New memorial in the rose garden inaugurated
A few days before the 80th anniversary of the Bullenhuser Damm Massacre, the second part of a memorial by sculptor Ulf Petersen was unveiled in our Rose Garden. The ceremony was led by former Second Mayor Christa Goetsch, pianist and BERTINI Prize jury member Axel Zwingenberger, with the project under the patronage of Second Mayor Katharina Fegebank.
This new memorial was inspired as a counterpart to the memorial unveiled at the Brecht School in January 2024. After the mobile exhibition by the Kinder vom Bullenhuser Damm e.V. association visited the Brecht School in 2022, students from the school’s diversity group - trained as peer guides by a workshop - were inspired to create a permanent memorial at their school to honor the 20 Jewish children.
In honor of developing the memorial and their deep engagement with the history of the Bullenhuser Damm children, the Brecht School’s diversity group received the Margot Friedländer Prize.
Over the course of a year, they collaborated with sculptor Ulf Petersen in workshops at both his studio in Eyendorf and the school to design the memorial, which was ultimately crafted in steel by Petersen.
In January 2025, the group was also honored with the BERTINI Prize for the development of the project. Axel Zwingenbergerdelivered the keynote address at the ceremony ([article on the memorial here]).
In attendance were students from Brecht School, and trainees from the vocational training center who helped install the Rose Garden memorial and have been tending to the garden.
About the artist
Ulf Petersen was born in Wanne-Eickel in 1958. After training as a pit fitter in the coal industry, he began seriously pursuing painting in 1980, and moved to Hamburg in 1982. His first steel sculptures were created in 1988, followed by exhibitions in cities across Germany. In 2006, he relocated to Eyendorf in the Nordheide, where he founded his studio workshop Kunstwerkstatt Eyendorf in 2011. Since then, he has worked as a freelance artist and regularly leads workshops at the studio.
After our mobile commemoration exhibition in 2022 visited the Brecht School, students were inspired to create a permanent memorial on campus to honor the 20 Jewish children. The school’s diversity group were eventually awarded the Margot Friedländer Prize for their initiative in developing the memorial, and for the in-depth study of the BullenhuserDamm children’s history.
Over the course of a year, the memorial was developed in workshops with sculptor Ulf Petersen, held both at his studio in Eyendorf and at the school. It was ultimately constructed from steel plates by Petersen. During the workshops, students created sketches, and learned from Ulf about artistic realization by working hands-on with various materials.
Since 2022, the Brecht School’s diversity group has organized an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at their school on January 27. In 2025, the event was held in collaboration with the monastery school.
In 2024, the group received the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly’s sponsorship award Responsibility – Then and Now, in memory of Esther Bejarano.
In January 2025, they were honored with the BERTINI Prize for their memorial project ([video here]). More information about the memorial can be found [here].
