As a company wholly owned by the city of Hamburg, Deichtorhallen Hamburg GmbH has presented sophisticated exhibitions of contemporary art, photography, and film of an international caliber since 1989. The exhibition halls, which were donated by the city of Hamburg, are used to exhibit pictures, sculptures, installations, and objects of interest to cultural history in the Hall for Contemporary Art to the north and in the House of Photography to the south.
Since January 2011, the Falckenberg Collection in the former Phoenix factory building in Hamburg-Harburg has been part of Deichtorhallen Hamburg GmbH, which runs the venue and presents exhibitions there. Since 1999, the photography festival Triennial of Photography Hamburg has also been run under the umbrella of the organization. A library, two bookstores, a patrons’ association, and the Friends of the House of Photography along with a restaurant and a cafe provide a lively program of activities on Deichtorplatz.
The Deichtorhallen Hamburg is thus one of the largest exhibition venues for contemporary art and photography in Europe. Between 1911 and 1914, the buildings on the site of the former Berliner Bahnhof, Hamburg’s counterpart to the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, were erected as market halls. They are one of the few surviving examples of the industrial architecture of the transition period from Jugendstil to modernist styles of the 20th century.
The buildings of the Deichtorhallen were restored by the Körber Foundation in 1988 and 1989 and renovated as an exhibition venue by the architect Prof. Josef Paul Kleihues. In 2014 and 2015, a total refurbishment and modernization of the Hall for Contemporary Art took place with a total investment of 16 million euros by the city of Hamburg.
Since 2010, Deichtorhallen Hamburg GmbH has been jointly run by Director Prof. Dr. Dirk Luckow and Commercial Director Bert Antonius Kaufmann. The directors are supported by a team of 23 employees as well as additional external teams responsible for management, supervision, and security.
The business development under the joint management has been consistently positive over the past eight years. The financial results as well as the number of visitors and media coverage in Germany and abroad grew significantly thanks to numerous outstanding exhibitions and projects as well as a comprehensive education program. A high proportion of internally generated revenues helps to stabilize the challenging economic situation. The urban development at the HafenCity has had a stimulating effect on the offerings at the Deichtorhallen as well as on the surrounding area.
A press release from the Hamburg Senate on the contract extension for the directors is available here.
Directors:
Prof. Dr. Dirk Luckow, Bert Antonius Kaufmann
Board of Directors:
Dr. Carsten Brosda (Chairman), Senator for Culture and Media
Markus Pitz, Department for Culture and Media
Anna Augstein, Chairwoman, Rudolf Augstein Foundation
Sebastian Lux, Head of F.C. Gundlach Foundation
Dr. Larissa Falckenberg
Dr. Anna Neubauer, Chancellor, HFBK Hamburg
Maja Stadler-Euler, attorney
Dr. Hans Jochen Waitz, attorney