Chile-Salpeter und Hamburg. Führung

In the organizer's words:

Guided tour of the exhibition "White Desert Gold. Chile saltpetre and Hamburg"

To mark the 100th anniversary of the Chilehaus in Hamburg, the exhibition focuses on the working and living conditions of saltpetre workers in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Their exploitation and hard labour in the driest desert in the world and the high demand for the "white gold" as a basis for fertilizer and explosives established the wealth of European "saltpetre barons" at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, such as Hermann C. J. Fölsch from Hamburg and Henry B. Sloman, the builder of the Chilehaus.

The archaeological and ethnographic Chile collections of the MARKK were also often excavated or acquired by German businessmen active in the raw materials trade. The exhibition tells of the resistance and identity of the workers and sheds light on practices of one-sided exploitation of raw materials that have not lost their relevance to this day with the mining of lithium. In the exhibition, historical photographs from private archives show work and life in the saltpetre works and are also critically contextualized. They are juxtaposed with objects from MARKK and contemporary artistic perspectives from Chile, which shed light on the social repercussions of the saltpetre era right up to the present day.

Duration max. 180min

No advance booking necessary.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Freunde des MARKK e. V. and owners' association H. C. J. Fölsch-Erben.

A project in cooperation with the Deutsches Hafenmuseum Hamburg at Schuppen 50a (Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg) and the workshop presentation "Unbequeme Erinnerungen" June 4 - October 31, 2024

Price information:

Museum admission + €2 | 18 years (participants under 18 years may only participate if accompanied by at least one adult) Museum admission €9 | reduced €5