Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg is an island. It is surrounded and flowed through by the waters of the River Elbe. Wilhelmsburg is only 12 minutes by ferry from the „Landungsbrücken“ and yet so far away from the Hamburg cliché. A romanticism of dykes, canals, allotment gardens and diverse architecture meets an industrial reality of harbour noise, lorry exhaust, rubbish and vandalism.

 

People have always found cheap housing in Wilhelmsburg and work in the nearby port. Today, the former industrial areas are overgrown and waiting for urban redevelopment. This leads to higher rents and forces long-established families out of their flats and shops. Whereas in the past it was mainly dock workers, today many guest workers, students, young families and refugees live in this district on the "wrong side of the Elbe".

 

Wilhelmsburg is now home to people from different cultures, most of whom have found a temporary "Haymat" on their island. The streets are lively and there is a vibrant cultural scene. The grey of the blocks of houses is the basis for the colourful graffiti that is constantly renewed everywhere and is interspersed with the green of the parks and allotment gardens.

 

What do I see in Wilhelmsburg? What subject do my photos tell about? My late grandmother fled the GDR with my father shortly before the Wall closed. She found a new home in Bremen and yet I remember her sadness. Maybe that's my story that I tell in Wilhelmsburg: about losing home - finding home again - and having to leave again in these fast-moving times. I see all this in Wilhelmsburg. Maybe it is also my home - Haymat !