Hamburg starts into a year of important decisions

On October 3, 2023, Hamburg will hold the big festival to celebrate German unity - and that is one of the very few public events that are definitely scheduled for the coming year. Nevertheless, it shouldn't get boring in Hamburg, because in many areas there are directional decisions that will permanently shape the cityscape or have a far-reaching influence on politics and other important areas of society. An overview.

Unlike the SPD, where Mayor Peter Tschentscher also seems to be the top candidate for the upcoming state elections in 2025, the Greens have to decide who to put up for election as top personnel. Should it be someone other than the established and eligible Senate members Katharina Fegebank and Anjes Tjarks, it would not be enough to make the decision in the year before the election - i.e. in 2024. A top candidate who is not well known has to be built up over the long term. For this reason, it should be clarified in the management circles in the first quarter of 2023 who is ready and who will receive the necessary support. It is said that party leader Maryam Blumenthal, who is often unsure about factual issues, also wants to position herself - although Fegebank should be unavoidable if she raises her hand. The question of whether a direct candidacy for the mayor's office or only a top candidate will be announced should also be discussed.

The question of who will be the new district office manager in Wandsbek is also still open. The term of office of incumbent Thomas Ritzenhoff (SPD) ends in June. So far, however, no decision has been made as to whether he will serve a third term or whether the position will be re-advertised. On the other hand, the position of Kay Gätgens, whose time as head of office in Eimsbüttel ends on January 5, is to remain vacant. His deputy Sonja Böseler will take over on January 6th. Only after the district assembly election in 2024 will there be consideration of how the position will be filled.

Residential construction itself has come to a standstill, and 2023 is likely to be the year in which the number of 10,000 building permits the Senate was aiming for will no longer be reached due to a lack of demand from investors. Elsewhere, however, plans are already being made or even built on a much larger scale, so the Elbtower, whose base plate has already been cast, will grow in height. Another project could also become more concrete again, recently it was heard from the Altona district office that the Adler Group will develop the Holsten district after all, although there have been repeated delays and debates about other investors in recent years. Tschentscher said at the turn of the year that he would like this area to "get into serious hands."

At least one location decision is central to inner-city development: Where will the “House of the Digital World” be built, which Mayor Tschentscher announced as the new nucleus for the city during the 2020 election campaign? What is certain is that the book halls and the adult education centers will act as operators here, they should create a meeting place for everyone who is interested in digital worlds, in new forms of work and in new media or who want to continue their education in these areas. The house is also intended to increase visitor frequency in the city centre.

One possible location is the current headquarters of Hamburg Commercial Bank, i.e. the successor institute to HSH Nordbank, which will move to the Elbtower. Together with the adjoining passage "Hamburger Perle", which is not very successful, an attractive location for the "House of the Digital World" could be created on Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz. What this could look like can already be seen on models designed by architecture students in a workshop at the Academy for Architectural Culture. Another major construction project of a similar nature is the "Evolutioneum", which is to be created as a modern form of a natural history museum at Magdeburger Hafen in Hafencity. However, efforts are being made to bring this closer to the city center in order to upgrade it.

He is 63 years old and has now been in office for eight years: Hamburg's police chief Ralf Martin Meyer could well imagine handing over his post to a successor and thus completing the generational change in the top management of the police force. In 2023 it could be so far. That is when Meyer becomes a grandfather. And it is said that he has a lot of desire to fulfill his family responsibilities more. A search committee has already been set up to look for suitable candidates, but without success. In an interview with the "Bild" newspaper, Meyer said recently: "I never wanted to be carried feet first out of the presidency." Either way, in 22 months he will reach the retirement age.

However, Meyer will definitely set one more milestone: In April, the new police academy building on Carl-Cohn-Strasse will be inaugurated – the first of several new buildings as part of the “Campus” project. Around 1,500 police students are trained at the academy by around 400 teachers. Too much for the old complex, which was recently bursting at the seams. In the future, there will be lecture halls, offices and lounges on almost 10,000 square meters, as well as training halls on two underground floors. There should be an elevator that can also take cars. For example, vehicle checks can also be practiced in the depths of the training halls.

The challenges in the judiciary remain familiar. Senator Anna Gallina must oversee a department that is reeling from an enormous workload in the city's courts and prosecutors, as well as in the jails. And yet 2023 could be the hardest year of her career for the already controversial Green politician. Because if the district court allows the charges against her former partner Michael Osterburg, Gallina may be one of 162 named on the witness stand. The public prosecutor's office accuses Osterburg, the former parliamentary group leader of the Greens in Hamburg's Mitte district, of infidelity in a particularly serious form. He is said to have used funds from the group for private purposes from 2015 to 2019.

At the time of the alleged embezzlement, Gallina was living with Osterburg, who is also the father of her youngest child. Although the allegations have so far only been directed against Osterburg, Gallina could, as a witness in court, provide information as to whether she could have noticed anything about the use of the funds in the private sector or even benefited from them. What is also piquant about the situation is that the public prosecutor's office, which brought charges against Osterburg last autumn, reports to the Senator for Justice. There, in turn, in the Attorney General's Office, Gallina is currently examining in a disciplinary procedure whether her chief prosecutor Jörg Fröhlich prevented investigations into Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) for political reasons. The disciplinary proceedings are expected to be completed in the near future, although according to this newspaper the allegations against the Attorney General are probably time-barred.

And so the criticism of Gallina as a result of the high-profile cases of Osterburg and Fröhlich 2023 could continue to grow. The graduate political scientist took up the position of Hamburg Senator for Justice in 2020 and immediately triggered great resentment in her department with her appointment. Because among her 23 predecessors since 1945, Gallina is only the second non-lawyer to sit on the executive chair of the judicial authority.

When it comes to the mobile future of the Hanseatic city, some particularly important points will be set in the coming year. The city's S-Bahn network will be remodeled at the end of 2023, which means some lines will be eliminated and others will be restructured. The new route network is to be implemented initially with four lines – with the S1, S2, S3 and the S5. Lines with two-digit numbers should no longer exist. Lines S4 and S6 are to be added in a second step by 2030. In particular, the construction of the S4 route is to continue to take shape in the coming year, including two important signal boxes that are to be put into operation. The expansion of the subway network is also progressing: Among other things, the U4 is to be extended to the Horner Geest. The construction of a crossing structure with the U2 at the Horner Rennbahn is pending, said Hochbahn spokesman Christoph Kreienbaum. This is linked to two closures of the U2 and U4 on the east section lasting several months.

The barrier-free expansion of the subway is also on the home straight. In January, the last U1 stop that is not yet barrier-free will be tackled. With the completion of the work in Alsterdorf and on Hudtwalckerstraße, 95 percent of all stops are barrier-free. Then the U1, U2 and U4 are barrier-free accessible. Only the Sierichstraße, Saarlandstraße and Sternschanze stops were missing on the U3. The U-Bahn100 project is scheduled to start next year: This will automate the U4 and U2 between Mümmelmannsberg and the city center/Christuskirche. By the end of the decade, an underground train could run every 100 seconds on the main line of U2 and U4 between Horner Rennbahn and the city center.

In April of next year, Max-Brauer-Allee is also to be further renovated. According to Dennis Heinert, spokesman for the traffic authority, a "Copenhagen cycle path" is to be implemented there, among other things. "At the same time, we manage to preserve the listed row of trees." At the turn of the year, the shared taxi provider Moia will be expanding its services on the outskirts of the city and will also be serving 29 bus stops in the future. This should create “real added value” for the users of both offers, it said. Holders of an HVV subscription card should receive a price reduction of one euro per trip at Moia. The aim is to dovetail on-demand services and local public transport better. In the future, Moias should also be bookable for trips in Rahlstedt, Meiendorf, Jenfeld, Billstedt, Billbrook, Osdorf and Lurup as well as in Wilhelmsburg. This will increase the area from the current 200 to 270 square kilometers. In the long term, Hamburg wants to become a pioneer in local public transport. An autonomous shared taxi fleet with up to 10,000 vehicles is to be used throughout Hamburg in the future. The first test drives are planned for the coming year in the districts of Uhlenhorst and Winterhude.

In culture, groundbreaking personnel decisions are pending in the coming year, with a focus on the city of music. On the one hand, Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert’s contract with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra expires in 2024, so the decision to extend it will be made in 2023. So far, neither the broadcaster nor the 56-year-old conductor have commented on their intentions. On the other hand, it is about the successor to General Music Director Kent Nagano, 71, at the head of the Philharmonic State Orchestra. Culture Senator Carsten Brosda (SPD) is in demand here.

Nagano, like State Opera director Georges Delnon, is letting his contract expire in 2025. The 83-year-old John Neumeier will also retire in 2024 after more than 50 years at the helm of the Hamburg Ballet. While the successors to Neumeier and Delnon have already been decided in the form of 36-year-old choreographer Demis Volpi and 42-year-old opera director Tobias Kratz, the search is currently underway for a suitable third party to head the Hamburg State Opera. The generational change will probably also take place at the top of the orchestra. The situation in the state theaters is a little more relaxed. A replacement is planned for 2025 at the Thalia Theater, where a selection committee is looking for a successor for the outgoing director Joachim Lux, 66. The situation is somewhat different for Karin Beier at the Schauspielhaus. Her contract also runs until 2025, but she has the option to extend it to 2028.