“FABULOUS, THAT SUM OF WORK AND ACHIEVEMENT”, praised future NS-propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels after a visit to Hamburg harbour in June 1929. Way less enthusiastic was his impression after the tour through the district of St. Pauli
“Subhumans all in all. What needs to be done about it? ”
Shortly after the “takeover of power”, sociologist Andreas Walther is assigned to “compile a thorough study of community harming regions. He results were published in 1935. In this study named Notarbeit 51, he lists the district of St. Pauli as “an area of decay of the most left wing radical parts of Hamburg”. Many people, as Walther continues, still “maintain a covert hatred against the government”.
However, he claimed to have found a core of “fresh and healthy people” and so Walther proposes an extended package of measures for the “clearance“ of the district: supporting those who “stayed healthy” putting the “incorrigible under control, exterminating the genetics of all biologically hopelessly defect”. Another proposal was to radically rebuild the area, which, however, was not realised.
Later, even more gigantic plans were set up: the reconstruction of the area at the banks of the River Elbe to the “Führerstadt” (Führer’s city), with, among others, a 250 metres high “Gau tower”, rally square for 100,000 people and a “Kraft durch Freude”-centre on the Heiligengeistfeld. The war prevented all these plans from being realised.
BU:
– 1945: Tank barriers on the Reeperbahn
– Rare photo of the high bunker on Heiligengeistfeld during war time. Its windows were already blocked up.
– A 250 metres high colossus near the River Elbe. A model oft he planned “Gau tower” with space to rally large masses of people and a “Volkshalle” (people’s hall) for 30,000. This NS-skyscraper was planned to top the reconstruction of Hamburg to a so called “Führerstadt”