Memorial in remembrance of the book burning

On 15 May 1933, Hamburg students who were partly members of the SA burned books by supposedly ‘un-German’ authors on Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer. Though the burning was part of a demonstrative, Reich-wide campaign, hardly any members of the public showed up. For a second book burning on 20 May 1933 at Lübecker Tor, Nazi organisations demanded that thousands of their members attend.

Memorial
A memorial in remembrance of the book burning in Hamburg was established in 1985 by resolution of the Eimsbüttel district assembly. It was designed by Wolfgang Finck (1945-2011) and consists of four red marble blocks set into a raised semicircle of stone. The blocks are inscribed with a quote from the writer Heinrich Heine, the titles of books that were burned, the names of some of the Hamburg authors whose books were burned, and an appeal to resist fascism and war.

Each year on 15 May, passages from books that were banned at the time are read aloud at the memorial. This event is organized by working group „Bücherverbrennung – nie wieder!“ with support of Bücherhallen Hamburg, the writers' association PEN, the Auschwitz committee and many other organizations.