Georg Krajewsky

Working title: The reordering of (post-)colonial heritage. A Sociological Investigation of the Urban Reappraisal Process “Colonial Heritage” in Hamburg 

In 2014, the Hamburg Senate was the first city in Germany to decide to develop a remembrance and decolonisation concept to deal with the city’s colonial past. As a port and Hanseatic city, Hamburg was for a long time closely linked to the colonial expansion of Europe through trade relations and played a central role in the colonial policy of the German Empire. Today, numerous traces of colonialism (e.g. monuments, street names and museum collections) can be found throughout the city. In recent years, colonial-critical groups and black community organisations have used these traces to problematise the (non-)handling of Germany’s colonial past. At the same time, the memory of colonialism and its consequences is gaining noticeable social relevance.

The object of the study is the social negotiation of the (post-)colonial heritage in Hamburg that takes place within the framework of the urban reappraisal process and the power dynamics associated with the (re)formation of the mode of memory. The empirical study focuses on the power relations between the different urban and civil society actors negotiating the mode of envisioning the colonial past within the framework of the Round Table “Colonial Heritage” and the Advisory Board appointed by the Hamburg Senate in 2019.

The theoretical framework draws on approaches from social science memory and heritage research, which understand heritage as a medium of contested past-related production of meaning by social groups. Conflicts over heritage are analysed as the result of constant challenge and safeguarding of established interpretive sovereignties. Furthermore, studies in decolonisation research point to the particular (post-)colonial asymmetry of power in these very negotiation processes. With the help of terms from sociological participation research, the allocation of interpretative and procedural sovereignty, central modes of legitimisation and changed understandings of the roles of the actors involved will be empirically examined and processes of social recognition in the urban reappraisal process interpreted. Building on this, the question can then be answered as to what extent a social reordering of the (post-)colonial heritage occurs in the context of urban reappraisal.

Supervision: Prof. Dr. Sybille Frank (Technical University Darmstadt), Prof. Dr. Max Welch-Guerra (Bauhaus University Weimar)

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Publications

• 2022 „Zur Neuaushandlung des Bezugsrahmens (post-)kolonialen Erbes in Hamburg“. In: Simone Bogner, Gabi Dolff-Bonekämper und Hans-Rudolf Meier (Hrsg.). Instabile Konstruktionen (Band II, Schriftenreihe des GRK Identität Und Erbe. Weimar: Bauhaus-Universitätsverlag. ISBN: 978-3-95773-301-6.
• 2022 “Unsettling the Heritage of Urbanity: Urbanism and Urban Space in Pandemic Times”. In: Nick Shepard (Hrsg.) Rethinking heritage in precarious times. London/New York: Routledge. (mit Sybille Frank und Jochen Schwenk) (im Erscheinen)
• 2018 „Smarter Urbanismus und Urbanität“. In: Sybille Bauriedl und Anke Strüver (Hg.). Smart City – Kritische Perspektiven auf die Digitalisierung in Städten. Bielefeld: transcript, S. 63-74 (mit Sybille Frank). DOI: 10.14361/9783839443361-004
• 2017 „Activating German Colonial Heritage in Berlins Afrikanischen Viertel.“ In: Rachel Lee, Diane Barbé, Anne-Katrin Fenk und Philipp Misselwitz (Hg.). Things don‘t really exist until you give them a name. Unpacking Urban Heritage. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota, S. 136-141 (mit Susanne Förster und Jona Schwerer)
• 2016 „Negotiating German colonial heritage in Berlin’s Afrikanisches Viertel“, in: International Journal of Heritage Studies 22 (7), S. 1-15 (mit Susanne Förster, Sybille Frank & Jona Schwerer). DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2016.1182050
• 2014 „Tagungsbericht: Urban Heritage, 24.01.2014 Berlin“. In: H-Soz-Kult, 10.04.2014, Online verfügbar unter: www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/tagungsberichte-5302

Vorträge

• e Institutional Afterlife of Fallen Colonial Monuments. The Case of the »Askari Reliefs« in Hamburg”, Association of Critical Heritage Studies 5th Biennial Conference, 26.- 30.08.2020, University College London, UK
• 2019 „Erbe konstruieren. Erbe verhandeln. Eine soziologische Untersuchung des Runden Tisches »Koloniales Erbe« in Hamburg. Instabile Konstruktionen. 3. Jahrestagung des Graduiertenkollegs »Identität und Erbe«, 21.-22.11.2019, Technische Universität Berlin