Case Studies  The Karolinenviertel Case in Hamburg - St. Pauli

III. Protagonists and partners of urban regeneration

The following section describes the key protagonists of urban regeneration and neighbourhood development in Hamburg in broad outline.

Role of the public partners

The most important protagonists on the city-wide level in Hamburg are (besides STEG) the Senate (government) and the departments. In Hamburg the Senate and the departments represent the federal state level (Laender) - they are not part of the local authority. Ten departments are subordinated to the Senate, which can be compared in their function as ministries. Until 2001 a Department for City Development and Planning existed in Hamburg which was founded about the same time together with STEG. Since the recent change in the Hamburg government the Ministry for Construction and Traffic Affairs (BBV) is the responsible expert-authority for urban regeneration and city development. BBV instructs the redevelopment representatives and district managers and organises the co-ordination with all expert-authorities / departments. For the Senate as the Hamburg legislator the BBV develops the basis for the formal stipulation of the redevelopment areas according to the Federal German Book of Building Law (BauGB). BBV furthermore is responsible for the funding of the total projects and single measurements. Traffic and landscape planning as well as precedent city development planning are subordinated to the BBV.

Between the different expert-authorities a classic division of labour and resort responsibilities exists. With the exception of the Hamburg programme for social neighbourhood development, the urban intervention instruments are not orientated on the respective neighbourhoods but orientated on the entire city. This leads to a higher co-operation expenditure and frequently limits the flexible use of instruments and means.

On the local level (Local Authority) seven District Authorities are the determining institutions. The districts vary in size and population from 115,000 to 405,000 inhabitants. These administrations determine the binding planning law and the law of authorisation, e.g. urban land-use planning. In all District Authorities there are redevelopment representatives who co-ordinate the procedure within the district administration.

In the redevelopment reference-group (SAK) the responsible protagonists from BBV, district administration and STEG meet on a regular basis to discuss the procedure with regard to the redevelopment. If necessary, further expert-authorities are being invited, for example the Authority of Financing.

On district level and on entire city level there are political parliaments: Seven District Assemblies and the City Parliament (Buergerschaft). At present there are different parties who govern these parliaments. Since the entire city level has the sovereignty of financing for the city, it has a respective higher potential of power than the districts. The districts decide independently on their budget which is allocated by the Senate.

2.6. Classification in the city-wide context    3.2. Role of the development agenc