Messberghof

The Meßberghof, originally known as the Ballinhaus, is a historic office building in Hamburg that was built between 1922 and 1924 to designs by the architects Hans and Oskar Gerson. The ten-story building, made of reinforced concrete with a brick facade and a titanium-sheet roof, stands on Meßberg and has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District since 2015. It was named after the shipping line founder Albert Ballin, whose name was removed in 1938 on racist grounds under the Nazi regime. After a thorough renovation in the 1990s, the building now presents itself with modern architectural sculpture by Lothar Fischer on the facade, while Ludwig Kunstmann's original Expressionist sandstone figures can be viewed in the lower level of the stairwell. A memorial plaque on the west side also recalls the building's dark history, including the presence of the firm Tesch & Stabenow, which supplied poison gas to concentration camps.