The six-hour film in seven chapters about Hamburg’s Gängeviertel was actually supposed to be shown in the summer at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in the “Inside Brahms” series, but technical problems prevented the performance. Now the event will be rescheduled in three sections on three Sundays, each time in the presence of director Andreas Karmers in the Zeise cinema. The director himself wrote the book about “We were the dark heart of the city” about the disappeared Hamburg gang district from 1880 to 1980. The documentary film runs for six hours and is told in seven chapters. The series begins on November 6 at 11 a.m. with the first two parts. The following sections will also be shown in the Zeise cinema on the following two Sundays (November 13th and 20th).
The film documents this old town in general and the three historical districts in Hamburg in particular. This centuries-old core of Hamburg, affected by poverty and increasing neglect, was considered one of the largest slums in Europe at the turn of the 20th century and was extensively renovated between 1880 and 1939. The Kontorhaus district and the Mönckeberstraße shopping mile were created, which were modeled on the Parisian boulevards. Not only did misery disappear, dark courtyards and a population that was increasingly perceived as threatening, but also important architectural witnesses of the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Rococo.
In the film, the filmmaker’s grandfather, Walter Wedstedt, born in 1907 in the Gängeviertel Neustadt-Nord, as the protagonist, tells of this vanished world of yesterday, spoken by Till Hagen. From the perspective of the first-person narrator, which is based on the cornerstones of his life, he leads through the labyrinths of corridors and alleys by means of autobiographical and fictional plots. The film traces the historical milieus of the gang quarters of the time, the political upheavals of the 20th century. The “one-sided source situation on the planning of the districts affected by the demolition” is also discussed.
In addition, according to the film announcement, the “biggest corruption scandal in Hamburg” in connection with the planned renovation of the area will be reported. The consequences of these measures for the residents, but also for the topography, culture and economy of the city itself, are documented by historical film and photo material in a collage with official and journalistic quotes and current camera recordings.
