Even though it is today hard to conceive since Berlin has taken such a central place in Europe, but Hamburg was in the 90s the pop-cultural centre of Germany. This is where the most important publishing houses and advertising agencies were. The music industry even more. And under this corporate culture, a subculture born out of the heritage of Hafenstraße, Punk and Roter Flora in Saint Pauli was making a name for itself: the Hamburg School. Radical feminist speeches, gender trouble, riot girls and the constant worry to meet this angry crowd that aroused two years after the fall of the Berlin wall: everything that Germany as a whole is facing today. In Hamburg in the early 90s everything has already been extensively discussed and already experienced. The photos by Christian Werner, which are contributing to this visual essay, are showing both sides of the city: the Hanse once libertarian and now bourgeois and the hard core of the scene. It is the humus of what has been one of the most important cultural trends of the 20th century.
Netherlands
Sample translation
German text available
Joachim Bessing became famous through his journal articles and his numerous publications. He lives as author and translator in Berllin.
