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A new opera – or what would be more important then?

The Hamburg Convention is about the question of how well positioned Hamburg is for the future.

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A new opera – or what would be more important then?

The Hamburg Convention is about the question of how well positioned Hamburg is for the future. We discussed a lot about internationality as a feature and advantage of metropolitan regions. We asked ourselves whether Hamburg makes optimal use of its internationality and plays it out.

330,000 foreigners live in our city, 710,000 citizens, that is 37.4 percent of our population, have a migration background. In our schools, 54 percent of the children and young people themselves or their parents have experienced migration. We should see this as a unique basis and opportunity to be attractive as a European metropolis for international talent, but also for international corporations.

The demographic development in our country cannot be stopped: Hamburg's prosperity cannot be maintained without immigration, without scientists and researchers from abroad the change to a scientific metropolis with a port location is unthinkable.

How can we demonstratively acknowledge our internationality and anchor it as an asset, as a huge advantage for Hamburg in our consciousness and in the world? Of course, another opera house could be built in Hafencity in the next ten years, but at the entrance to the city center, at the head of Mönckebergstraße, two large former department store buildings have been empty for years. The current use of these areas is a disgrace, a disgrace for our city and for every Hamburg resident.

Both houses could be used as centers of international culture in our city - and not just as a place of so-called high culture between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Exhibitions, band performances, cabaret, dance, gastronomy, rehearsal stages, photography, magic, clubs, cinema, small theater spaces, videos, hip hop, open spaces for Colombian rap, Japanese kabuki, North American country and Portuguese fado and much more. The first event starts at 11 am and the last one ends at midnight. Let's show everything Hamburg has to offer, let's show it at a prominent location in the middle of the city and let's be proud of it!

Of course, such a stage needs to be skillfully curated; the whole thing must not get the impression of “a kettle of colour”. With all openness, attention must be paid to quality. Also, the name shouldn't be boring International Cultural Center or even "Interkuzi". Let's take a look at the Center Pompidou in Paris, which demonstrated 45 years ago what cultural openness can mean in a metropolis.

The cost of such a house is not small. But such a cultural hub does not have to be acquired, set up and operated by the city itself. Wouldn't this center in particular, which could be implemented quickly, be a wonderful commitment from a private, financially well-funded foundation for internationality and thus for the importance of our city as a metropolis?

The Hamburg Convention is always about the city's creativity in business, science, culture, coexistence and communication; the suggestion here is just a small but practical example. Are we at all prepared for new approaches, for big goals, or will complacency, fed by the prosperity brought about by the generations before us, prevail. How we want to live in the future is always a fine consideration, but more important is what we want to live on in the future. What will secure the city's income and the wages and income of its citizens in 30 years?

Hence the discussions with professionals from other countries, with experts from Rotterdam and Copenhagen, who bring transformation experiences that can help us in Hamburg. The rounds of talks with citizens, to which the Hamburg Convention had regularly invited (unfortunately mainly via zoom because of Corona), have shown us that many in the city want to participate when it comes to plans, considerations, to - Helmut Schmidt may I forgive - it's about visions for Hamburg.

This was exactly our approach: to involve civil society with its creativity. That's why the Zeit Foundation got involved, and that's why, right from the start, citizens have repeatedly discussed models and collected ideas together with senators, most recently also with Mayor Tschentscher and his colleague from Manchester.

So don't misunderstand this post: A second opera house in Hafencity, even in connection with an opera academy, is definitely a good idea. However, an international cultural center in the former department store or in the Karstadt sports store or even in both would give the city a completely new, unique attraction, a brand. Such a center could mean a second Elbphilharmonie for the international breadth of our city, and thus our society - and would remove a disgrace at the end of Mönckebergstraße.

Along with Henning Vöpel and Nikolas Hill, Michael Göring is one of the initiators and authors of the Hamburg Convention. See: www.hh-konvent.de

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