"Befreite und Befreier? Kriegsende in Hamburg 1945" Ausstellung und Begleitprogramm (Fortsetzung)
In the organizer's words:
May 3, 1945: Hamburg is occupied by British forces. May 8, 1945: The German Reich surrenders unconditionally. War, Holocaust and dictatorship are over. People who now emerge from behind barbed wire or bars, are able to leave camps or prisons in which they were imprisoned for political reasons, experience their liberation.
The Allied expeditionary forces had expressly intended liberation for the countries occupied by Germany and for the citizens of the United Nations who were considered displaced persons, as they had previously been "deported" (as it was often called in German) to the sphere of influence of the Nazi state. The victors also explicitly did not act as liberators towards the local population, and they were probably only regarded as such by a minority here. They took over state power and began with measures of demilitarization, denazification, decentralization and democratization. The dismantling and handing over of certain factories was primarily intended to compensate Allied states for their war costs.
The German people were to be put on the path to democratic "self-government" under Allied control, starting at the level of cities and municipalities, so that they could "in due course take their place among the free and peaceful peoples of the world" (as stated in the Potsdam Agreement of the three major victorious powers of August 2, 1945).
The documents and illustrations on display relate to the first post-war months in Hamburg - up to the turn of the year 1945/46. The department of the British Military Government, which was only gradually becoming familiar with the city, and the local administration, which was in a state of upheaval, were fully occupied with keeping track of the fluctuating population and providing it with the bare necessities. At the same time, however - and sometimes in competition with each other - the central political objectives of the occupation had to be tackled.
The exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly volume with the same title: Befreite und Befreier? End of the War in Hamburg 1945, accompanying the exhibition in the library of Helmut Schmidt University, April 15 to November 28, 2025, edited by Helmut Stubbe da Luz (Schriften der Bibliothek der Helmut-Schmidt-Universität), Hamburg 2025.
There will also be an extensive accompanying program with the participation of the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung.
The events and visits to the exhibition are free of charge. For unhindered access to the university campus, please have a photo ID ready.
Responsible: Eike Pockrandt, Dr. Sabine Bamberger-Stemmann
This content has been machine translated.Location
Organizer | Event Series
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