This semester, we, the students in Ms Karabulut’s grade 13 English course, had the opportunity to join on an exceptional historical city tour. The tour focused on the city’s colonial roots and we got to explore the […] city center, looking at historical buildings and how the architecture reflects the values of the time. Our guide encouraged us to participate in the tour and think for ourselves while enriching us with new knowledge. During the tour, we discovered that the town hall lampposts, which we thought were mere decorative architectural objects, have an entirely new dimension. We were surprised to learn that the exotic fruits that ornament the lampposts are actually colonial symbols that hide in plain sight. Many of us have lived our entire lives in the city, blind to these symbols. When we were shown what kind of people who historically have had the power, it made us think about the kind of people that currently hold the power and what kind of world we’re living in. Has Hamburg really moved past the colonial times? Or do its people continue to feel the influence? In our modern times, it is easy to forget that the very foundation of the city is built on colonialism. By understanding the history, we can open our eyes to the ways history still affects Hamburg to this date. We are grateful to “ikm.ev” and “Demokratie leben” for sponsoring this informative and eye-opening tour provided by “Arbeitskreis Hamburg Postkolonial”.
