).

Last but not least, there is Hamburg-Neustadt (new town).It has a fascinating micro structure, including a bit of 17th/18th century housing, intact 19th century quarters, 1930s housing, 1960's housing estates, and recent "Hafen-City" style and boarding house development, but the precinct borders unfortunately just cross straight through these distinct areas in a way that specific voting patterns are mostly averaged out.


Collonaden (north-western new town - the CDU precinct)


Bäckerbreitergang - one of the last remains of the 17th/ 18th century Gängeviertel (north-western new town)


Breiter Gang - 1930s Nazi-style "urban renewal" of the Gängeviertel, with roads wide enough to be able to quickly send troops into that notoriously "red" area (central new town)


Peterstr. - 1980s reconstruction of traditional 18th century houses, used as home for elderly people (western new town)


Böhmkenstraße - 1960s "reconstruction" (western new town)


Dietmar-Koel-Str.  - the Portuguese Quarter (for its large number of Portuguese restaurants) (south-western new town)


Admiralitätsstraße - recent apartment development (south- eastern new town, close to the "Hafen-City")

[Franknburger]

Below the western inner-city maps for the Greens and Linke. Precicnt borders are coloured according to the leading party, figures relate to the ballot-box percentage of the party mapped.

After all the description and photos before, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the Greens weren't doing particularly well in 1960/70s "reconstruction" areas, especially close to the "Altona green belt". They are, however, still reasonably strong in CDU-leaning areas, and those with 1920/30s housing (central new town, western Ottensen).


The Linke map shows quite some overlap with Green strongholds (St. Pauli, Sternschanze, north-central Ottensen, the parts of Altona with late 19th century housing, Bahrenfeld). Other than Green voters, Linke voters are obviously not afraid from living in 1960/70s apartment blocks, as long as those are in the right part of Hamburg (Altona, St. Pauli, western new town) - such housing is still comparatively cheap.
CDU leaning areas (Hafen City, eastern Rotherbaum, Harvestehude, Othmarschen) have little enthusiasm for Die Linke (though it should be noted that Linke results around 5% in these areas are still better than what they got in most small towns outside Hamburg's immediate periphery). Interestingly, the AfD is quite strong here (5-6%), and appears to have absorbed the protest vote which in Altona and St. Pauli went to Die Linke. Note also the poor Linke result in the central western new town - that's where the Peterstr. reconstructed 18th housing home for elderly people (plus another traditional charity-based 19th century home for the elderly) is located.
They finally underperform in the Grindel and north-eastern Eimsbüttel. Hamburg's Jewish community has been refilled by from Eastern Europe and counts some 4,000 members again. It's an orthodox community, meaning community members have to walk to the Synagogue to attend service. The Synagogue is located towards the south-east of the northernmost Green precinct, and most of the Jewish community should reside in some 1-1,5 km radius around it. Expectedly, that area has a slightly elevated FDP share (around 5%, compared to 1.5-3% in the non-posh parts of the western inner city) - the FDP has traditionally attracted many Jews. As it seems, their eastern European background has most Jews being sceptical about the Linke, though apparently not so much about the Greens.

In general, Linke support appears to orient on three "epi-centres", namely southern St. Pauli, Sternschanze, and north-central Ottensen. More on that in the next post. Who can't wait may already check out:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=184385.0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafenstra%C3%9Fe
http://www.astraturm.de/en/index.html
http://www.ipernity.com/tag/17828/keyword/335554
http://wiki.rechtaufstadt.net/index.php/Introduction_to_Recht_auf_Stadt_Hamburg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mGHgTjwbtU&list=PL2266E6229B2B7C26&shuffle=710
longer PDF
http://aitec.reseau-ipam.org/IMG/pdf/Passerelle_7_ENG-light.pdf (p. 95f)

This publication could actually be interesting - anybody here able to organise access?

I can provide tons more of links, but those would all be in German. If anybody is interested, give me a message.

[Sol]

This is awesome.

[Franknburger]

Thanks for the encouragement, Sol - it sometimes feels like a monologue here...

I could write for hours about my old home in St. Pauli, but I try to make the background info on the precincts won by the Linke short - if it's too short, feel free to ask for details.


In the 1980s, West Berlin's squatter movement also swept over into Hamburg. Demand for housing was high - the German baby boomers, i.e. the 1957-67 generation, was moving out from their parents, and looked for apartments, usually to share with friends. Hamburg's late 19th century apartments were ideal - typically 3-4 rooms, all well-sized, and a spacious kitchen - but hard to find. Many old houses were empty, waiting to be torn down in favour of the next modern apartment block. The most prominent squat was a city-owned block of houses in St. Pauli's Hafenstraße, which had been declared uninhabitable and was to be torn down, and was occupied in early 1982. After several years of eviction, re-occupation, temporary lease etc., the houses were ultimately to be evicted and destroyed in 1987, but massive protest, which involved virtually all of St. Pauli, lead the City to give in. Occupants received a long-term lease, and in 1995, the City sold the complex of 12 houses to a cooperative, made up of inhabitants and external sponsors. The cooperative later on acquired the neighbouring, empty lot and built an additional apartment complex there (you can see the new block on the right-hand side of the photo below). Similar squats took place in Sternschanze (Laue-houses, "Rote Flora"), partly successful, partly ending in eviction and the houses being torn down.


The situation calmed down in the mid-1990s, as Hamburg's city government - in the meantime red-green - changed their approach to urban development. In addition, the housing market relaxed, as many baby-boomers set up their own families and moved out to more children-friendly terrain in the sub- and exurbs, and the next generation was much smaller in numbers.


The CDU-led governments, in power from 2001 to 2011, however, revived the old idea of developing the so-called "String of Pearls" on the northern bank of the Elbe, as part of their vision of the "Growing City". It started innocently: The Astra brewery in southern St. Pauli was taken over by their local competitor Holsten, which decided to concentrate production on their site in Altona-North. The area was cleared, and until 2008 rebuilt with a mix of offices, apartment blocks, and a 330 rooms, 21 floors, 4-star hotel. The new quarter's architecture is debatable, and the apartments, even though owned by a traditional housing cooperative, are charged 11 €/m², which is more in line with up-scale quarters like Eppendorf of Hafen-City than a typical St-Pauli rent. Nevertheless, Hamburg is booming, and the junior consultants, journalists, media planners etc. coming to Hamburg have had their years in a cosy university town like Gottingen or Münster, now they want the "big city" - the apartments were quickly rented out (not so the office space).

 
So, investors set their sights on the next target: The Bernhard-Nocht Quartier (BNQ), a block of old, 19th century housing, with workshops in the backyard, mostly inhabited, but partly empty, as a private museum within the complex had gone bankrupt, just across the street from the Hafenstraße. That, of course, didn't go well - the Hafenstraße cooperative came out with an alternative concept, but negotiations failed, and in 2012 the tenants had to leave the houses and construction began. Some of the houses are listed historical monuments, but -oops - the clearing team made a mistake, and took down one of these houses as well (see photo above). All former tenants will be offered to move back into their old flat after renovation,  but the newly erected apartments shall be rented out  at 16,70 €/m².
  

A bit further north, at the south-eastern end of the Reeperbahn, is this complex of late 1950s housing - anything but beautiful, but affordable, and with a number of clubs and restaurants on the street front and in the basement. A Bavarian investor intends to take it all down and build new apartments. While the architectural design of the new complex is yet unknown, engineers suddenly detected problems with the buildings' stability, and tenants had to leave over night. Last week, the investor received the permission to tear down the building.

If you take a look at the Linke precinct map: The SE St. Pauli precinct, where the Linke has been doing comparatively poorly, contains the former brewery area, and the a/m complex on the Reeperbahn. Directly west of it, the precinct where the Linke came in first, is the Hafenstr. and BNQ area. The next precinct along the Elbe, the Fischmarkt (fish market), is already through with restructuring, but since some of that was done in the 1980s, and also some older houses were retained after protest, rents should still be affordable.  That precinct, won by the Greens, and with Linke at 23%, looks like this:


Suggested background reading:
http://insunandshadow.com/2011/08/10/political-footballers-xi-volker-ippig/

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If it's a monologue, it's one that a lot of people are paying admiring attention to

[Yeahsayyeah]

If it's a monologue, it's one that a lot of people are paying admiring attention to

Me too. As one who has only been to Hamburg twice in my life - for only some hours each -  I'm very glad to learn so much about the economic, social and demographic structures of Hamburg and its metro, here.

[Franknburger]

 Let's continue our tour of St. Pauli with the Karolinenviertel, usually shortened into Karo-Viertel (Karo=square, diamond). Two of its three precincts were won by the Linke, the third one went to the Greens (my map doesn't show these precincts separately, only the Karo-Viertel as a whole). Linke and Greens together received 52% (plus another 8% for Pirates and Die Partei), the CDU reached 9.9%.


The quarter commences westward of the old city fortifications, the former central graveyard to its north-east has after WW II been developed into Hamburg's trade-fair ground. South lies the open Heiligengeistfeld, the slaughterhouse and other industrial sites to the west and north separate it from the Sternschanze district. This insular situation is further exaggerated by heavily-used four-lane roads along the south and east, while no road passes directly through it. Essentially, if you don't intend to go there, you never get there. The quarter was built up in the 1820s, received a first boost after the 1842 Great Fire that destroyed a good part of Hamburg's old town, and another one when the slaughterhouse was built in 1865.  In accordance with that period's practice, it contains various backyards and terraces, and is still very densely populated. The housing area, measuring only some 400 x 500m,  is inhabited by nearly 4,000 people.

 
During WWI, the Karo-Viertel was hit by some bombs, but remained relatively intact. Subsequently it was neglected. The City of Hamburg acquired many buildings as reserve for eventual expansion of the trade fair grounds, private speculators awaited development, but none of them put much money into the buildings. In the 1970s/80s students moved into the run-down but cheap houses, less than 1.5 km away from the University, as did many Turkish immigrants. Artists and designers appreciated the old workshops in the backyards, the slaughterhouse and other industrial sites in the surrounding provided rehearsal rooms to bands. Last but not least, Hamburg's largest flea market, which is regularly held on the Heiligengeistfeld, lead to the emergence of various second-hand shops. 


The situation changed in the early 1990s, when the Karoviertel was official declared as urban renewal area. Construction of a hotel, which was to bring "development impulses" to the area, sparked local protest. The city government had learned from the Hafenstraße, and chose a soft approach - several city-owned buildings were offered to tenant cooperatives for refurbishment under long-term lease contracts. Private owners were sometimes more hands-on - one complex was emptied from tenants, several times squatted and evicted, and subsequently caught fire for unknown reasons. Ultimately, one of the two houses in question was torn down, while the other one became refurbished. In 1996, the slaughterhouse was closed, and its southern part converted into a business start-up centre, especially for the entertainment sector (the central meat market, and some processing still operate in the northern part). The conversion project itself is quite sound (see photo above, detailed description here) and has enhanced the quarter's image and attractiveness. With the slaughterhouse, the smell went away as well.


When the CDU took over Hamburg's government in 2001, they changed the course. An alternative construction trailer camp that had existed since 1993 was evicted. The city's Urban Development Society, in charge of the quarter's renewal, was privatised (the buildings themselves, however, remained public). Trade fair ground extension into the northern corner came on the agenda again, and the Marktstraße, the quarter's central passage, was re-branded into Hamburg's centre of fashion design. The road has still kept some of its underground charm, only made it into a few international travel blogs, and is not yet fully degenerated into a "cafe latte kerb" as the Schulterblatt in neighbouring Sternschanze, but shop rents are rising and forcing traditional business to close. One of Germany's largest and best reputed advertisement agencies has taken residence in the Karoviertel. As the example below shows, they are quite in tune with the quarter's spirit, but nevertheless adding to outside pressure.

Desire a new hairstyle? Rent a cabrio.

The City of Hamburg owns 923 apartments (in the meantime mostly modernised) and 201 commercial facilities in the quarter - that should be close to 50% of all property. Rents are fairly moderate at 4.53 €/ m" in average. To have it staying that way, tenant associations, with political back-up of Grüne and Linke, proposed setting up a housing cooperative to purchase the apartments at a total price of 50 million Euros. SPD and CDU rejected the proposal and instead in late 2012 transferred the property back to the SAGA public housing company - the same company that had the quarter left to rotting during the 1970s/80s.

[Sol]

So, if I'm getting this right- the CDU, in government, hastened gentrification in St. Pauli, and that in turn has strengthened the local Die Linke & Greens?

[Franknburger]

So, if I'm getting this right- the CDU, in government, hastened gentrification in St. Pauli, and that in turn has strengthened the local Die Linke & Greens?

Thanks for the question! I have been wondering about that myself, and started digging into old election results. Below is the 1983-2012 time series for St. Pauli. Note that a part of St. Pauli has in 2008 been transferred to the newly created Sternschanze district. That part always tended to be a bit leftish-greener than St. Pauli overall (in 2009 it voted 32.2 Greens/ 25.0 Linke/ 20.0 SPD/ 8.2 CDU; due to changed precinct borders no comparison is possible for 2013).

Year                                            1983/1987/1990/1994/1998/ 2002/ 2005/ 2009/2013
CDU                                            27.7/ 25.0/ 22.4/ 17.4/ 12.3/ 10.0 / 10.0 /  9.8 / 12.2
FDP                                               3.1/  4.1/  4.4/    2.9/  2.4/   3.0 /   4.0 /  6.5 /   2.0
other right (PRO/REP/FW/AFD)        -- /   0.1/   3.0/   2.5/   1.1/  2.8 /   --   /  --   /   3.3
Subtotal                                     30.8/29.2/31.8/22.8/15.8/15.7/14.0/15.3/17.5

SPD                                            52.5/39.7/40.6/34.9/38.8/36.0/33.8/21.4/25.5

Greens                                       15.6/ 30.4/  18.2/ 29.4/ 31.2/ 38.3/ 34.0 /  29.8 / 23.0
DKP/PDS/ Linke                            0.8/   --  /   7.0/  11.3/   8.5/   9.2/ 13.7 / 24.2 / 23.8
other left (Pirates, PARTEI, etc.)     0.1/   0.4/   -- /   --  /   2.3/    0.4/   2.9 /   7.0 /   9.4
Subtotal                                    16.5/30.8/25.2/40.7/42.0/47.9/50.6/ 61.0/ 56.2
Missing percentages relate to far-right parties (DVU/NPD) and miscellaneous, including Graue/Rentner, ödp, Animal Protection, Naturgesetzt, BüSo (LaRouche) etc.
"Other left" also includes KPD, MLPD, Die FRAUEN, and various "fun parties" such as "Chance 2000" and APPD.

As the figures show, things are a bit more complicated. St. Pauli has traditionally been working-class and voting left. In the 1970s, the CDU tended to perform some 10% worse than in Hamburg as a whole. That gap has widened to 20% now, but most of the widening occurred between 1980 and 1994. The SPD in 1976 and 1980 still swept St. Pauli with results around 65% (some 14% above their Hamburg result), now it underperforms by 6-7%, but that shift as well mostly occurred between 1980 and 1994. The Greens, later also the Linke, benefitted in both cases. If you want, you can relate the shifts to a first stage of gentrification, namely young "baby boomers", many of them university students, moving into a traditional blue-collar area.

The effect of recent gentrification is a swing from Greens to Linke, and groups such as the Pirates and DIE PARTEI (Grillo-type movement). In 1987, the Green's share in St. Pauli was nearly 20% above their Hamburg result as a whole, now its 10%. The PDS in 1990 started 6% better in St. Pauli, now Die Linke is doing 15% better in St. Pauli than in Hamburg overall. That 8-10% swing (which is probably a bit overstated by the Sternschanze parts being removed from St. Pauli in 2008) started in 2009 and has continued in 2013. One possible explanation is disappointment about the Greens entering a city-level coalition with the CDU between 2008 and 2011, and, more specifically, being perceived as unable or unwilling to reduce gentrification pressure, even though the post of Senator for Urban Development and Construction was assumed by a Green during that coalition. The fact that the Green's 2013 federal election campaign completely failed to address gentrification has surely not helped in this respect. (Development of a city-wide network of bicycle paths, commenced under the 1997-2001 red-green coalition, was stopped by the CDU, and not revived by black-green 2008-2011).

The SE St. Pauli precinct, where the former brewery areal has been re-developed, provides a nice case study on the electoral effect of gentrification. Part of the original 2005 precinct has in 2009 been re-allocated to a neighbouring precinct to compensate for the population increase, so 2005 vs. 2009 figures are affected by more than just new population moving in. Nevertheless, the precinct in 2009 voted some 10% more CDU/FDP than in 2005.  Linke vote went down by 3%, against the overall trend of substantial growth both in St. Pauli and in Hamburg in general. The SPD vote decreased as well, by 7%, which was far less than their 12.5% loss in St. Pauli, and their 11 % loss in Hamburg as a whole. Greens lost 2%, less than in St. Pauli loss as a whole, but against the overall trend of slightly gains in Hamburg. This seems to indicate that gentrification is diluting St. Pauli-specific voting, and especially the Linke strength, but not necessarily having a strong effect on the Green vote. After all, the clientele that is attracted to St. Pauli - younger, urban, well-educated - is classical green demographics. It is more like these (often green) new-comers now are representing the "other side", leading local activists towards voting Linke.

You may ask where the "other left(ist)" vote comes from. Well - FDP and other parties from the right have since the mid-eighties been underperforming by some 6% in St. Pauli compared to Hamburg as a whole, which is more or less as much as the "other left" parties over-perform in St. Pauli.

While I am at it - below a map of DIE PARTEI's performance. They only ran in Hamburg city, not the surrounding counties, and the map displays their strongest area, so that is probably the only map on them you will see from me (I might do another zooming into the Veddel/ Wilhelmsburg area, where they were quite strong as well). 3.4% in St. Pauli (better than AfD and FDP), 0.6% in Hamburg overall.


Oh, the little red crosses indicate where I used to live, in case somebody is interested.

[Franknburger]

I was originally intending to continue with maps on another region with particular Linke strength, namely Wilhelmsburg / Veddel, south of the Northern Elbe, but map preparation has proved out to be quite time consuming.

In the meantime, and to finish the view on the western inner city, here the Pirates map:


Unsurprisingly, the western inner city is a Pirates stronghold: 5,8% in St. Pauli, 5.1% in Sternschanze, 4.6% in Altona-Nord, compared to 3.0% in Hamburg overall (all figures ballot-box vote only, vote-by-mail tended to be 0.5-1% less). The pattern is similar to the Linke - strength also in 1960s housing estates, rather poor showing in CDU-leaning areas. Further Pirates strongholds are in the Wilhelmsburg/ Veddel area, and Barmbek/ Dulsberg towards the north-east (another area where a detailed close-up might make sense).


I would not exclude the possibility of the semi-official logo of a certain football team having influenced local voting patterns. The stadium, btw, is on the Heiligengeistfeld SW of the Karo-Viertel. You should be able to spot is when enlarging the map.

[Franknburger]

Did also a CDU map for the western inner city:



To put this into context: Outside Hamburg, the CDU rarely achieved less than 25%. 19-20% in a handful of Lübeck and Luneburg inner-city precincts, and in Ahrensburg-Wulfsdorf (the alternative housing cooperative), 23-24% in two Neumunster and one Elmshorn precinct - that's it. Now, with the colouring chosen in my map (saturation = 3 X vote percentage), 25% is already pretty dark, and has only been achieved in the CDU-leaning posh areas. In most parts of St. Pauli, Sternschanze, Altona-Nord and Ottensen, the CDU has already been struggling to reach 15%. Note in contrast, however, the relative CDU strength in the SE St. Pauli precinct with the new brewery quarter, and the western new town precinct around the Peterstr home for elderly people.



Let's zoom into one precinct that was narrowly won by the CDU, namely SE Ottensen, plus the Neumühlen area on the bank of the Elbe. The aerial photograph above shows Neumühlen when it was still part of Altona's fishing port, dominated by a high-rising fish cold store. In the early 1990s, the cold store was reconstructed into an upscale private "seniors residence" - the project that actually started riverside conversion and gentrification. The cold store reconstruction itself was quite nicely done; though opinions on the subsequent development of the area vary.



The obvious next target was the Speicherstadt (warehouse city). Itself a major reconstruction project, it was in the late 19th century developed as a free trade zone. For this purpose, Hamburg's complete southern old town was cleared, and some 20,000 people resettled (one of the reasons Hamburg is, for all the WW II destruction, still so rich in late 19th century houses), turning the area from this


into this:


While part of the original concept, namely water-based haulage via small barges, has become anachronistic in the age of containers, the warehouses, with their thick brick walls, still have unique properties: They maintain, without need for extra air conditioning, a constant temperature of around 16° C that is ideal for commodities such as coffee, cocoa, spices and carpets. Consequently, tenants were anything but keen to make place for upscale flats, and coffee and spice traders have traditionally been influential in Hamburg...


So, eyes shifted a bit south and east of the Speicherstadt to an area dominated by more recent warehousing, and rail freight terminals (see the 1980s aereal photograph above). Inspired by the London Docklands, it was decided to re-develop that whole 155 ha areal into the HafenCity.


The project is split into 10 quarters, which since 2001 are gradually being constructed from West to East. To date, the two north-western quarters have been completed, the next three are nearing completion, and work on the sixth one has commenced.



Note that the north-western area, with water view, next to the Speicherstadt, and close to downtown (photo below), is the poshest part, and consequently a CDU (and FDP) stronghold. The already completed residential part further east, lacking water view and stretching along the district's main roads, while still having CDU and FDP quite strongly, is comparatively "greener" (I will later post a map on it).

 

And the architecture? Critics complain about too many solitaires, without coherence, especially in contrast to the adjacent Speicherstadt.  In all fairness - what was there before the Speicherstadt was also an ensemble of solitaires. I personally rather miss references to Hamburg's rich architectural legacy - these buildings could stand anywhere in the world.

[Hnv1]

This is a remarkable project! quite fascinating to read and shows how deeply can dive in political cartography (maybe it is time for an academic programme for political cartography?)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

'Inspired by the London Docklands' is always an awful sentence to read...

[Franknburger]

'Inspired by the London Docklands' is always an awful sentence to read...

Especially when the inspiration, for all its flaws, is only copied half-heartedly (e.g. announcing the "jump across the Elbe", then SPD & CDU denying the Green proposal for revitalising a tram/light rail system which Hamburg abolished in the 1970s, building two new underground stations instead, and finally finding out that an underground tunnel below the Elbe would be too costly..)

Allow me to proudly present the "Theater an der Elbe", Hamburg's version of the O2 Arena (2 musicals being played there regularly):


Nice, isn't it? Here the location - not the green dot, but the yellowish structure a few hundred meters east from there, across the small canal and the empty space (car parking area)  on the river bank.

In the middle of nowhere. More precisely - on a former shipyard in the middle of the still used part of the port. Guarantees that absolutely no economic impulse ever reaches the neighbourhood.

You may get there by complimentary boat shuttle from St. Pauli Landungsbrücken, but many visitors arrive by car or coach, congesting either the already quite busy Elbe tunnel and Köhlbrand-bridge, or residential areas further south-east. [It is not by accident that the theatre operator's home page includes a section on "current traffic messages".]
 

[Hifly]

'Inspired by the London Docklands' is always an awful sentence to read...

Hafencity is so much more beautiful and classier than the London Docklands on so many different levels. It really is a work of art. The old blends so well with the new.

[Franknburger]

I just realised that the aerial photo in my previous post is a wonderful visualisation of the new town's micro structure as described a few posts above. To the centre of the picture, running almost north-southerly, you see the Alsterfleet and the Herrengrabenfleet a bit to its west (fleet is low German for fleet, canal). The area in-between the two is undergoing a kind of mini-HafenCity development. Just west of it, you see typical 1930s red brick -Nazi-time clearing of old houses, though not the area I described in may post above. In silver, towards the Elbe, are the HQs of Gruner & Jahr, Europe's largest printing & publishing house (somehow, publishers need to reside on a fleet street). In the south-west, there is the Portuguese quarter (late 19th century housing), and above, separated by a bit of green, 1950s / 50s housing blocks. The turquoise spot is St. Michaels church tower, Hamburg's landmark.

This is also a good opportunity to exemplify what I meant when referring to Hamburg's architectural legacy. Three examples from different periods, each one only a stone throw away from the HafenCity, and each one interpreting the city's maritime aspects in a unique way:



St. Catherine, the HafenCity church (1450) - on the aerial photograph from my last post, you can spot the copper-plated, turquoise roof directly north of the Canal that seperates old town and Speicherstadt/ HafenCity. [In case the tower helmet looks familiar to some - Riga's St. Peter had the helmet produced in the same workshop.]


The Chilehaus (1920), located in the north-eastern corner of the aerial photograph. If the idea isn't obvious already, here the Chilehaus from above:


And, finally, the 1980s Gruner & Jahr headquarters that I already have mentioned:

Publishing as sweating, stomping journey - a media factory and information warehouse, but also a lighthouse....

[Linus Van Pelt]

What do you mean by "solitaires", Franknburger? I don't know of any other meaning in English for this word besides the card game.

[Franknburger]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solitaire
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/solitaire

[Linus Van Pelt]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solitaire
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/solitaire

I'm still not getting it. Are you drawing a metaphor between the jewels and something architectural?

[Franknburger]

It's actually not my metaphor, but one used by German architectural commenters, but yes: Something like "A lot of gemstones, but where is the necklace ?" I personally don't miss the necklace; I rather think the selection of gemstones is a bit arbitrary, and doesn't match the eye colour, nor grandma's earrings, particularly well.

[As an old friend of mine, civil engineer by profession, uses to say: "Anybody who dares building in Hamburg without using klinker should be stoned to death!" Copper plate roofing, or at least some copper elements, are also part of the architectural tradition. The resulting red-green colour mix (when the copper has oxidised) is typical for the city's representative buildings. Needless to say that I find red-green in general quite attractive....]

[Linus Van Pelt]

It's actually not my metaphor, but one used by German architectural commenters, but yes: Something like "A lot of gemstones, but where is the necklace ?" I personally don't miss the necklace; I rather think the selection of gemstones is a bit arbitrary, and doesn't match the eye colour, nor grandma's earrings, particularly well.

[As an old friend of mine, civil engineer by profession, uses to say: "Anybody who dares building in Hamburg without using klinker should be stoned to death!" Copper plate roofing, or at least some copper elements, are also part of the architectural tradition. The resulting red-green colour mix (when the copper has oxidised) is typical for the city's representative buildings. Needless to say that I find red-green in general quite attractive....]

I see, thanks for the explanation. I don't find it the most intuitive metaphor, but there it is.

I actually quite like some of the aggressively contemporary and geometrical architecture found in some northern European cities (having only seen it in photos, I should add), so I can't say I agree with your friend. I agree, though, that what was posted in your HafenCity photos doesn't look too brilliant.