General factors and dynamics of change

The world-wide socio-economic structural change did not pass by the City of Hamburg which is Germany’s second largest city with over 1.7 m inhabitants and has a metropolitan region of more than three million. The manufacturing basis of the city (e.g. shipbuilding) had to be transformed to a service-orientated economy. The side effects of this development cumulated eg in the district of St. Pauli where many inhabitants don’t fulfil the requirements of the changing labour-market.

In addition to these general processes of change, the suburbanisation of middle-class households and the migration of companies to competing neighbouring Bundesländer and low-wage or low-tax countries have put the public budget under severe pressure.

Policy responses

As a reaction to these processes of change the City of Hamburg decided to grow and to strengthen its role as a metropolis in Northern-Europe. The future prospects of the city refer mainly to economic aspects but also to education, environmental and social affairs as well. Housing is important, with the aspects of saving resources, creating attractive accommodation for families returning to the city as well as for students and young seniors. Unexploited derelict areas in the harbour and former military areas are currently converted into potential areas for future economic and socio-demographic development. The most prominent example for this strategy is the development of the so-called 'Harbour City' as an enlargement of the inner city.

Urban development and regeneration has a tradition in post-war Germany. Since 1971 the renewal of housing stock and infrastructure has been promoted by the ‘Urban Redevelopment Promotion Law.’ Regeneration areas are chosen and designated by the city councils. In 1999 this law was supplemented by the integrated federal programme 'Socially Integrative City'. Every Bundesland, like Hamburg, receives an allotment from the federal government and has to add 2/3 from its own budget to develop economically sustainable and socially just neighbourhoods.

Additionally to these federal programmes Hamburg created its own more preventive regeneration programme for areas which are not that run-down, the 'social neighbour-hood development programme'. At the beginning of ENTRUST in 2002 redevelopment in 15 areas has been run by statute and in 21 areas without. The annual amount of money spent on urban regeneration in Hamburg is round about €30 m.

Since 2003 there is a clear widening of regeneration focus towards economic development. Three declining local shopping centres are currently under survey to develop regeneration strategies. Hamburg is aiming at a strong involvement of the private sector in the redevelopment of these centres and the adjacent neighbourhoods. Also the creation of so called Business Improvement Districts is envisaged for certain shopping areas.

The study neighbourhood: the Karolinenviertel / St.Pauli

The Karolinenviertel in St. Pauli is a mixed functional neighbourhood from the late 19th century with approximately 6.000 inhabitants and mainly five to six storey buildings in high density. The proportion of business spaces within the neighbourhood is fairly high. Major challenges for regeneration are the modernisation of housing stock and infrastructure, the revitalisation of economic life and the improvement of the social mix.

The Karolinenviertel is mainly characterised by a late 19th century building stock, high density and a mix of residential and commercial uses. It is surrounded by major traffic routes and city-wide infrastructure facilities, like the exhibition and congress centre and the meat market. In the 1960s it was planned to clear the neighbourhood by extensive demolition, but local resistance prevented this. However, the demolition plans had caused disinvestment. Consequently, the buildings and the infrastructure were in terrible condition and only attractive for people who could not afford more. The neighbourhood came to be known for a mix of high unemployment, crime and drug-abuse, other social conflicts and garbage problems

Progress

Urban regeneration in the Karolinenviertel was started in the early 1980s under the federal urban redevelopment promotion law with preparatory surveys and a 'council for social questions', which was later replaced by a redevelopment advisory board once the neighbourhood was formally designated as a regeneration neighbourhood.

In 1990 STEG (Stadterneuerungs- und Stadtentwicklungsgesellschaft Hamburg) was founded by the Senate of Hamburg as a regeneration and redevelopment agency with responsibilities for regeneration, including in the Karolinenviertel. From the beginning STEG was playing a double role in which it administered the public housing stock in regeneration neighbourhoods on behalf of the City of Hamburg and was responsible as the neighbourhood manager for all regeneration works at the same time. The influence of STEG on the regeneration of the neighbourhood was very large because the agency was able to actively realise a lot of projects that convinced private owners and investors of the process of change and levered private investments in the neighbourhood.

An advisory board has been in place since the start of the regeneration process. Beside the residents and social institutions house owners, business-people and the chambers of commerce and craft have a seat in this council. In 1999 a so-called 'neighbourhood disposal funds' was introduced to the Karolinenviertel with a limited budget for smaller projects in the responsibility of the advisory council.

The main pillars of urban regeneration in the area are housing, local economic development with an emphasis on start-ups and coaching migrant entrepreneurs, building conversion, development of the infrastructure and traffic planning. The whole development and the participation process is coordinated by STEG as the local neighbourhood manager and are based on an integrated regeneration concept. The dynamics of development can be seen in a shift of focus from mainly housing improvement in the early 1990s to more importance of the local economic and social development over the last years. Future changes can be expected because Hamburg is governed by a conservative Senate since the end of 2001 and the formerly public company STEG was privatised at the start of 2003.

Today, after 20 years of regeneration and a total spent of €63,5 m, the situation has improved a lot and the Karolinenviertel can be described as an unconventional urban economic development engine. It belongs to the few multi-functional neighbourhoods in Hamburg which above all create an atmosphere of real metropolitan life.