Millerntorwache

The Europa-Union Hamburg, the Young European Federalists and Info-Point Europa joined forces with partner organisations such as the Landesjugendring Hamburg, Haus Rissen and the Patriotische Gesellschaft von 1765 to provide information about the 2024 European elections and motivate citizens to vote.

The event was organised as part of Go Vote.

After three successful weeks of the ‘Architeture of Hope’ exhibition at the Westwerk, a concentrated and rearranged version was on display for a fortnight at the Millerntorwache.

Together with the sculptor and installation artist Nir Alon, young people from Sderot, Rahat and Wilhelmsburg explored their everyday lives, the realities of their lives and the digital realities they are confronted with.

In the artworks, the narratives from Israel, Germany and Gaza were exhibited in between - in the form of video installations - inviting a change of perspective and opening up new forms of dialogue.

After the Millerntorwache housed the ‘Institute for Radical Acceptance’ between June and August 2023, its successor moved in from 17 January to 30 April: The ‘SOLIDARITY in ACTION’ project.

As a freelance curator of the Millerntorwache, Ana Amil had presented a variety of institutions, associations, collectives and initiatives with the ‘Institute for Radical Acceptance’, dealing with the topics of diversity, homelessness and participation and encouraging people to think.

With SOLIDARITY in ACTION, the cultural manager now focussed on action. To achieve this, there were three workshop blocks on the topics of inclusion, participation and solidarity in action.

‘Solidarity in Action’ ended successfully on 27 April with an exhibition and reading for the Long Night of Museums. Around 280 people took the opportunity to admire the results of the last four months.

On 29.12.2023 Rasmus Gerlach presented his film ‘Gefahrengebiete und andere Hamburgensien’ at the Millerntorwache:

Three demonstrations that overlapped and escalated shortly before Christmas on 21 December 2013:
The dispute over the Rote Flora, over the right of Lampedusa refugees to stay and over the rescue of the Esso houses.

In ‘Gefahrengebiete - Gipfel und andere Hamburgensien’, the filmmaker documented the centres of conflict in the city at the time: The pillow fight on Spielbudenplatz and the toilet brush as a symbol of resistance. The protests of Hamburg's citizens were creative and colourful when the police declared the districts of St. Pauli, Sternschanze and large areas of Altona a ‘danger zone’. The highly controversial measure withstood criticism for just nine days and is still in the spotlight: although the constitutional court declared it illegal, the Hamburg police continue to maintain danger zones in St. Pauli with slight renaming.
(Film essay by Rasmus Gerlach, camera: Ben Tepfer & Paul Kulms, music: Hanne Darboven, 74 min)

At the storytelling café following the film, the numerous visitors were able to talk about the demonstrations and protests and admire various memorabilia and protest art they had brought with them.

Following the great success of the Architecture of Hope exhibition in November 2023 in the Barlach Halle K and the creation of a space of encounter and hope for Hamburg, this hope is now setting out in search of new spaces of encounter.

Between 18 and 28 December 2023, the Architecture of Hope initiative was on show at the Millerntorwache with the question ‘How much space does hope need?’ in view of the dark times of war and the feeling of powerlessness in our society.

In November, young people from Wilhelmsburg, Rahat & Shaar Ha'negev created an installation of furniture, objects and lights entitled ‘The bridge of chelm’ with the sculptor and installation artist Nir Alon.
The filmmakers from HEARTHOUSE expanded this art exhibition format with impressive video installations from Córdoba to create a place of encounter and hope - in times of war, fear and powerlessness.
In the Millerntorwache, some elements of this exhibition on the architecture of hope entered into a new dialogue with the space there and invited people to come together.

Further information:
https://architectureofhope.jimdofree.com/

The project was sponsored by the Department of Culture and Media and supported by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation.

The exhibition ‘When I was a bird, I flew so high’ (Als ich ein Vogel war, flog ich so hoch) by Vesela Naidenova was on display at Millerntorwache from 29/09-10/11/2023. The exhibition was curated by Alona Karavai, Kairos Prize winner of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S.

The core of Vesela Naidenova's artistic interest lies at the interface between landscape, physicality and self-determination. This can be seen in the choice of colours and the poses of figures - mostly women - which form the central motif of the artist's paintings and photographs. She paints authentically and recognisably, also in the local tradition of the artistic scene of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, which is characterised by bright colours and a deliberately naive style of painting.

For three months, the Kabinett der schönen Künste presented the Institute for Radical Acceptance with Ana Amil at the Millerntorwache. In the course of this, various events were organised in cooperation with other artists, focusing on the topics of diversity, homelessness and participation. In addition, the focus was on volunteering and other voluntary work, which is highly relevant to all three topics.

You can find out more about the Institute for Radical Acceptance on the Kabinetts der schönen Künste website, Ana Amil's website or via Instagram.

An interview with Amil about the Institute for Radical Acceptance was published by ‘Szene Hamburg’: https://szene-hamburg.com/institut-fuer-radikale-akzeptanz-interview-ana-ami

Episodes of the video series ‘Der Blinde Fleck’ will once again be filmed in the Millerntorwache in 2024.

‘Der blinde Fleck-live aus der Millerntorwache’ was founded in June 2023 in the Millerntorwache by Ana Amil & Viktor Hacker. Here we let different actors, associations, collectives and individuals have their say and enter into dialogue. We talk to people who stand up for other people and for whom it is a human duty to share their privileges. Through their dedication, commitment and attitude, they sustainably improve our social fabric and are the pillars of this society.

They are the blind spot and the cement of our communal life together.

Once a month, the interviews are uploaded to Ana Amil's YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@derblindefleckhamburg

Hamburg von der Rolle is a collective of cultural professionals and academics that has been dedicated to the city's documentary film heritage since 2016. The film selection is undogmatic and beyond thematic and aesthetic guidelines, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, often offbeat, always political. The only condition: a reference to Hamburg's past and present. The Millerntorwache at the end of the Reeperbahn, itself a moving part of the city's history, thus temporarily becomes what is probably the smallest cinema in the city.

Hamburg von der Rolle’ regularly shows films in the Millerntorwache. Further information can be found here.

In 2013, the Department of Culture and the Foundation of Historical Museums in Hamburg jointly supported the original concept for the use of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S. "I am delighted that the small classical guardhouse will now become a place for moving stories", said Lisa Kosok, then director of the "Hamburg Museum". "I am delighted that the small classical guardhouse will now become a place for moving and exciting stories," emphasised Lisa Kosok, then director of the "Hamburg Museum", now the Museum of Hamburg History.

Ansgar Wimmer, Chairman of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S.: "All residents and visitors of this city are cordially invited to the Museum of Hamburg History to tell something about themselves or Hamburg. In this way, the city's history becomes vivid not only through academic historiography, but also through the orally transmitted perceptions of many people."

The Millerntor was the main gate on the west side of the city in the 17th century and refers to the time when Hamburg could only be entered and left through the city gates. After the defortification of Hamburg around 1819, the gatehouse was rebuilt by 1820 according to plans by master builder Carl Ludwig Wimmel. Of the entire complex, which consisted of two larger buildings and two gatehouses with stone posts for a metal fence between them, only the small building remains today. The small guardhouse was moved 30 metres into the ramparts with a special crane on 7 March 2004, expertly restored and handed over to the Museum of Hamburg History.

The Millerntorwache is located at Millerntordamm 2, 20359 Hamburg.
If travelling by HVV: U St. Pauli