Deichtorhallen

The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg's Altstadt (Old Town) are one of Europe's major centers for contemporary art and photography. The two historic buildings, constructed as market halls between 1911 and 1914 on the site of the former Berliner Bahnhof, are examples of industrial architecture from the period of transition between Art Nouveau and the 20th century. Their open steel structures are the defining feature: the north hall is a long building with three naves, while the south hall is a central-plan building topped with a lantern. After a restoration by the Körber Foundation and the building's takeover by the City of Hamburg, the venue launched its international art exhibition program in 1989. Today the Deichtorhallen rank among the country's major exhibition venues and are directed by artistic director Dirk Luckow.

In the north hall, which is devoted to contemporary art, you'll find large-scale projects that are often site-specific and developed in close collaboration with the artists. The program includes solo exhibitions by internationally known names such as Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, and Georg Baselitz, as well as presentations of younger artists and thematic group shows. These offerings are intentionally aimed at a broad audience and connect culture with everyday life. The program is complemented by the Sammlung Falckenberg, a branch in Hamburg-Harburg that has been part of the Deichtorhallen organization since 2011. It displays around two thousand works of German and American contemporary art from the past three decades, with a focus on what is known as counterculture.

In the south building, the Deichtorhallen house the Haus der Photographie, which opened in 2005. It is home to the F. C. Gundlach Collection as well as the picture archive of the news magazine Der Spiegel. The rotating exhibitions span 19th- and 20th-century photography through to current digital forms. Here you can see international photography exhibitions that highlight historical milestones as well as the work of young photographers and aspects of the digital revolution. The combination of historic architecture, contemporary painting, sculpture, and photography makes the Deichtorhallen a diverse place for cultural encounters in Hamburg.