Flensburg and Altona as Postcolonial Port Cities

Talk at the Flensburg Maritime Museum, Thursday, 13 October, 7-8:30 pm

What do Flensburg and Altona have to do with colonialism? Are there connections between the two cities? Similarities or differences? After a short introduction and a lecture, we would like to talk about this with anyone who is interested.

Introduction: Flensburg and its colonial entanglements

by Inken Carstensen-Egwuom, Research Associate in the Integrative Geography Working Group, EUF

In a short introduction, it will be looked at the shaping of structures in Flensburg’s old town through its involvement in Danish, German and British colonialism. The focus will be on Flensburg’s connections with Caribbean plantation economies and with other port cities in Europe.

Lecture: “From Baltimore Toback, from Surinam Coffee, from Africa Rubber”* – Altona in the Transatlantic Trafficking in Human Beings

by Hannimari Jokinen, artist and curator, member of the working group HAMBURG POSTKOLONIAL

Magnificent Elbe parks, stately villas, representative counting houses, profitable manufactories and lucrative shipyards were part of the living environment of globally active merchants and human traffickers in Altona, the southernmost city of the Danish state in Europe. Unlike in the historic centre of Flensburg, only a few signs of this can still be found in the urban area of Hamburg-Altona. But there are also telling voids that point to the transatlantic enslavement trade. This lecture takes a probing look at commodity flows and trade balances as well as biographies between high-sounding revolutionary enthusiasm in this country and unscrupulous business practices overseas. We trace the fates of those who were enslaved and colonised in the process and those who stood up against colonial injustice.

*Quote from Caspar Voght (1752-1839), merchant in Altona, trading house Voght & Sieveking