St Pauli and the Schanzenviertel Street Art, Hamburg, Germany

The areas of St Pauli and the Schanzenviertel in Hamburg are well known for their counter-culture. As in so many places, this culture includes music, political awareness, and street art. The street art is abundant, impossible to overlook. But is it art, or is it graffiti? And does the distinction matter?

St Pauli and the Schanzenviertel are neighbouring districts in what was once a working class area. However, the once grand buildings suggest a more prosperous past. And today it is more of a mixed neighbourhood, the streets lined with trendy cafés and independent shops. A vibrant counter-culture developed in the 1960s. The music scene was particularly important, and St Pauli is often associated with The Beatles, who first performed here in 1960. Live music continues to be one of the attractions of the area. The street art is a part of this culture. Scarcely an inch is untouched, every available space covered with brightly coloured images and slogans. Which brings us to the question of whether it really is street art, or whether it should more properly be categorised as graffiti.

Of course, there is no clear line between street art and graffiti. Indeed, some commentators would simply class graffiti as a particular subset of street art. Others might point to the intention of the artist. So that street art would be creative, designed for public consumption. Whereas graffiti is more personal and esoteric, and sometimes even destructive. There is another possible distinction: street art is “legal”, created with the sanction of the property owner, but graffiti is “illegal”. The street art in the Schanzenviertel is technically illegal, although mostly tolerated. The exception is the Flora Park, where spray painting is permitted, and where I watched two artists openly at work. The intention of the artists is of course open to conjecture. However some observers might regard the apparently random jumble of images as meaningless, and so dismiss them as “not public art”. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).