„Phönix aus der Asche (1945-1965)“: Immersive Fahrradtour mit Historiker:innen und Performances
It only takes one evening by bike to revisit Hamburg in the 1940s – a city being reborn as Phoenix from the ashes – after the devastation of World War II and the fall of the Nazi regime. Velonotte International invites you to explore Hamburg’s postwar transformation through architecture, music, dance, and media.
The scenic 12 km route from HafenCity to Altona comes alive with interactive storytelling, immersive & dance performances, live music. Historians from Hamburg, Manchester, New York, and Philadelphia joined to illuminate the city’s rebirth.
Premiered at the DenkmalTag 2025, Germany’s National Heritage Day. Will be repeated in June 2026. Check www.VeloNotte.com for dates.
Created by urban historian, educator and composer Dr.Sergey Nikitin-Rimsky & architect Christoph Schwarzkopf.
The leading researchers of post-war Hamburg and Germany became speakers and experts of the project:
— Prof. Julia Sneeringer (Queens College), author of the book “A Social History of Early Rock ‘n’ Roll in Germany: Hamburg from Burlesque to The Beatles, 1956-69”
— Prof. Matthew Jefferies (Manchester University), author of the book “Hamburg : a cultural history”;
— Prof. Alexandra Staub (Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute); author of “Conflicted Identities: Housing and the Politics of Cultural Representation” (Routledge, 2015)
— Prof. Dipl. Ing. Architektur Olaf Bartels (HafenCity Univeristy, Hamburg), historian of architecture of Hamburg and Altona;
– Prof. Hartmut Frank, historian, preparing a book about the architect Werner Hebebrand,
– Dr. Benn Steil, Senior Fellow und Direktor für internationale Wirtschaft am Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Autor des Buches ’The Marshall Plan: Dawn of the Cold War'(2018).
Declamation: Pilar Petropoulos-White & Rahel Melis.
Music intermezzo — Anne Michael (organ, vocal).
Dance performance — performers Natascha Golubtsova & Christos Litsios, curated by Vera Schelkina.
Design: Gradolievna.
In English, with translations in German and Italian.
Co-produced by Velonotte International and BauKunstBildung.
Supported by Denkmalverein Hamburg, Zeit Bucerius Stiftung, ADFC Hamburg, and Teatro Instabile de Venexia.
Special thanks to ArchDaily, Florian Mallok, Irina Von Jagow, Sankt Nikolai hauptkirche, Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft, BerlinoMag, and Architectuul, Kasia Kizior.
[Music] You hold your ration card and we start Vonote Hamburg to revisit the city in the 1940s immediately after the World War II with scars of Nazi regime and horrible bombings. We will see the city full of poetry of Wen Borhead but also the city of the hard truth presented by the British journalist Hub Green the founder of and the air radio and we will see it with eyes of greatest historians from Manchester, Philadelphia, New York City and Hamburg. Welcome to Hamburg. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]