EINE STADT WIRD BUNT. Hamburg Graffiti History 1980-1999

In recent years various books have been published which did spotlight the arrival of New York graffiti in the early 80s in Europe. Now it is time to take a closer look at the North German metropolis Hamburg. After three years of intense research, a successful crowdfounding campaign and two more years of finalizing eventually “EINE STADT WIRD BUNT.” (A CITY BECOMES COLORFUL.) was released in December 2021.

Aiming to cover the first 20 years of the city’s graffiti history, the publishers (Mirko DAIM Reisser, Andreas CARIO Timm, Oliver DAVIS Nebel and Frank Petering), each one active in the scene for +30 years and with a past in graff publications, especially paid attention to the 1980s. Besides digging the treasure chests of local writers, the team also scoured official institutions like museums or the city archive of Hamburg to at last have a total amount of more than 37.000 scanned photos, sketches and articles.

The outcome is a 560 paged colossus, including punk stencils, political slogans, first attempts in traditional writing, and its development up to 1999 – the towns first two decades of graffiti. While important writers like e.g. ENRO with his several aliases are featured, of course iconic figures with different backgrounds like ERIC or Walter Josef OZ Fischer have not been left out. In addition to the many exclusive visual gems, nine authors contributed essays and analyzes on Hamburgs history of non-authorized writing in public space within a wider context.

We are especially pleased to add this in depth researched milestone to our range of history focused publications next to Basel, Berlin, Belgium, Vienna, Munich and Oslo. In our opinion there is no doubt: EINE STADT WIRD BUNT. is the book of the year 2021 and a must have in any writer’s bookshelf.

Make sure to check out also the EINE STADT WIRD BUNT. – Exhibition Catalogue about the show that took place at the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte between November 2022 and January 2024.

560 pages, 25 cm x 32 cm x 5 cm, different types of paper, hardcover
Language: German / English
Authors: Dr. Carsten Heinze, Dr. Sylvia Necker, KP Flügel, Dennis Kraus, Mathias Becker, Christian Luda, Kathleen Göttsche & Lars Klingenberg and Rik Reinking
Release date: December 2021
Publisher: Mirko Reisser, Frank Petering, Andreas Timm, Oliver Nebel
Publishing house: Double-H Publishing

***Note: Some of the books have slightly bumped corners on the cover due to shipping. These books we offer cheaper as “slightly damaged”. You can see some examples on the photos if you select this product.***