Wir waren das dunkle Herz der Stadt – Der Untergang der Hamburger Gängeviertel

In the organizer's words:

The film documents Hamburg's old town and the three historic Gängeviertel districts within it. This centuries-old core of Hamburg, affected by poverty and increasing neglect, was considered one of the largest slums in Europe on the threshold of the 20th century and was redeveloped between 1880 and 1939. Among other things, the Kontorhaus district and the prestigious Mönckebergstraße shopping street, which was modeled on the Parisian boulevards, were built there. Not only did misery, dark courtyards and a population that was increasingly perceived as threatening disappear, but also important architectural witnesses of the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo periods.

In the perspective of the first-person narrator, Walter Wedstedt, the filmmaker's grandfather, guides us through the labyrinth of corridors and alleyways by means of autobiographical and fictional storylines and recalls a "vanished world of yesterday".

We are showing this extremely successful and resonant contemporary document of our city again on the big screen!

Part 1 (85 min.)

Chapter 1 - Curtain up - 35 min.
Chapter 2 - Rascals, radicals, criminals, informers, whores, the god-fearing, anti-Semites, aesthetes, all sorts of reprobates - 50 min.

Part 2 (127 min.)

Chapter 3 - Experts, expert opinions - 60 min.
Chapter 4 - Mother, uncle, grandfather, me - 67 min.

Part 3 (138 min.)

Chapter 5 - Revolt, Revolution - 33 min.
Chapter 6 - Modernity, left-right - 60 min.
Chapter 7 - Curtain falls - 45 min.

Price information:

6 Euro reduced (for members of the Kinemathek)