New home for the helpers on the track

A good four years after moving out of its original premises and after almost eleven months of construction for the new domicile, the Hamburg Train Station Mission is now moving into a new building in front of the main train station. On Monday, Deutsche Bahn officially handed over the new building to the station mission.

According to Deutsche Bahn, it has invested five million euros in the modern space between the Glockengiesserwall and the car park on Ernst-Merck-Strasse.

Hamburg Central Station has always been a meeting place, said Hamburg's Transport Senator Anjes Tjarks (Greens) when the building was handed over. With the new construction of the station mission, space was created "for an important contact point that provides advice and accommodation for people 365 days a year".

It doesn't matter whether it's about acute emergencies, accommodation and washing facilities, information offers or a warm conversation. "When we rethink and plan transport infrastructure and public spaces, we always have to think about contact points for people who need support, advice and protection," said Tjarks.

The Deutsche Bahn Group Representative for Northern Germany, Manuela Herbort, described the implementation of the construction as a "matter of the heart". In 2018, the station mission had to move out of its previous rooms in the so-called long building at the main station due to renovation work.

The rooms at that time were no longer able to meet the needs, said Katrin Gschwander, the responsible project manager at Deutsche Bahn. Since then, the station mission has been in temporary accommodation in containers in front of the main station. The mission plans to start work in the new building on March 1st.

In the new building, for which construction work began in March 2022, new advice and accommodation options have been created on around 400 square meters. According to Bahn, this includes an emergency care offer that is unique in Germany and is equipped with a shower, a hip bath and a care room for guests in need of assistance.

The care offer will be one of the special features of the new location, said Hamburg's Social Senator Melanie Schlotzhauer. The Orders of Malta and Hospitaller would also have or would participate in its conception and implementation.

A special feature is the facade, which the renowned Hamburg architect Carsten Roth designed, it was said at the handover in front of representatives from the railways, politics and helpers. It consists almost entirely of glass on one side. On the other hand, the building has a metal facade that changes color depending on the light.

The railways and the city of Hamburg worked closely together on this. The city gave the property to the railways, and the railways are constructing the building.

The Hamburger Bahnhofsmission was founded in 1895 as the second institution of its kind in Germany. In the beginning, the helpers looked after travelers in need, often women, who pushed into the big cities as a result of industrialization and rural exodus and fell into the hands of smugglers and pimps or were victims of exploitative working conditions.

Today, the employees of the railway station mission offer everyone attention, support, advice, guidance and mediation under the motto "Humanity on the train". The station mission is the oldest existing institution of the "Hopemaking Hamburg" association.