Locations

The Baakenhafen is a harbour basin in Hamburg's eastern HafenCity district, and the namesake of the surrounding neighbourhood. Running parallel to the Norderelbe, it is 130 metres wide and was originally just under 1.5 kilometres long. In the course of the HafenCity development, it was partially shortened and narrowed through land-filling works.

The basin's origins are tied to the restructuring of Hamburg's port in the mid-19th century, when the construction of new harbour basins and the vast Speicherstadt warehouse complex made Hamburg one of the most modern ports in the world and embedded it in the colonial trading networks that shaped global commerce until the mid-20th century.

Along the southern bank, the Petersenkai, shipping companies operating routes around the African continent were concentrated. From 1904, the Woermann-Linie and the Deutsche Ostafrika-Linie operated from these quays. Between 1904 and 1908, the Woermann-Linie transported over 14,000 German soldiers and 11,000 horses from Hamburg to what is now Namibia, where German colonial forces carried out the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples. During the troop departures, the Baakenhafen served as a public stage for the German Empire, with thousands gathering on its banks for send-offs marked by music, speeches, and civic ceremony.

Commercial use of the Baakenhafen continued until 1999, when it was discontinued to make way for the HafenCity development. Formally approved by Hamburg's parliament in 1997 and adopted in 2000, HafenCity is one of the largest inner-city urban development projects in Europe. Covering 157 hectares, it combines residential, commercial, cultural, and educational uses across a series of distinct waterfront neighbourhoods. When complete, it is expected to provide housing for up to 16,000 residents and workplaces for up to 45,000 people. The first groundbreaking took place in April 2001, and the district was formally constituted as a Hamburg neighbourhood in 2008.

On the Baakenhöft, the quay area along the Baakenhafen waterfront in HafenCity, a new “world-class” opera house in the shape of a ship is planned as a prominent landmark. To date, there is no memorial at the Baakenhafen site acknowledging the harbour basin’s role in its colonial history.

Sources:

https://www.re-mapping.eu/de/erinnerungsorte/baakenhafen

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baakenhafen

https://www.hamburg.de/politik-und-verwaltung/behoerden/behoerde-fuer-kultur-und-medien/oper/auf-dem-baakenhoeft-in-der-hafencity-soll-ein-neues-opernhaus-von-weltrang-entstehen--961678

https://www.hamburg.de/politik-und-verwaltung/behoerden/behoerde-fuer-kultur-und-medien/aktuelles/bjarke-ingels-group-gewinnt-qualifizierungsverfahren-zum-opernneubau-1116454

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