Former US consulate on the Alster: What the Eimsbüttel Greens are demanding

The article Former US consulate to become a Nazi memorial appeared first on Eimsbütteler Nachrichten.

The former US Consulate General on the Alster is for sale. The Greens in Eimsbüttel want to set up a memorial there to commemorate the victims of National Socialism.

“The Little White House”: This is the name of the former US consulate. The villa on the banks of the Alster has been for sale since the beginning of the year.

The Greens in Eimsbüttel are now calling on the Senate to buy the building and set up a memorial to commemorate the deeds of National Socialism. During the Nazi era, the Hamburg NSDAP headquarters were located in the building.

Greens: “Seize the opportunity”

According to the applicant Susanne Hericks from the Green Party in Eimsbüttel, the villa is to become a “centrally located place for learning, commemoration and documentation”. The place is central to Hamburg’s Nazi history. But the memory of it is still missing today. The sale of the villa is a good opportunity for this, according to the application.

The memorial is intended to commemorate the crimes of Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann. Among other things, he was jointly responsible for the establishment of the concentration camp in Fuhlsbüttel and is now regarded as “Hamburg’s most important National Socialist”. After the end of the war he lived in Hamburg until his death. He was never punished for his crimes during the Nazi era.

City to buy villa

If the Greens in Eimsbüttel have their way, the Senate should enter into negotiations with the owner and buy the former consulate. If no agreement is reached, the applicants refer to the city’s right of first refusal. Under certain conditions, this has priority when buying real estate.

The memorial could be run by the Hamburg Memorials and Learning Centers Foundation, which, among other things, oversees the memorial in the former Neuengamme concentration camp, suggests Hericks. She also considers the Museum of Hamburg History or the Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg to be suitable.

What does the Senate say?

Hericks said she was getting positive signals from the Greens in the Senate and the parliament. The Senate spokesman does not want to comment officially on the proposal. The Eimsbüttel district assembly will deal with the application on June 1st.

Controversial traffic situation in front of the US consulate

The traffic situation in front of the former US consulate is currently an issue in Eimsbüttel district politics. The reason for this was that the representation of the US government moved to HafenCity.

In March, the district assembly decided that car traffic on the Alster should remain prohibited. Instead, the district politicians want to promote bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

NSDAP headquarters at the Outer Alster

From 1934, the Hamburg National Socialists set up a “government district” in Rotherbaum and Harvestehude. Various institutions of the NSDAP and the Hamburg city administration were housed in the quarters. The villas on Alsterufer 27 and 28 were rebuilt and merged in 1934 and were used as a “Gauhaus”, i.e. as the NSDAP headquarters. The building was of great importance: historian Herbert Diercks from the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial describes the “Gauhaus” as a “power center from which the Nazisification of Hamburg was initiated, controlled and controlled”. From 1951 to 2022, the US government used the villa as the consulate general for Hamburg and northern Germany.