Every year in September the Hamburg Open Monument Days take place featuring free guided tours of historic buildings and monuments all over Hamburg. This year the motto was “19th Century Hamburg” and from September 9th to 11th more than 30.000 visitors explored 100 of Hamburg’s historic buildings and monuments. Many of these are usually not open to the public, thus visitors were given the opportunity to gain exclusive insights into the building and restoration history of privately owned historic buildings.

During the 19th century Hamburg’s cityscape underwent major changes. Early on in the century Napoleonic troops and in 1842 the Great Fire destroyed the medieval urban structure making way for Hamburg’s transformation into a modern metropolis. Urban heritage conservation is a task that requires citizen involvement and dedication alongside public funding which is why the Hamburg Open Monument Days strive to create awareness and interest in a broad public, especially young people. That’s why there are not only guided tours into monuments but also concerts, film screenings with historical movies and illuminations of special buildings and places.

This year for the first time the program included special tours and hands-on-events for families with young children. The kick-off event was hosted by the public monument preservation office at the Patriotic Society (Patriotische Gesellschaft) and included talks on 19th century urban history and architecture. A free shuttle service supplied for transport on historic busses and boats between different monuments.

The Hamburg Open Monument Days are organized by the Ministry of Culture, also responsible for the preservation of historic monuments, in cooperation with private heritage trusts Stiftung Denkmalpflege Hamburg, Denkmalverein and Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz.