We would like to invite you to join the panel discussion on the 18th of March at the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS) on the topic: "The City as Public History - Contested Memory and the Politics of Participation".

In the debate surrounding the Baakenhöft and the construction of a new opera house, Hamburg is currently faced with the question of how to engage with sites of particular historical significance. The Baakenhöft in particular, represents the city’s colonial past, yet the decision to construct an opera house at this location has generated relatively little public controversy. This may be linked to Hamburg’s historically bourgeois civic culture.  This event explores the city as a space in which history materializes and is continually contested. Among other examples, recent developments in Hamburg and New York City’s real estate market demonstrate how historical inequalities are embedded in urban spatial orders and continue to shape contemporary landscapes of power and exclusion. At the same time, these urban orders are contested arenas in which competing memories and politics are negotiated.

In this discussion of the city as a site of controversial history, the history and urban studies to civil society perspectives will be connected to explore questions of participation in cities past and present.

The workshop is initiated by Warren Breckman and will be held in English.

Panellist:

• Hanna Göbel, HafenCity University Hamburg

• Nina Mackert, University of Hamburg

• Tom Sugrue, New York University

• Lisa Marie Zander, Mikropol e.V. (civil society project)

For more informations, visit the website of HIAS.