Hamburg has experience with adding storeys to monumental buildings. After the construction of the Elbphilharmonie on Kaispeicher A, the pyramid-like extension on the roof of the St. Pauli Hochbunker is now due to go into operation after five years of construction.
The future of the roof of the 38 meter high monolith on the edge of the Heiligengeistfeld has been the subject of public debate for more than a decade. The gray monster is now topped by a terraced and freely accessible roof garden over several floors. But behind the green facade there is space for more than just restaurants and hotel rooms.
In addition to accommodation for scholarship holders from the cultural authority, there will also be a memorial and information center for the victims of the Nazi regime and the Second World War under the direction of the Hilldegarden association, as well as a shop run by partner FC St. Pauli and a multifunctional hall in the heart of the extension.
“School sports take place here from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” says Constanze Döbber, Hamburg Bunker’s marketing manager, during a tour of the construction site at the beginning of May. In the evenings, concerts for more than 2,000 listeners can also take place in the hall. A few weeks before the opening, craftsmen are still working on all levels, you can hear a variety of Eastern European languages, and people are setting up and planting.
Free access to the city garden
The free-standing bunker was built in just 300 days starting in 1942 using 2,400 forced laborers and was initially intended for anti-aircraft defense. Later, up to 25,000 people found shelter inside from bomb attacks.
After the war, the first “Tagesschau” was broadcast from here, and the photographer and gallery owner FC Gundlach presented the first exhibition of Andy Warhol’s pictures in Germany in the bunker. Today, in addition to many creative companies, the “media bunker” also houses the resonance room of the Ensemble Ruhe and the Club Uebel & Gefährlich.
A special path winds around the outside of the concrete block to the new building on the bunker roof, the mountain path. There are 335 steps to the 7,600 square meters of public green and communal areas high above the city. As with the Plaza of the Elbphilharmonie, access is free.
Bunker roof garden for everyone: Hamburg has one more tourist attraction
The 4,700 trees and bushes planted as well as the 16,000 perennials have given the bunker on Feldstrasse a green crown, a lighthouse project that radiates far beyond Hamburg. In order to measure the effects of greening, 80 sensors and 200 data points were installed. “The St. Pauli bunker will be a role model and scientific demonstration project for the climate adaptation of major cities worldwide,” says Marco Schmidt from the Institute of Architecture at the TU Berlin.
The spectacular project was financed without money from the Senate, but rather by the real estate company of investor Thomas Matzen, who had already acquired the leasehold from the city in 1993 until 2053. The tender for the hotel and restaurant space went to the Hamburg-based RIMC Hotels & Resorts Group, which chose the previously unknown in Europe brand Reverb – “Nachhall” in German – from Atlanta, which is responsible for the design of the rooms.
With the imminent opening of the green oasis on the bunker roof, the dream of FC Gundlach, who set up their photo studio in the 1960s and later, among other things, their photo gallery in the bunker, will also be realized. “I would of course like it if the bunker was green now,” said the then 89-year-old in 2016, a few years before his death.
When the turnstiles to the mountain path are opened soon, the residents of the surrounding districts will also have incomparable open space above the city. And with this exposed oasis, Hamburg has one more tourist attraction.
Sources and information: https://hamburgbunker.com, https://reverb.hardrock.com, https://www.hilldegarden.org, https://www.bunker-stpauli.de, https://www.rimc.de, https://georgelserhalle.de, https://deinquartier.info/quartiersbeirat-karolinenviertel
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