About Deichtorhallen Hamburg
The Deichtorhallen Hamburg are dedicated to contemporary art and photography. With its three buildings – the Hall for Contemporary Art, the House of Photography, and the Falckenberg Collection – at two locations and 10,000 square meters of exhibition space, it is one of the largest exhibition venues of its kind in Europe.
The exhibitions at the Deichtorhallen reflect the present moment, transcending boundaries and genres. In interaction with the extraordinary architecture of the three exhibition halls, the institution hosts spectacular, high-quality exhibitions that are often realized in cooperation with international museums.
Many aspects of the Deichtorhallen Hamburg make it worth a visit: The buildings are architectural monuments and an important fixture in the history of Hamburg. They are an integral part of the Kunstmeile, a group of six renowned art exhibition venues in the center of Hamburg. With the »Berliner Bahnhof« restaurant, a cafe, and two bookshops for art and photography, the Deichtorhallen is a lively meeting place for locals as well as international visitors.
It is located directly on the water, near the creative Oberhafen neighborhood, the Speicherstadt, and the HafenCity with the Elbphilharmonie.
History
The Deichtorhallen is situated at a historically important site. Originally this was the location of the Berliner Bahnhof, the counterpart to the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. After the new Hauptbahnhof was built, construction began on the Deichtormarkt here in 1906. Initially featuring only a provisional roof, in 1911 construction began on the enclosed halls that now host major international exhibitions.
Despite their large size, the buildings soon no longer sufficed as market halls for the rapidly growing city of Hamburg. After the relocation of the wholesale market, from 1963 to 1984 the halls were used for a wholesale flower market. However, they increasingly fell into disrepair.
Finally the Hamburg industrialist Kurt A. Körber ensured their preservation. The Körber Foundation funded their restoration and handed over the renovated buildings to the city of Hamburg in 1988 on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the city harbor. Since then, they have been managed by Deichtorhallen Hamburg GmbH, whose aim is to promote the visual arts, with a focus on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
On November 9, 1989, the show »Einleuchten« by Harald Szeemann marked the opening of the international exhibition program at the Deichtorhallen. In 2005, the House of Photography opened in the south hall. The opening exhibition »Martin Munkácsi: Think While You Shoot!« was curated by the founding director Prof. F.C. Gundlach.
The first director of the Deichtorhallen from 1989 to 1990 was Erik Berganus. Beginning in 1991, under the direction of Dr. Zdenek Felix the Deichtorhallen became a world-renowned art institution. From 2004 to 2008, Prof. Dr. Robert Fleck was director. Since 2009, Prof. Dr. Dirk Luckow has served as director of the Deichtorhallen Hamburg alongside Commercial Director Bert Antonius Kaufmann.
Architecture
The group of buildings on the Deichtorplatz is one of the city’s most important cultural monuments. The House of Photography and the Hall for Contemporary Art are distinguished by their open steel-and-glass architecture. Built between 1911 and 1914, the former market halls are one of the few remaining examples of industrial architecture that represent the transition from Jugendstil to twentieth-century styles.
The halls exhibit a synthesis of engineering and traditional architecture, with an exposed steel structure and a church-like floor plan. The north hall is a three-nave elongated building with 4000 square meters of space, and the south hall with 2300 square meters of space is a central building with a lantern.
The buildings were designed by Erik Unger-Nyborg under head engineer Johann Friedrich Ludwig Ferdinand Sperber.
After the halls stood empty for many years, the Körber Foundation financed their restoration and renovation into one of the largest exhibition centers in Europe. The Berlin-based architect Josef Paul Kleihues was commissioned to plan the project. The aim of the restoration was to preserve the historical building structure. The delicate glass and steel construction as well as the unique atmosphere of the interiors were maintained.
The buildings, which were restored over a period of eleven months, and the redesigned grounds were transferred to the city of Hamburg in September 1988. Laurence Weiner created a sculpture for the Deichtorplatz, and the sculpture TWA by Richard Serra borders the square to the east. The north hall features the neon light work Se la forma scompare la sua radice è eterna (1989) by Mario Merz as well as Blaue Scheibe by Imi Knoebel. The Deichtorplatz also includes two walk-in »language cylinders« by Rupprecht Matthies.